What About Those Silly (and Boring) Genealogies?
April 22, 2014 at 12:40 pm
(This post was last modified: April 22, 2014 at 12:41 pm by Minimalist.)
Prof. Israel Finkelstein identifies a purpose and a time when they were concocted.
http://israelfinkelstein.files.wordpress...ts-jbl.pdf
http://israelfinkelstein.files.wordpress...ts-jbl.pdf
Quote:The genealogical lists were probably intended to legitimize Jewish rule over this area, part of which was inhabited by a large Gentile population, by giving it an ancient Israelite tribal pedigree. This seems to be in line with several Hasmonean pseudepigraphic compositions—the book of Jubilees, which was written in the days of John Hyrcanus, and possibly the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs—which looked to the Scriptures in order to explain and legitimize the gradual territorial expansion of Judea in the second century b.c.e.
These books legitimized the Hasmonean conquests and addressed problems related to the relationship with non-Jews who lived in the new territories.
Quote:IV. Summary
Assuming that the distribution of the sites mentioned in the lists of genealogies in 1 Chronicles 2–9 reflects a given, genuine moment in history, their date can be verified according to the archaeology of these sites and their distribution compared to what we know about the borders of Judah/Yehud/Judea in the late Iron II, Persian, and Hellenstic periods. The only period that fits both criteria is that of the
Hasmonean rule in the second half of the second century b.c.e.
