Editor’s Note: This essay covers: hospitality; negotiations with deities; and incestuous marriages in ancient times.
Va-yera (Genesis 18-22)
LA JOLLA, California — This busy parasha shows Abraham’s hospitality toward strangers, who turn out to be messengers of God. The messengers’ report that Sarah will have a child in a year. It also includesGod’s plan to destroy Sodom and Gemorrah; Abraham’s plea to save those cities if a small number of righteous persons lived there; the encounter of Lot with Sodomites while he hosted two visitors; the destruction of those cities and Lot’s escape with two virginal daughters; incest between the daughters and Lot; Abraham’s further travels and encounters with King Abimelech of Gerar; Sarah giving birth to Isaac; the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from the family; the Akedah of Isaac; and lastly more genealogy of Abraham’s kin.
I have chosen three passage groups for comparison, via the internet, with writings attributed to ancient Israel’s neighbors.
I. Genesis 18:2-5; 19:2 “…he (Abraham) saw three men…ran…to greet them…said, ‘…do not go…past your servant. Let a little water be brought, bathe your feet and recline under a tree. And…a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves…'” and Ch. 19:1-3 “…two angels arrived in Sodom…Lot saw them…said, ‘Please…turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet…;’…He prepared a feast for them…”
Hospitality customs were a vital part of the ancient world. Arid land in the Middle East is harsh. Settlements grew near available water. Strict codes of conduct developed to govern encounters with visitors and alien settlers, which involved: food, water, shelter, washing their feet, and protection. The traveler was expected to accept such offers. There could be an element of belief that the visitor was a god or angel in disguise. [1]
These rules thrived throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, at least from the Late Bronze Age and early centuries of the Iron Age.
The Greeks and later Romans participated in hospitality. Hospitium was considered a divine right of a guest and a divine duty of the host. Homer’s stories frequently highlight hospitality, as religious, social, and political functions, under the watchful eye of Zeus Zenios, ‘the stranger’s god.’ [2]
Classical Greeks practiced ‘proxeny,’ wherein city-states selected well-to-do citizens to serve as local hosts for foreign ambassadors.
Homeric tales contain at least eighteen scenes of hospitality.
An example is King Nestor to guests: “This may Zeus forbid, and the other immortal gods, that ye should go from my house to your swift ship as from one utterly without raiment and poor, who has not cloaks and blanket…whereon both he and his guests may sleep softly…” [3]
II Genesis 18:23-32 “Abraham…said (to Lord), “Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?…What if ten should be found there?…He answered , ‘I will not destroy, for the sake of the ten.'”
Such an example of persuasion to a god is not present in pagan writings. I found a Mesopotamian composition, “Poem of the Righteous Sufferer,” from the mid-2nd Millennium BCE. It presents the complaint of a pious man whose world has crushed about him, despite punctilious attention to the demands of the gods. He concludes the gods do not operate according to any intelligible norms. [4]
I also uncovered tangentially a ‘negotiation’ in Greek literature between two half-brother gods, Apollo and Hermes. Hermes had performed a lovely number on his lyre. Apollo asked, “For what would you exchange this wonderful lyra. Hermes responded: “For the herd I just lost!” Apollo granted a new herd of cattle, along with a golden shepherd staff. Thereafter the two brothers became good friends. The golden shepherd staff was called caduceus, a short stick entwined by two serpents surmounted with wings. This version of the caduceus, unlike the version/symbol of medicine, became a symbol of business and negotiation. [5]
The ancient Greeks did not assume that the gods are likable or lovable, and indeed hostility to the gods is a familiar trope in Greek literature. [6]
III. Genesis 19:30-36 “Lot went up from Zoar…with his two daughters…in a cave…the older one said…’there is not a man on earth to consort with…let us make our father drink wine…and let us lie with him’…Thus the two daughters…came to be with child by their father…”
Despite scholarly skepticism of Egyptian incest practice, there are three incidents recorded of royal incest:
(i) Amenhotep III (Ninth ruler of 18th Dynasty c. 1388-?1351 BCE) to his daughter {or sister})
(ii) Akhenaten {also called Amenhotep IV} (Tenth ruler of 18th dynasty, circa? 1353–1336 BCE, to his third daughter)
(iii) Ramesses II (Third Ruler of 19th Dynasty c. 1279–1213 BCE), to at least two of his daughters)
The skepticism is rationalized by some to be secondary to a custom of giving royal daughters the designation of ‘queen’ which princesses shared with their royal mothers, perhaps as a preparation for roles as future queens. [7]
Nevertheless, the mummy of King Tut, son of siblings (Akhenaten and Nefertiti), is rampant with congenital inherited abnormalities, attributed to inbreeding. He died at age 18.
I found also 10 Cases of Historical royal Incest worldwide.” These, often with associated shame, come from such widespread places as Ancient Africa, Egypt , Zoroastrian Persia (Iran), Madagascar, Inca Empire, Polynesia, Siam, and Tibet. [8]
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NOTES
[1] http://www.crivoice.org/travelers.html
[2] Hospitium, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[3] Homer’s Hospitality: The Ancient Roots of Greek Philoxenia, Greece Is Philoxemia 2019-2020, John Leonard, January 8, 2020
[4] Nahum Sarna, The JPS Commentary, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989, p. 133
[5] Hermes and Apollo Dispute: When the Gods Arbitrate and Negotiate…Martin Svatos, (Forum for Meditation and Arbitraation)/July 22, 2015
[6] Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World, Tim Whitmarsh, 2016, Deckle Edge, 2015
[7] Incestuous marriages did not prevail in AncientEgypt, egypt today, The Magazine of Egypt, Mustafa Marie, Wed, 19 Aug 2020-03:38 GMT
[8] 10 Fascinating Cases of Historical Incest From Around the World, Humans, Alexa MacDernit, August 7, 2018.
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.