Uzziel (1)
Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Tue, 16 Feb 1999 13:01:24 -0800 (00919220484, 2.2.32.19990216210124.0087844c@midwest.net)
TILL
I apparently overlooked the following posting, which is the first in the
series that I am sending to the group for Kent's consideration. At least, I
didn't receive it back. So I am reposting it. Others in the series will follow.
***********************
TILL
Because the Exodus-6 genealogy lists only four generations from Levi to
Aaron and Moses, this presents several problems for inerrantists. First,
Exodus 12:40 states that the Israelites sojourned in Egypt 430 years. Since
Levi was one of Jacob's sons who accompanied him into Egypt (Gen. 46:11) and
since Levi's sons Gershon, Kohath, and Merari had already been born at this
time and also were in the group that went with Jacob into Egypt (Gen.
46:11), it is inconceivable that in the space of over 400 years just two
more generations would have been born in the Levitical branch that Aaron and
Moses were born into, yet this is what Exodus 6:18-20 states:
>Exodus 6:18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, and the
length of Kohath's life was one hundred thirty-three years.
>19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the
Levites according to their genealogies.
>20 Amram married Jochebed his father's sister and she bore him Aaron and
Moses, and the length of Amram's life was one hundred thirty-seven years.
>
Notice that Kohath lived to be 133 (v:18) and that his son Amram (the father
of Aaron and Moses) lived to be 137. If we assume that Kohath was just an
infant in his mother's arms when the Jacobites went into Egypt and if we
assume that in the final year of his life, he sired Amram, and then if we
assume that Amram sired Moses the last year of his life, this genealogy
would allow for an Egyptian bondage of only 350 years. This number is
arrived at by adding 133 (the maximum period of time that Kohath could have
spent in Egypt) to 137 (the length of his son Amram's life) to 80, th age of
Moses at the time of the exodus: "And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron
83 years old when they spoke to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:7).
To circumvent this problem, inerrantists will argue that the genealogy of
Exodus 6 is not complete, that the writer skipped some generations. Thus,
Moses and Aaron weren't necessarily the sons of Amram but could have been
his grandsons or even his great-grandsons. They argue this despite the fact
that Exodus 6:20 clearly says that "Amram married Jochebed his father's
sister and she bore him Aaron and Moses." The father-son relationship of
Amram and Aaron and Moses was also claimed in Numbers 26:59, "The name of
Amram's wife was Jochebed daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt;
and she bore to Amram: Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam." So two
separate biblical passages clearly state that Amram's wife Jochebed bore to
him Aaron and Moses, but when inerrantists are in trouble they never let
plain language bother them. In this case, they will still insist that the
language of these passages was not intended to be understood but that Aaron
and Moses were merely descendants of Amram. They have to do this to keep
from admitting that the Bible made chronological errors.
In this series of postings, which will consist of six or maybe even more
rather long analyses of biblical and extrabiblical texts, I will establish
that both biblical and extrabiblical writers understood that the
relationships expressed in Exodus 6 were literal family relationships.
Thus, to this writers, Levi was literally the father of Kohath, Kohath was
literally the father of Amram, and Amram was literally the father of Aaron
and Moses. In order to do this, I will be focusing on one of the least
prominent names in the genealogy quoted above. Exodus 6:18 states that the
sons of Kohath were "Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel." Now if this
genealogy was a literal, generation-by-generation genealogy, that would mean
that the person named Uzziel in verse 18, who was listed with Amram, Izhar,
and Hebron as "sons of Kohath," would have been the uncle of Aaron. That
would be necessarily true if Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel were the brothers of
Amram, for if all four of these were literally the sons of Kohath, then
Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel would have been uncles to any children that Amram
produced.
The intent of this series of postings will be to establish that biblical and
extrabiblical writers did understand that Uzziel was the uncle of Aaron.
Once this is established, it will be hard for inerrantists to argue that
generations were skipped in the Exodus-6 genealogy. I will warn the
readers in advance that establishing Uzziel's relationship to Aaron will
require some rather tedious genealogical analysis. Some people skip over
all of the "begats" when they come to genealogies in the Bible, but I find
them to be a storehouse of useful information that often spells big trouble
for the Biblical inerrancy doctrine.
Let's look at the relevant parts of the Exodus-6 genealogy. I probably
won't get to Uzziel in this posting, but my analysis will provide a useful
background to build on in follow-up postings on Uzziel that I will send
later. Here is the entire genealogy and not just the part that speaks of
Aaron's and Moses' descent from Levi:
"These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben,
the firstborn of Israel [Jacob]: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are
the families of Reuben. And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin,
Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of
Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of LEVI according to their
generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of LEVI
were a hundred and thirty and seven years. The sons of Gershon: Lebni and
Shimei, according to their families. And the sons of KOHATH: Amram, Izhar,
and Hebron, and UZZIEL, and the years of the life of Kohath were a hundred
thirty and three years. And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are
the families of the Levites according to their generations" (verses 14-19).
