FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE BIBLE

Instructor: Barbara Sutnick
sutnick@internet-zahav.net

COURSE OUTLINE

COURSE INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE: MARRIAGE

Lesson 1 Husband and Wife In the Beginning: Adam and Eve

Lesson 2 Courtship In Our First Families

Lesson 3 When Marriage and Leadership Mix: Moses, Tzipporah, Miriam et al.

Lesson 4 Listen To Her Voice: Abraham and Sarah

Lesson 5 Judah and Tamar: A Duet of Destiny

Lesson 6 Marriage as a Metaphor

SECTION TWO: SYSTEMIC FAMILIES - PATRIARCHS, MATRIARCHS, SONS & DAUGHTERS

Lesson 7 Issues and Incidents in Parent/Child Interaction

Lesson 8 Sibling Rivalry: Cain and Abel Set the Stage

Lesson 9 Communication Breakdown: Isaac, Rebecca, and Sons

Lesson 10 Jacob and Family

Bibliography

COURSE INTRODUCTION

WELCOME to "Family Relationships in the Bible". This course will consist of 10 lectures, including "Questions For Further Thought". It will be sent to you on a weekly basis during the semester. You are invited to participate actively in the course by e-mailing me (address above) your questions, comments, insights, and critiques. I will try to respond to each message as well as share the correspondence with everybody taking the course (using first names only) in the form of "Discussion Messages." This COURSE INTRODUCTION, the COURSE OUTLINE and the ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY are all appendices. They accompany this first lesson only. I recommend that you print and retain them, since you will probably wish to refer to them again during the course.

The aim of our course is for us to study together a variety of Bible stories with special attention to their portrayal of the family life of the biblical personalities. Through a close look at how biblical families handle such issues as husband-wife relationships, sibling rivalry, and parent-child relationships, we will endeavor to bring the characters to life. In some of the lectures, one issue will be traced through several Bible stories; while in others, a biblical family will be looked at as a "system" in which many issues interplay. We will study the stories from psychological and literary perspectives as they appear in the text themselves, along with the insights of traditional Jewish and modern commentators. The course does not presume previous knowledge of the Bible on your part. My orientation will be respectful of, but not limited to, traditional Jewish understandings of the text.

Although family is the main focus of the course, we will not ignore other important biblical concerns, such as national destiny and Divine intervention. Although we will devote considerable attention to the interpretations of the multitude of scholars who have written about the Bible, I also hope that the lectures will challenge each student to think about what the texts say to him/herself personally. For this reason, lessons often include ideas for you to stop and think about before continuing to read the lecture. If you come up with ideas or questions that are not covered during the lecture, please e-mail them to me. I hope that my Questions Further Thought will also prompt some interesting discussion in cyberspace among people taking the course. I can be contacted by e-mail at: sutnick@internet-zahav.net

A few words about texts and commentaries...

We will be studying mostly the first Five Books of Moses (Torah), however for some lessons you will need to have a full Hebrew Bible in English translation for this course. If you intend to purchase one, I recommend that you choose an edition with a smooth, readable translation. (Alternatively, you may wish to use a Bible that is on the Internet.) Biblical quotes used in this course are mainly from the Jewish Publication Society's Bible translations. Remember, however, that a translation is in and of itself a commentary -- we may find ourselves having interesting "discussions" around variant translations of a word. From time to time I will supply a word in the original Hebrew (in transliteration) for that reason.

Hebrew transliteration will be used sparingly in this course, yet there is some basic information you should have so that those transliterations will be clear. The meaning of a Hebrew word is contained in the 2 or 3 consonants that form its ROOT. Words are vocalized with patterns of points and dashes. The vowels (plus some consonants acting as prefixes or suffixes) help us understand such things as part of speech, tense, and person. Throughout this course, I will render Hebrew root letters in upper case (capital) letters; vowels, prefixes and suffixes will be rendered in lower case letters. (N.B. Words I wish to emphasize will also appear in upper case letters.)

