Bedan: A Riddle in Context

Abstract

(ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The presence of a certain among the divinely appointed deliverers listed by Samuel 1 Sam 12:11 is an age-old crux interpretum. Already ancient translations, paraphrases, and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible wrestled with the problem. The LXX reads Barak instead; the Peshitta substitutes Deborah and Barak; Josephus drops the name altogether; and talmudic sages categorically state that Bedan is Samson.1 In modern times, most exegetes have identified with Barak,2 but some have preferred Jephthah3 or the minor judge Abdon of Judg 12:13-154 and have even mentioned Gideon and Deborah as plausible candidates.5 Diverse as they are, all these interpretations share a weakness: with minor and relatively insignificant exceptions, they strictly zero on the list of deliverers 1 Sam 12:11 and its metamorphoses ancient witnesses. A crucial upshot of such a narrow approach is the assumption that the list cannot be right as it stands: the name on it is an alias, a scribal error, a gloss, or the result of phonetic transformations and should consequently be emended or at least understood as referring to someone else. A serious consideration of the verses immediate and larger context falsifies this assumption, rendering emendations and substitutions largely redundant. Even a cursory look at 1 Sam 12:11 and the neighboring verses immediately reveals that the reference to is by no means the only odd detail of Samuel's discourse. First, v. 8 he claims that Moses and Aaron settled the listeners' ancestors in this place, seemingly disregarding the Pentateuch's insistence that both brothers failed to reach the promised land (Num 20:24; Deut 32:50-52). second, the list of foreign oppressors v. 9 does not follow the chronological order of the biblical narrative. The of Moab (presumably Eglon), one of the earliest oppressors Judges, is preceded not only by Sisera but also by Philistines, who come last Judges and are active also 1 Samuel 4-7. Third, there is little correspondence between this list and the roster of deliverers v. 11. Deborah and Barak, the vanquishers of Sisera, and Ehud, who assassinated Eglon, do not appear on the latter; instead, it mentions Jerubbaal/Gideon, who fought against Midianites; Jephthah, who triumphed over Ammonites; and the perplexing Bedan. Fourth, v. 12 Samuel asserts that the people asked him for a king when faced with Ammonite aggression (1 Samuel 11) and thus blatantly contradicts 1 Samuel 8, where the petition to appoint a monarch is motivated by abuses of his sons, and 1 Sam 9:16, where Yhwh commands him to anoint Saul as Israel's savior from Philistine oppression. It appears therefore that the mention of as a deliverer is but a relatively minor component of the massive twisting of biblical traditions that takes place Samuel's overview of the Israelite history (1 Sam 12:8-12), strategically positioned the middle of his farewell discourse (12:1-17). What is more, this twisting is by no means random. In v. 12, Samuel links the request for a king to aggressive actions of a Transjordanian ruler who threatened Jabesh-Gilead, a Transjordanian city (11:1-2). Two of four deliverers listed v. 9, Jerubbaal/Gideon and Jephthah, were of Transjordanian extraction: the former belonged to the Abiezer clan (Judg 6:11 ), which according to 1 Chr 7:18 traced its lineage to Gilead the son of Manasseh;6 the latter is introduced Judg 11:1 as a Gileadite and a son of Gilead. Both of them led the struggle against Transjordanian invaders, respectively Midianites and Ammonites. Finally, the only groups of Israelites to receive their allotments directly from Moses were the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh that settled the Transjordan (Numbers 32). Why the heavy Transjordanian bias? At first blush, it may seem to have something to do with the fact that the previous chapter Israelites led by Saul repulse the Ammonite onslaught on Jabesh-Gilead; the narrative implicitly links Samuel's discourse 1 Samuel 12 to the festivities Gilgal that immediately followed the victory and were arranged by him (11:14-15). …