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Love's Roots: on the Redaction of Genesis 30:14-24

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Love's Roots: on the Redaction of Genesis 30:14-24 LOVE'S ROOTS: ON THE REDACTION OF GENESIS 30:14-24 JACK M. SASSON In his massive commentary to the Canticles, the 16 As Jacob was returning from the field at evening time, scholar to whom these pages are affectionately dedicated Leah went out to meet him saying: "You are to sleep with annotated v. 14 of the Song's chapter 7 with much arcane me tonight, for I have secured you with my son's lore connected with the mandrake [Mandragora offici­ mandrakes. " narum P We need not multiply the ancient testimonies in That night he slept with her, 17 and God fulfilled her order to conclude that the mandrake [Hebrew: duday (pI. wish. When she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob, dudtHm)] was sought primarily for its aphrodisiacal 18 she said: "God has provided me with means to obtain qualities; nor need we debate its erotic and curative an engagement, just a!f I provided my maidservant to my powers in light of modem pharmaceutical knowledge. husband." She therefore named the child Issachar/ Rather, the biblical passage which contains the only other 19Conceiving again, Leah bore a sixth son to Jacob, mention of mandrake, Gen 30: 14-24, will retain our 20 and stated: "since God has endowed me with a worthy attention. By means of textual, but primarily literary, and gift,K this time my husband will surely honor me,h for I folkloristic analyses, we aim to show that the episode bore him six sons." She therefore named him Zebulun. commonly labelled "Reuben's mandrakes" is of signal 21 Subsequently, she bore a daughter and named her importance not only because it permits us to highlight an Dinah.i 22 Meanwhile, God, paying attentioni to Rachel, important moment in the "biography" of Jacob, but fulfilled her wish by making her fertile. 23 She then because it also allows us insight into the purpose and conceived, bore a son, and said: "God has removed my method of the Genesis redactor(s), as (t)he(y) selected, disgrace." She therefore named him Joseph,k adding: shaped, and ordered inherited traditions that were "May God supply me with another son." concerned with patriarchs and eponymous ancestors.2 In order not to overload the annotations for this paper, information commonly available in the commentaries is 1. TEXTUAL COMMENTS recalled only when it supplements, emphasizes, or contradicts specific or generally accepted opinions. 3 a. As it will be shown, the choice of Reuben as the gatherer of mandrakes is not because "[he was] the only child old enough to follow the reapers in the fields" THE TEXT [GEN 30:14-24] (Skinner, 388; note also Driver, 275: " ... a child of seven or eight; Jacob, 597: " ... who could not have been 140nce, when Reubena went out during the wheat more than four to five years old at that time"). In such harvest,b found mandrakesc in the fields, and fetched them narratives, the age of a child is stated only if something to his mother Leah, Rachel said to Leah: "Give me somed particularly unusual is associated with his/her deeds. It of your son's mandrakes." 15"SO, taking away my might not be accidental, however, that the Leah section of husband is not enough for you, you would even take my this episode (vv. 14/21) emphasizes the word for "son," son's mandrakes?" she reacted. "Very well," replied ben, whence is derived the simplest etymology for the Rachel, "he shall sleep with you in return for your son's name "Reuben" [but cf. the grammatically impossible mandrakes." derivation of Gen 29:32], repeating it seven times. b. The mention of the wheat harvest need not be taken as highlighting an agricultural background, which would I Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs (AB 7c; New York, supposedly show that "the episode is out of place in its 1977): 647-50. present nomadic setting" (Skinner, 388), but only to 2 To avoid cumbersome English, we shall henceforth speak establish a time factor, since both the wheat and the fruit of the singular, readactor, without implying that not more than of the mandrake ripen in late spring. one person was involved in the task. c. Interesting remarks regarding the Mesopotamian 3 Those mentioned in our paper are: Driver = S. R Driver, Etana legend's "plant of birth" and its relation to The Book of Genesis (Westminster Commentaries, 12th ed.; Reuben's mandrakes are made by E. I. Gordon, JCS 21 London, 1926); Gunkel = H Gunkel, Genesis (Gottinger (1967): 80, n. 27. For Akkadian allusions to the Handkommentar zum Alten Testament, 2nd ed.; Gottingen, mandrake, see W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handworter­ 1969); Jacob = B. Jacob, Das Erste Buch der Tora: Genesis buch p.863 (sub pillu). Additions to Pope's own (KTAV reprint of the 1934 edition; New York, 