My Hebrew seminary prof is leading a J term course in Israel and managed to get to Shiloh and a rock's through away from Shechem (deep in the West Bank). His description of the day is interesting:
http://web.mac.com/lawsonstone1/iWeb/StonesFence/Blog/BE7F1086-9916-4F9E-A8F1-73DC78FF3562.html
Some of the historical complications that surround the biblical texts in relation to Shiloh always made me glad I was a NT prof. Why is Samuel a priest when he is not a Levite? Why is there a structure at Shiloh that has lintels and such when Israel was only supposed to have a moveable tent at this point? Why is Israel having one yearly festival of Yahweh when they're supposed to have three and this isn't said to be any of them?
Of course my faith isn't troubled by any of these things because Christ is risen; he is risen indeed...
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3 comments:
Thanks Ken for the link..it was a fun read--I read it all.
Of course the lintels that seem to be permanant were actually lentils and referred to the common legume of the middle east eaten as a soup thus protecting the portability of the tent --at least that's what they told me in Sunday school where they were practicing your craft.
;-)
Ken
Thanks for the cite. The temple thing can't be too big a problem because (a) we get our idea that there was only a tabernacle from the Bible and (b) the Bible is frank and open about the Shiloh temple too (look at Judges 18:31 and Jer 7). So obviously it was not a problem for the biblical authors at all; they didn't even try to harmonize the two traditions. SO... obviously we need to simply adjust our interpretations to accomodate the text (gasp!). There are two suggestions. The Mishnaic one is that the Israelites built a structure with walls and no roof to contain the tent. The other is that the Israelites simply took over an existing Baal temple of some kind, burned it out and used it for their own worship. That happens to be my view.
Thanks Lawson for your blogging on your J term class. I've really enjoyed it! Watching people like you breathe scholarship makes me work to know more...
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