The range of commentaries used in this course to interpret the Bible stories will be rather eclectic. We will rely on the traditional commentaries that appear in a classical annotated Bible (Mikraot Gedolot), midrashim (commentaries collected from various sources that are often legendary or fable-like in nature, and whose goal is to explain the text and impart a message. singular=midrash), ideas from various books written about the Bible and ideas that I have gleaned from both teachers and students. I also hope that Discussion Messages will add our own insights based on life experience and psychological awareness. An annotated bibliography of published commentaries follows this lesson (Appendix III - please remember to print and save it). It may be supplemented from time to time.

There are certain basic assumptions that underlie the traditional Jewish approach to Bible study. Firstly, since the text is held to be of Divine authorship, every single word, letter, vowel point and even every decoration on a letter in the hand-written Torah (1) scroll, is viewed as deliberate and crucially important. Traditional Jewish commentary does not consider the possibility of scribal error, casual redundancy or any other unintentional mode of expression. A grammatical form that is irregular, or any other seeming lack of syntactical correctness is viewed as the Bible's way of letting us know that there is a hidden message between the lines of the text. As the rabbis (2) say, it is a text that calls out to us DARSHEINI -- "explain me"! An "extraneous" or a "missing" letter comes to teach us something. It is further assumed that the reader is so familiar with the text, that s/he does not need to be reminded of anything; thus if information is repeated, the second telling must contain important new teachings. Another value that follows from Divine authorship is that the Bible, along with its interpretations, contains God's message to human beings about how He wants us to live. Thus, more than intellectual textual analysis, traditional Jewish midrashim and commentaries impart a moral or legal message to the reader. It must be stressed, however, that no contemporary stream of Jewish life (or for several thousand years) is identical to "biblical religion". Jewish practice as we know it today developed out of the interpretive literature.

The style of midrashic literature often appears strange to the Western reader. A full discussion of the role of midrash and its relationship to biblical text is beyond the scope of this course. However, in order for you to better appreciate the midrashim referred to in this course, I will share an insight from Professor Heineman's work, Darkei Aggada (pg. 15): The midrash tends to convey abstract concepts (values, moral lessons, legal principles) by way of the concrete. For example, if two characters are arguing about specific possessions, we can infer a general concern about economic issues. If one of the items is a ritual object, we can infer a concern about religious issues. Together we will try to discern these references in the midrashim we will study. Another unique aspect of midrashic literature is its extremely fluid sense of time. Be prepared to find characters from different eras engaged in conversation, and to find characters from very early periods depicted as fully aware of events that will occur far in the future (e.g. Genesis characters having awareness about events from the time of King David, hundreds of years later).

Before we begin, I wish to point out that I do not believe (nor am I aware of any other student of Bible who believes) that the purpose of the Bible is to serve as a marriage or family manual. In fact, such a method of inquiry into the Bible necessarily distorts it by delimiting sections studied and shining a light that is often uncomfortably bright on rather personal matters. In addition, we shall see that what we tend to call "family values" seem sometimes to be in direct conflict with other values important in the Bible. Yet we learn from traditional Jewish commentaries that there are "70 faces to the Torah", implying the tremendous range of interpretative possibilities that are inherent in the text. Together we have chosen to jump into the world of Bible through this one of its "70" points of entry. I hope that a course such as "Family Relationships in the Bible" will lead you to continue exploring the many other "faces" of the Bible, for as we read in the Talmud:

"Keep turning [the Torah] over and over (that is, examine its every facet), since it contains everything!"

Hope you enjoy the course!
Barbara Sutnick

(1) Torah (literally "teaching") is the Hebrew term for the Five Books of Moses.

(2) "The rabbis" refers in general to the various Jewish scholars who have authored classical midrashim and other commentaries throughout the ages.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLASSICAL JEWISH BIBLE COMMENTARIES OTHER TRADITIONAL JEWISH SOURCES

- ABARBANEL, Don Isaac. 15th century Spanish-Jewish scholar, philospher, statesman.

- AKEDAT YITZHAk. Philosophical commentary to the Bible by Isaac Arama, a 13th century Spanish Talmudist.

- ALPHABET OF BEN SIRA. An esoteric and somewhat satirical legendary commentary datable to the middle ages, and originating in the east.

- AVOT DE RABI NATAN. Rabbi Nathan's 2nd century compilation on the ethical Mishnaic code, Pirkei Avot.

- HIZKUNI. Mid-13th century Bible commentary of Hezekiah ben Manoah. First printed in Venice in 1524.

