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Inner-Biblical Geography

Fun with biblical geography

Posted Saturday, November 05, 2005 by Charlie Trimm

One of my favorite topics is intertextuality, or how the Bible uses and re-uses itself. And since I am teaching a class on biblical geography, I am currently fascinated with inner-biblical allusions that are based on geography. So here is a list of various geographical allusions that I have come across. The list is far from complete, but just contains the ones I am thinking about at this moment. Some are purely random and were probably not intended by the authors, others are part of a finely crafted literary setup. If you guys think of anymore I would be interested.
1. Jabesh-Gilead. The people of Jabesh-Gilead take down the body of Saul from the walls of Beth-Shean where it is hanging. Why them? Because early in his reign Saul had rescued them from the Ammonites. Why them? One possible reason might be that in the time of the Judges, the tribes of Israel destroy Jabesh-Gilead for not joining in the attack on Benjamin. But they leave 400 virgins from Jabesh-Gilead, which are given to Benjamin to "repopulate." So there is a chance that Saul was related to someone from Jabesh-Gilead.

2. Timnah. Judah goes to Timnah and meets Tamar, Samson goes to Timnah to get a (dead) wife.

3. Ammonites wives. Nehemiah gets very upset that the Jews are marrying Ammonite women. Solomon married an Ammonite woman, who mothers his son Reheboam.

4. Gibeah and Bethlehem. In Judges, a Levite gets excessive hospitality in Bethlehem (home town of David). On the way to Gibeah, he deigns to stop at Jerusalem, because one can never trust foreigners. So instead he stops in among his countrymen in Gibeah (hometown of Saul), where he gets a "sodomite" reception. The neighbors have become worse than the foreigners.

5. Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and Jesus. There are extensive geographical links between these four characters. Elijah heals in Phoenicia, as does Jesus. Elisha brings back a boy from the dead in Shunem, which is on the south slopes of Mt. Moreh in the Jezreel Valley. Jesus brings  a boy back from the dead in Nain, which is on the northern slopes of Mt. Moreh. Salim, where John baptized, is very close to the hometown of Elisha. The Jordan is important to all of their ministries. The transition from Elijah to Elisha involves movement toward heaven, the transition from John to Jesus involves a voice from heaven.

6. Moab. Moab is conceived in incest in a dark cave at night. Later, they seduce the Israelites with sexual immorality. Ruth, a Moabite, goes to an Israelite in the dark in the middle of the night, but does not act like her ancestors, even though there is a similar setting.

7. Bethlehem ('granary') undergoes a famine.

8. David is established as king at Hebron, Absalom begins his rebellion at Hebron.

9. The Danites take Laish and rename it Dan because it is lightly protected. Unfortunately for them, Dan is among the first to fall to Aram and, later, the Assyrians.

10. Moses and the first generation  crossed the sea of reeds, Joshua and the second generation crosses the Jordan River. The first few chapters of Joshua contain a lot of inter-textual allusions, this is only one of them.



Monday, November 07, 2005 11:47 AM

Josh wrote: It's deja vu all over again...

How about Achan and the Valley of Achor?  Achan and kin and kine are killed with stones and stones are heaped up over them "to this day" in Josh 7, yet Hosea 2:14 indicates that the Valley of "the Troubler" of Israel will be a door of Hope for them in the future.

I realize that this isn't a geographical reference - but is any OT text more quoted in the OT than Ex. 34:6-7?  I see it popping up in Jonah 4:2, Micah 7:18, Num 14:18, Ps 86:5 & 15, Ps 103:8, Ps 145:8, Nahum 1:3, Joel 2:13, Neh 9:17, and maybe Deut 4:31.  That is a lot of quotation/direct allusion for OT intertextuality I think.  It was at least included in the "How to be a Pre-Exilic Minor Prophet" handbook.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005 11:16 AM

Sam wrote: The Obvious One Don't forget about our good friend Egypt.  It seems that nearly everyone and their brother (or son) does something bad in, or has something bad done to them by Egypt (not the least of which is forgot-she-was-my-wifeitis that seemed to weigh heavily on the Patriarchs). 

Wednesday, November 09, 2005 8:47 AM

Charlie wrote:  I need to see if I can find a copy of that book on Amazon.

Another example is crossing the Jordan. After the Israelites cross into Canaan, crossing the other way is bad. During Saul's reign, some flee across the Jordan in the face of the Philistines. Dramatically, David crosses the Jordan when his son rebels. But then when he crosses back into Israel, the text highlights it: "THE KING CROSSED."


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