“Jacob’s Trouble”: The Shechem Fiasco And The Breaking Of Covenant In Genesis 34 -- By: Brian Neil Peterson
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 176:703 (Jul 2019)
Article: “Jacob’s Trouble”: The Shechem Fiasco And The Breaking Of Covenant In Genesis 34
Author: Brian Neil Peterson
BSac 176:703 (July-September 2019) p. 272
“Jacob’s Trouble”: The Shechem Fiasco And The Breaking Of Covenant In Genesis 34
Brian Neil Peterson is associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee.
Abstract
Levi and Simeon’s massacre of the men of Shechem in Genesis 34 plays a pivotal rhetorical role for the remaining Jacob and Joseph narratives. The author purposely presents the Jacobites’ breach of the agreement with the Shechemites, no doubt sworn in the name of God/YHWH, as being directly related to the numerous misfortunes that would later plague Jacob and his family.
“As narrative, the story is clumsy. The important detail about Dinah’s imprisonment is mentioned only at the end. The plot is full of those kinds of repetition and duplications that suggest patchwork editing from sources. All in all, it must seem best to pass over Genesis 34 as one of those atavistic ‘Old Testament’ lapses from proper religious etiquette that theologians deplore and preachers ignore, a black sheep in the spotless canonical flock.”1
“The story of Dinah is a single, isolated episode [that] seems wholly unrelated to the broader historical saga in which it is located, and this only compounded the mystery of its overall meaning for ancient interpreters.”2
These assessments of Genesis 34 appear to relegate the chapter
BSac 176:703 (July-September 2019) p. 273
to the proverbial trash heap of biblical narratives, worth little more than a passing glance.3 However, while the narrative may appear “clumsy,” “isolated,” and “wholly unrelated to the broader historical saga,” it is anything but. On the contrary, Genesis 34 plays a central role in the overall narrative of Genesis 34–50 in the same way that other chapters in the Old Testament play a pivotal role for their surrounding narratives.4 For example, few would disagree that 1 Samuel 13 and 15 are formative for the narratives related to the life of Saul in 1 Samuel 12–31. In fact, these narratives describing Saul’s usurpation of Samuel’s rite of sacrifice and...
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