Re: appendix

Don's right to call attention to Gen.2:15 but it's worth noting that the verbs used there have broader significance. `abhadh & shamar could be rendered respectively as "serve" & "guard." The same 2 verbs, significantly, are used in Num.3:7-8 to speak of the duties of the Levites in the tent of meeting, & thus may point toward a wider religious task of caring for creation.

& while it's right the Bible doesn't give an explicit list of preferred occupations, it may be significant that being a hunter did not seem to rank very highly, as in did in some other cultures - e.g., the picture of Esau.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Don Winterstein
  To: "asa" ; RFaussette@aol.com
  Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 2:53 AM
  Subject: Re: appendix

  Rich Faussette wrote:

  "My remarks are restricted to genesis...."

  OK. Genesis (chapter 2) says the Lord God put the man in the garden "to work the ground." This trumps the Cain story and your interpretation of it. So God made man to be a gardener. As a gardener (since retirement) I emphatically concur with the author of Genesis that such occupation is what man was made for. So please stop denigrating agriculture. : )

  Actually I never said "the Israelites preferred agriculture over shepherding." The Bible to my recollection never names Israelites' occupational preferences. I was pointing out that agriculture was widely known and practiced among Israelites. While Genesis certainly emphasizes herding among the patriarchs, apparently agriculture was known and practiced among them also: Gen. 27:28 has Isaac wishing Jacob "an abundance of grain and new wine," and Gen. 30:14 has Reuben going out in the fields "during wheat harvest."

  Don

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: RFaussette@aol.com
    To: "Don Winterstein" ; "asa"
    Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 10:58 AM
    Subject: Re: appendix

    "...Genesis is pushing us toward shepherding rather than agriculture."
     
    Israelites took up agriculture probably while in Egypt but most certainly after the exodus. References in books of Moses and prophets to vineyards and olives are common, as are references to harvests, gleanings, etc. Cf. OT book of Ruth. I hesitate to ask, but where are you coming from? Not from the Bible, for sure.
     
    Don

    Don,
    My remarks are resticted to genesis. I can't be certain if the Hebrew Bible was written as a whole as in Moses wrote them or the minimalist view that there were significant additions / redactions exilic and even post exilic, with much Persian influence so I don't make the assumption that what genesis teaches us necessarily conforms to any other texts in the Bible or that the books are consistent which they are not, so my remarks are restricted to genesis AND to behavior of Jewish communities who continue to eschew agriculture I suggest in deference to the aversion to agriculture found in genesis. I admit refernces to vineyards and olives are common but are Biblical Jews working the vineyards in the passages you mention and what is the nature of the passage itself? Let me provide an example. I had a fruitful discussion on the burning bush on ancientbiblehistory@yahoogroups. The symbol of the burning bush is very likely that of a bloodline that "passes through the fire." It is not representative of a bush at all. It is representative of the people of Moses who are to cleave to God, "pass through the fire" and gain immortality. Infants sacrificed to Molech were thought to be immortal if they survived the fire which is the origin of the symbol. At surface level you might not argue that, a bush symbolizing an evolutionary bloodline, which is why I would like to look at the references you mention that suggest the Israelites preferred agriculture over shepherding. And doesn't the pharoah give a portion of land in Egypt to Joseph's relatives for their flocks even though the Egyptians find shepherding an abomination? Here we see the patrarchs clinging to nomadism despite the abomination it appears to the egyptians. genesis 46:32 to 47:6
    So, I'm squarely in genesis.
    rich
Received on Thu Jan 6 08:16:26 2005