SHUFFLING GENESIS

Some time ago I posted several articles starting with the word “shuffling” in which I discussed those cases in which Bible scholars and English translations purposely rearranged the order of verses within a book of the Bible even though there was no manuscript evidence to support such changes. But in that survey I inadvertently overlooked the Book of Genesis. So here are those few cases where such changes in the text have been made:

Genesis 47:1-6

The Jerusalem Bible chooses to change the order of verses 5-6 to vv. 5a – 6b – 5b – 6a. There is really no drastically different meaning between this order and that found in the standard Hebrew text, and JB gives no reason for such a rearrangement. However, this proposed change does have the merit of being supported by the Septuagint, the earliest Greek rendering of the Hebrew original. The same cannot be said, however, for the following example.

Genesis 26:15-21

Without any manuscript warrant for doing so, the New English Bible rearranged these verses by moving v. 18 to a position directly following v. 15. No explanation is given for such a move other than it appeared to be to the translators' way of “improving” upon the Hebrew text. The problem with such unwarranted tampering with the text is that some modern scholars are apparently confident that they can (1) fully understand what the authors were trying to convey and (2) do a better job of it themselves.

That may have made some sense except for the fact that many modern scholars are thoroughly conditioned to the usual Western way of thinking in which writings generally present ideas in a strictly logical order of progression and give all historical facts in perfect chronological order. Neither one of these imperatives is nearly as important to the biblical authors as a literary arrangement of the text in which symmetrical structures are formed.

With that background, consider the present arrangement of this passage, which describes a dispute between the Israelites and a neighboring territory over well rights. It can be easily diagrammed as shown in Figure 1:

                                     Figure 1: Literary Symmetry in Genesis 26:15-21

1. Isaac is fruitful (vv. 12-14) [“in that land”]

        2. Philistines had stopped up the wells (v. 15) [“in the days of Abraham”]

                3. Abimelech tells Isaac to go away (v. 16)

                3'. Isaac goes away (v. 17)

        2'. Isaac digs up wells that were stopped up (v. 18) [“in the days of Abraham”]

1'. Isaac is fruitful (vv. 19-21) [“in the land”]

You can see from the above that if one moves v. 18 so that it follows v. 15 in a “more logical” order, the above symmetry is completely destroyed.

And although it has no real bearing on the order of verses 15-18, it is of some interest that this narrative in Genesis 26 matches up symmetrically with events later in chapter 34 according to the structural scheme I presented in an earlier post. Fishbane has previously analyzed the various elements that go into that latter story. With a small adjustment to these elements, we can see how they match up in reverse order to the same elements present in Genesis 26:

                          Figure 2: Reverse Parallelism Between Genesis 26 and Genesis 34

1. Deception with backflash (26:6-11)

        2. Disagreement with covenant (26:12-33)

                Conclusion: Family discord (26:34-35)

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        2'. Disagreement with covenant (34:1-24)

1''. Deception with backflash (34:25-29)

                Conclusion: Family discord (34:30-31)

This is but another one of many other examples of events in Genesis being narrated out of chronological and logical order in a literary pattern so as to better bring up parallels in the history of Israel.

Shuffling genesis

Some time ago I posted several articles starting with the word “shuffling” in which I discussed those cases in which Bible scholars and English translations purposely rearranged the order of verses within a book of the Bible even though there was no manuscript evidence to support such changes. But in that survey I inadvertantly overlooked the Book of Genesis. So here are those few cases where such changes in the text have been made:

Genesis 47:1-6

The Jerusalem Bible chooses to change the order of verses 5-6 to vv. 5a – 6b – 5b – 6a. There is really no drastically different meaning between this order and that found in the standard Hebrew text, and JB gives no reason for such a rearrangement. However, this proposed change does have the merit of being supported by the Septuagint, the earliest Greek rendering of the Hebrew original. The same cannot be said, however, for the following example.

Genesis 26:15-21

Without any manuscript warrant for doing so, the New English Bible rearranged these verses by moving v. 18 to a position directly following v. 15. No explanation is given for such a move other than it appeared to be to the translators' way of “improving” upon the Hebrew text. The problem with such unwarranted tampering with the text is that some modern scholars are apparently confident that they can (1) fully understand what the authors were trying to convey and (2) do a better job of it themselves.

That may have made some sense except for the fact that many modern scholars are thoroughly conditioned to the usual Western way of thinking in which writings generally present ideas in a strictly logical order of progression and give all historical facts in perfect chronological order. Neither one of these imperatives is nearly as important to the biblical authors as a literary arrangement of the text in which symmetrical structures are formed.

With that background, consider the present arrangement of this passage, which describes a dispute between the Israelites and a neighboring territory over well rights. It can be easily diagrammed as shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Literary Symmetry in Genesis 26:15-21

1. Isaac is fruitful (vv. 12-14) [“in that land”]

2. Philistines had stopped up the wells (v. 15) [“in the days of Abraham”]

3. Abimelech tells Isaac to go away (v. 16)

3'. Isaac goes away (v. 17)

2'. Isaac digs up wells that were stopped up (v. 18) [“in the days of Abraham”]

1'. Isaac is fruitful (vv. 19-21) [“in the land”]

You can see from the above that if one moves v. 18 so that it follows v. 15 in a “more logical” order, the above symmetry is completely destroyed.

And although it has no real bearing on the order of verses 15-18, it is of some interest that this narrative in Genesis 26 matches up symmetrically with events later in chapter 34 according to the structural scheme I presented in an earlier post. Fishbane has previously analyzed the various elements that go into that latter story. With a small adjustment to these elements, we can see how they match up in reverse order to the same elements present in Genesis 26:

Figure 2: Reverse Parallelism Between Genesis 26 and Genesis 34

1. Deception with backflash (26:6-11)

2. Disagreement with covenant (26:12-33)

Conclusion: Family discord (26:34-35)

-------------

2'. Disagreement with covenant (34:1-24)

1'. Deception with backflash (34:25-29)

Conclusion: Family discord (34:30-31)

This is but another one of many other examples of events in Genesis being narrated out of chronological and logical order in a literary pattern so as to better bring up parallels in the history of Israel.

Finally, of the commentaries I consulted on Genesis 26, only Wenham had anything to say at all regarding the position of v. 18, and he simply calls that verse “an introduction [to vv. 18-22] looking back to vv. 12-17. Other than that, the only other place in which I could find verses 15 or 18 highlighted in any manner was to note that NRSV keeps the Hebrew order of the verses but places v. 15 in