Four Excellent Questions

 

Sacred Bull. Photo by Carolyn Whitson

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Recently a member of the Bible and Anthropology Facebook group asked four excellent questions that I believe would interest readers of this blog.

1. Could you suggest a "beginners" book for Biblical Anthropology?

The science of Biblical Anthropology draws all its data from the canonical Scriptures. Begin by reading the 66 books of the Bible. Take notes on anthropologically significant data such as family relationships (kinship), marriage practices, burial customs, sacred symbolism, gender roles, beliefs about the High God and life after death, territorial claims, the geographical positions of settlements and cities (especially in relation to each other), and religious practices. As there are hundreds of biblical populations, it is useful to focus mainly on the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. My book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study also might be helpful.

2. How do I make sense of the genealogies in Genesis?

The so-called genealogies in Genesis are king lists that reveal a marriage and ascendancy pattern that is distinctively Hebrew. That pattern is evident when we diagram the material. This diagram is an example.

The descendants of Cain and Seth intermarried. Naamah (Gen. 4) married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah (Gen. 5). Cousin brides, such as Naamah, often named their firstborn sons after their fathers. The cousin bride's naming prerogative is a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

3. Should I take Exodus at literal value? The 10 plagues seem fantastical, and I wonder if they were added into the story to make a theological point.

Genesis tells us about the early Hebrew ruler-priests (4000-2000 BC) who dispersed widely in the ancient world. They lived long before Judaism emerged as a world religion. Exodus is a critical book for Judaism. It shapes the Jewish narrative as the people of Israel with a claim to the land, and places Moses as a central figure. Most of the "plagues" have been identified with natural causes. However, the timing of these events could only be by God's authority and power, and that seems to be the theological point.

4. What is meant by sacred symbolism?

Sacred symbols for the early Hebrew include animals such as the ram, the falcon and the bull calf. These are Messianic symbols. The sun was the symbol of the High God for the Hebrew, so solar symbolism is found throughout the Bible. Divinely appointed persons are said to be "overshadowed", or they have a solar symbol in their names such as the initial Y. This article explains further: Appointment by Divine Overshadowing

Related reading: Lamech Segment Analysis; Biblical Anthropology: Another Reason to Believe; Reading Genesis as Verifiable History