- IBN EZRA, Avraham. Born in Toledo, 1092. Renowned Bible commentator, astronomer, poet and grammarian. Known for his original interpretations and exacting grammatical analyses.

- MIDRASH RABBAH. The major compilation of the homilatic material compiled on the biblical text during the 3rd - 19th centuries. Includes BERESHIT RABBAH, AND SHIR HASHIRIM RABBAH, which are quoted from in this course.

- MIDRASH HAGADOL. A collection of midrashim (c. 100 - 500 C.E.) on the Pentateuch. Compiled by David ben Amram Adani, a 13th century Yeminite scholar.

- MISHNA. Literally, "teaching". The early oral tradition, mainly of a legal and ritual nature, codified in written form by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi in Israel at the end of the 2nd century.

- RADAK. Initials of Rabbi David Kimchi (1160-1236). The most famous Bible commentator of his time. Lived in Provence.

- RAMBAM. Initials of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides. Born in Spain in 1135; died in Egypt in 1204. Renowned as the greatest post-Talmudic authority (after c. 500) on Judaism. In addition to being a world-famous medical expert, the RAMBAM wrote extensively on Jewish law, the Mishna and Jewish philosophy.

- RAMBAN. Initials of Rabbi Moshe Ban Nahman (1194-1270). Born in Spain. Famous for championisng Judaism in disputes with Christian Bishops, and for reestablishing the Jewish community in Jerusalem. His Bible commentary reflects his love for the Land of Israel, some mystical influences, and his search for the "plain meaning" of the text.

- RASHBAM. Initials of Rabbi SHemuel ben Meir (1080-1158), grandson of RASHI. Is known for his Torah commentary in which he searches for the "plain meaning" of the text, sometimes disputing about this with his famous grandfathor.

- RASHI. Initials of Rabbi Shelomo Yitzhaki (1040-1105), who lived in France. RASHI remains the leading Bible commentator, with no traditional edition of the Bible being complete without his glosses. RASHI's commentary to the Bible was the first Hebrew book to be printed in 1475.

- SFORNO. Ovadiah ben Jacob (1475-1550). An Italian-Jewish Bible commentator, Talmudist and physician.

- TALMUD. (BABYLONIAN) A commentary and discussion of the MISHNA, as expounded in the academies of Babylonia from the second to the end of the fifth century. The JERUSALEM TALMUD was finalized a century earlier. It contains both legal and legendary (midrashic) material, including numerous biblical references and interpretations. Intensive study of the Talmud is the major focus of the most traditional Jewish schools and yeshivas today. Citations will include the page and the name of the relevant section of Talmud.

MODERN BIBLE COMMENTATORS

- CASSUTO, Umberto (1883-1951). Italian Jewish Bible commentator and professor at the Hebrew University

- HEINEMANN, Yitzhak (1876-1957). Israeli scholar and philosopher born in Frankfurt. His Darkei Aggada, is a study of midrash.

- GORDIS, ROBERT. A 20th century Bible professor at Jewish Theological Seminary. His POETS, PROPHETS and SAGES (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971) is refered to in this course.

- LEIBOWITZ, NEHAMA. A 20th century Bible scholar and professor who recently died in Jerusalem. Her STUDIES IN BERESHIT/SHEMOT/VAYIKRA/BAMIDBAR/DEVARIM* (Jerusalem: Jewish Agency, 1972). Is an edited collection of her popular lectures on the Bible. She has been an inspiration for this course.

- OTWELL JOHN H. A professor of Old Testament at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. His book, AND SARAH LAUGHED (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977) is a study of women and the Bible.

- SHALEV, MEIR. A modern Israeli writer, whose amusing look at the Bible, TANACH ACHSHAV (Jerusalem: Schocken, 1985) is referred to in this course.

- ZORNBERG, AVIVA. Author or GENESIS: THE BEGINNING OF DESIRE (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995), a deep and sensitive exploration of the Book of Genesis.

* These are the Hebrew names of each of the Five Books of Moses.

This bibliography was taken in part from Aryeh Newman's very fine BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON COMMENTATORS found in Nehama Leibowitz' STUDIES IN BERESHIT. Further information on sources used in this course, and indeed on most subjects of Jewish interest, can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica.

[Homepage] [Next]