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Geography As Theology: from the Book of Jubilees to the Phaleg by Arias Montano

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Geography As Theology: from the Book of Jubilees to the Phaleg by Arias Montano CHAPTER THREE GEOGRAPHY AS THEOLOGY: FROM THE BOOK OF JUBILEES TO THE PHALEG BY ARIAS MONTANO Introduction In honour of my friend Jesús Peláez, and as a souvenir of our many trips through the land of Palestine (to explore the land or to visit the tombs of Maimonides and of Rabbi Akiva), I have found nothing better than a journey through the mythical geographies of some works known to be ancient (such as Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, or the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus), others of more debatable antiquity (such as Targum Neofiti), and even a geographical treatise from the Renaissance period (the Phaleg by Arias Montano), examining how these texts interpret the ethnographical data of the so-called “table of the nations” of Gen 10 in geo- graphical terms. This survey proves that the data of the biblical text were brought up to date and read in the light of the geographical knowledge of later periods. But in the case of the ancient interpretations in Jubilees and the Genesis Apocryphon, the text of Genesis is completely reinterpreted in terms of the theology peculiar to these works. Clearly we have to begin by reminding ourselves of what this chap- ter of Genesis says.1 Although in Gen 10:1 the names of the sons of Noah appear in the traditional sequence: Shem, Ham and Japheth, the list of their descendants is in the reverse order: Japheth (10:2–5), Ham (10:6–20) and Shem (10:21–31), a detail that is significant, as we shall see. The three sections devoted to each of the sons of Noah end with three summaries, using similar wording, which tells us the geographical range of the gene- alogies: “From these, by branching out, the islands of the nations were peopled in their lands, each according to their language and according to their families within their nations” (10:5); “These are the sons of Ham according to their families and languages, by their countries and nations” 1 For the biblical text I generally use the spelling of proper names as in the NRSV. In quotations from other documents, I use the spellings of the various translators. Unfortu- nately, this chapter of Genesis has not been preserved in the 15 manuscripts of Genesis found in Qumran, or among the manuscripts found at Masada, Murabbaʿat and Sdeir. 32 chapter three (10:20); “These are the sons of Shem according to their families and lan- guages, by their countries and nations” (10:31). The chapter ends with a summary explaining the purpose of the narrative: “These are, according to their genealogies and nations, the families of the sons of Noah; from these the nations scattered over the earth after the flood” (10:32). To summarise,2 according to the Masoretic text of Gen 10, the three families multiplied and expanded in the following manner:3 – Japheth has 7 sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras,4 from two of which comes the lineage: (1) Gomer (Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah) and (2) Javan (Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim).5 – Ham has 4 sons: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan; from three of these sons comes the lineage: (1) Cush (Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah—from whom come Sheba and Dedan—, Sabteca, and Nimrod, whose his- tory is recounted in some detail in 10:8–12 and about whom the LXX adds that he was “the first giant upon the earth”); (2) Egypt (the Lyd- ians, the Anamites, the Lehabites, the Naphtuhites, the Pathrusites, the Casluhites, from whom come the Philistines, and the Caphtorites);6 (3) Canaan (Sidon, Heth, the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hama- thite; Gen 10:18 specifies that “afterwards the Canaanite families spread” and 10:19 gives their borders: “The border of the Canaanite went from Sidon towards Gerar, as far as Gaza, and towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Adamah and Seboyim, as far as Lasha”). 2 For an interpretation of the biblical text, see, for example, C. Westermann, Gene- sis 1–11: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1984). On the structure of Gen 10:1–32 see J. T. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Primeval History Interpreted: The Rewriting of Genesis 1–11 in the Book of Jubilees (JSJSup 66; Brill: Leiden, 2000), 287–90. 3 Note that in the purely genealogical sections attributed to P by critics, the name of the ancestor or eponym is given, whereas in the sections attributed to J, the names of the peoples are mentioned and geographical details are given. Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 502, summarised the situation as follows: “The J-texts in Gen 10 describe more an event—how humankind spread over the earth and became the nations that they now are. Instead, the P-texts, following the basic line of P, describe a situation—the state of being nations as a result of the spread of humankind over the earth.” 4 In LXX Gen 10:2, Japeth is given another son: Elishah, a name that recurs as the son of Javan in Gen 10:3. 5 Read Rodoi in the LXX. 6 In LXX Gen 10:14, the Philistines and the Caphtorim come from the Casluhim..
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