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Remembering Abraham: Culture, Memory, and History in the Hebrew Bible RONALD HENDEL OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Remembering Abraham This page intentionally left blank Remembering Abraham Culture, Memory, and History in the Hebrew Bible ronald hendel 1 2005 1 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofﬁcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright(cid:1)2005byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Hendel,RonaldS. RememberingAbraham:culture,memory,andhistoryintheHebrewBible/RonaldS. Hendel. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex. ISBN-13978-0-19-517796-1 ISBN0-19-517796-7 1. Bible.O.T.—Historiography. 2. EthnicityintheBible. 3. Jews—Identity. I. Title. BS1197.H3852004 221.6'7—dc22 2004043498 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper To Ann This page intentionally left blank And myGideonwasleft withnoarmynobattlenogloryat the SpringofHarod.Andhedrank kneelingdownand hedranklapping,andhe drankandrememberedandforgot. —YehudaAmichai,OpenClosedOpen trans.ChanaBlochandChanaKronfeld I willopenmymouthwitha parable, I willutterenigmasofthepast, thingsthat wehaveheardandknown, that ourfathershavetoldus. —Psalm78:2–3 We sometimesimaginetheoldestremembrancestobethemost immediate;or,rather,theyareall illuminatedina uniformlight,like objectsblendingtogetherinthetwilight. —MauriceHalbwachs,Lame´moirecollective This page intentionally left blank Preface AccordingtoanoldtraditionpreservedinthePalestinianTargums, aynrkwd rps theHebrewBibleis“theBookofMemories”( ).1Thesa- credpastthatisrecalledinthisbookservesasamodelandwell- springforthepresent.“Remembertheancientdays,”Mosescoun- selstheIsraelitesintheSongofMoses(Deut32:7),forthepresent isrootedintheconstitutiveeventsofthepast. TherememberedpastisthematerialwithwhichbiblicalIsrael constructeditsidentityasapeople,areligion,andaculture.Inits formativeyearsthesememoriescirculatedorallyinthecontextof familyandtribe.TheSongofMosesspeciﬁesthisplaceofcollective memory:“Askyourfather,andhewilltellyou;yourelders,andthey willrelateittoyou”(Deut32:8).Overtimethesememoriescameto becrystalizedinvariouswrittentexts.TheHebrewBibleisavast compendiumofwritings,spanningathousand-yearperiodfrom roughlythetwelfthtothesecondcenturiesb.c.e.,andrepresenting perhapsasmallsliceofthewritingsofthatperiod.Thetextsareof- tenoverwrittenbylatertexts,creatingacomplexpasticheoftext,re- interpretation,andcommentary.Thereligionandcultureofancient Israelareexpressedbythesetextsand,innosmallpart,alsocreated bythem,asvarioustextsformulateneworalteredconceptionsof thesacredpast. ThetaskofthemodernscholaroftheHebrewBibleistonego- tiatethecomplexcirculationofmeaningsinandamongthesetexts, attendingtomattersoflanguage,history,religion,literature(includ-

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According to an old tradition preserved in the Palestinian Targums, the Hebrew Bible is "the Book of Memories." The sacred past recalled in the Bible serves as a model and wellspring for the present. The remembered past, says Ronald Hendel, is the material with which biblical Israel constructed its