I'll interrupt the text at this point to make some observations and then
resume the text later (probably in a separate posting). My argument is that
the writer of this genealogy was giving what he understood to be a literal
father-son genealogy, and the evidence for this is overwhelming.
In support of this claim, let's notice first that this genealogy is in
perfect agreement with the listings in Genesis 46:8-11, where the sons and
grandchildren of Jacob are listed through Levi's children. Verse 8 says that
the SONS of Reuben (who is also identified here as "Jacob's firstborn) were
Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. Compare this to the beginning of the
genealogy quoted above, and you will see that the same names are listed as
the "sons" of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel [Jacob]. Were the writers of
these two passages being literal in their usage of "sons" and "firstborn."
In telling the story of Jacob's marriage to the daughters of Laban (Leah and
Rachel), Genesis 29:31-32 says, "And Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he
opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son,
and she called his name Reuben, for she said, Because Yahweh has looked upon
my affliction, for now my husband will love me." That should be convincing
enough inerrantists to agree that the writers of these genealogies were
speaking literally when they said that Reuben was the "firstborn of Jacob"
[Israel].
But were the genealogists being literal in their usage of the word "sons"
when they said that the "sons" of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, etc.
Let's notice what Josephus said in *Antiquities of the Jews,* Book 2, Chapter
7, Section 4 when he listed the members of Jacob's family that went into
Egypt. This section in Josephus is parallel to the listings in Genesis 46:
"Now Jacob had twelve SONS; of these Joseph was come thither before
[meaning that Joseph had already come into Egypt]. We will therefore set
down the names of Jacob's CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN."
Let's pause at this point to notice how specific Josephus was. He said that
Jacob had twelve "sons," and I assume that inerrantists will not deny that
Jacob literally had 12 sons. (The story of Jacob as related in Genesis
makes that too clear to deny.) Furthermore, in the text quoted above,
Josephus wrote not in terms of Jacob's "sons," as did the biblical
genealogists, but he wrote in terms of
Jacob's "children" and "grandchildren." Now let's resume reading in Josephus:
"Reuben had four sons--Anolch, Phallu, Assaron, Charmi [the spellings
vary because Josephus wrote in Greek, but anyone can see that they are the
same names as the biblical genealogies used]; Simeon had six--Jamuel, Jamin,
Avod, Jachin, Soar, Saul; Levi had three SONS--Gersom, Caath, Merari...."
Now since Josephus introduced his list with a very specific announcement (we
will therefore set down the names of Jacob's CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN), we
must understand that he meant for his readers to interpret "sons" literally
in the above text. Hence, Josephus obviously thought that Gershon [Gersom],
Kohath [Caath], and Merari were literally the SONS of Levi. We can make this
determination even more obvious by continuing our reading in Josephus's
listing of Jacob's CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN:
"Judas [Judah] had three sons--Sala [Shelah], Pharez [Perez], Zerah;
and by Phares [Perez] two GRANDCHILDREN--Esron [Hezron] and Amar [Hamul]...."
So when Josephus came to names on the list that he understood were not
literal children or sons of Jacob, he referred to them with the specific term
"grandchildren."
EVERYTHING in the biblical text and in Jewish writings point to the obvious
fact that Gershon, Kohath, and Merari were understood to be the literal sons
of Levi, who was obviously the literal son of Jacob (Gen. 29:31). EVERYTHING
points to the obvious fact that the writer of the Exodus-6 genealogy intended
for his readers to understand that he was speaking literally when he used the
word "sons." A genealogy from Levi through Aaron and Moses is in 1
Chronicles 6:1-3, AND IT READS EXACTLY as the listings in Exodus 6 and
Genesis 46. A genealogy of Levi through his grandsons is listed in Numbers
3:17-20, AND IT READS EXACTLY as the listings in Exodus 6 and Genesis 46.
EVERYWHERE the Bible lists the descendants of Levi, the listings are EXACTLY
as they appear in Exodus 6, Genesis 46, and the work of Josephus.
This posting is long enough, so I will send it now and give inerrantists
something
to chew on while I am preparing another posting to continue my analysis of
the Exodus-6 genealogy. Eventually, I will get to the matter of Uzziel and
show that biblical writers understood that he was literally the uncle of Aaron.
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net