1974); Skinner = J. Skinner, Genesis (International Critical Commentary, 2nd bibliographical collection on mandrakes can be had by ed.; Edinburgh, 1956). referring to R. C. Campbell A Dictionary of Assyrian 205 206 LOVE AND DEATH IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Botany, 217-19; to the Encyclopedia ludaica 11.870 better known to us through the works of Aristotle's (s.v.) and to the Genesis commentaries. peripatetic students, e.g., Theophrastus, Heraclides Ponti­ d midduda)ey benek, "some of your son's mandrakes," cus, and Aristoxenus of Tarentum (ca. 4th century B.C.), implies that Leah might have partaken of the remainders. legendary materials, polemics against foreign nations, e. )aser is understood here as equivalent to ka)aser; cf. genealogical asides, scandals, etc., were woven into the BDB 83 (8,e). Others render "because," reinforcing the accounts concerning a heroic character who was often notion that )aser-natatti sipl)ati le"Jfsi is a redactional chosen because of his prototypical personality. 5 Through addition to E (Skinner, 389, notes to 18a~). But the a recounting of his deeds-and even of those associated etymology for Issachar requires a connection between with him-the "biographer" was able not only to reflect sekari and "Jfsi, now spread out between the two clauses. upon the moral quality of a man who helped shape his f. The variation in writing and punctuating the name nation's destiny, but also to underscore the manner by [ben Asher: yissa(S)kar (with a quiescent second sin); which the nation's destiny was fulfilled and actualized, in ben N aphtali: yissakar/yissakar) has given rise to a microscopic fashion, by an ancestor's activities. It is not number of etymologies. Verse 18 stoutly connects with )is of immediate concern to us whether, in light of recent saka r, "a hireling," while the spelling might suggest *yes research, a more specialized label, such as "historical sakar, "a loan/reward is at stake." Both are obviously biography," "fictional biography," or even "biographical folk etymologies to explain a name whose "real" meaning fiction" ought to be attached to some of the accounts was apparently lost to time, but we do have evidence that concerning the biblical examples; we need only note at a number of Hebrew personal names exhibit an )/y this stage that, in addition to countless biographical alternation in initial position (e. g., yisay / )jsay; yesar)e lah/ "torsos," the OT contains at least three examples of full­ )asar)elah; on this phenomenon, see C. Isbell, "A Note fledged "biographies," those of Jacob, Moses, and on Amos 1:1," lNES 36 (1977): 213-14). Albright, David, and one example, that of Samson, of a particular lAOS 74 (1954): 227, is followed by many scholars who manifestation of the genre. analyze as an 8-stem verbal form *yasaskir and render A full-fledged dramatic biography would feature the something like "May (God) grant favor." The root skr, following: 1. An interest in the birth and death of the hero "to hire," occurs in Ugaritic; cf. Gordon's Ugaritic that goes beyond mere biographical notices; 2. A Textbook, 19:2415. certitude that the historical realities, important to the g. The root zbd occurs in Hebrew only here. Its biographer's own generation, were shaped by events meaning has been posited mainly through Syriac. Some associated with the subject of the account; 3. An have suggested that it is merely a dialectal variant for zbl awareness that the heroic character is not static, but one (e.g. Skinner). which develops and deepens as recollections of his deeds h. Diverse renderings have been proposed. They are are mounted upon the biographical canvas; and 4. A conveniently collected in M. Held's "The Root ZBL/SBL tendency to undergird a narrative and reduce the episodic in Akkadian, Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew," lAOS 68 nature of the accounts by often allowing the secondary (1968 = Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser): 90-92. characters to repeat paradigmatic patterns established by Our rendering matches his "This time my husband will the chief protagonist's own activities. exalt/elevate me." Further on zbl is found in J. Gam­ The biography of Jacob spans chapters 29:19-50:21 of beroni's entry for TWAT 2.531-34. Genesis, and is clearly blocked out by two narratives, i. Jacob (599) rightly points out that the mention of both featuring dim-eyed patriarchs giving blessings and Dinah's birth allows Leah's own children to reach the birthrights to the younger of two brothers (Jacob/Esau; optimal number 7. Ephraim/ Manasseh), and strikingly recalling parallel j. This translation for zakar )et PN tries to avoid the themes and vocabulary. Within this biography are placed negative connotation implicit in the usual rendering "remember," a connotation which could not have been intended by the Hebrew.
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