wide prospect of the land as a whole. We. (Comp.2 25 f.) admits that these 'general impressions' are not such as to procure universal assent. In point of fact they are rather overstated; and Di.'s answers may satisfy those who refuse to carry critical operations further than is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, We.'s impression is probably correct, and has commended itself to KS. Ho. Gu. al.[1] The vv. may be omitted not only without injury to the context, but with the obvious advantage of bringing out the reference of 18 to 12f.. The redactor has rightly seized the point of the story, which is that by his selfish choice Lot left Abram the sole heir of Canaan.
18. Abram moves his tent to the terebinth(s) of Mamre,
in Hebron, and inaugurates the local sanctuary there. In
the main narrative of Jh the statement was immediately
followed by ch. 18; and it is possible that the theophany
recorded at the beginning of that chapter is that which
marked the place as holy (see on 127).
The site of the tree (or trees, v.i.) is not known. There was a
Terebinth of Abraham about 15 stadia from Hebron, which was the
scene of mixed heathen and Christian worship, suppressed by order
of Constantine (Sozomen, HE, ii. 4). Josephus (BJ, iv. 533) mentions
a very large terebinth said to have existed (
Greek characters),
6 stadia from the city. In spite of the discrepancy as to distance, it
is probable that these are to be identified; and that the site was the
Ḥarām Rāmet el-Ḫalīl, 2 m. N of Hebron. The difficulty in accepting
this, the oldest accessible, tradition is that the distance is inconsistent
with the statement that the sanctuary was in Hebron. And if we
suppose the ancient Hebron to have been at er-Rāme in the vicinity
of the Ḥarām, this conflicts with the tradition as to the cave of
(Greek characters),—approved by Ball.—18. (Hebrew characters) (1413 181)] see on
126. G (Greek characters). S also reads the sing., which may be
right, though 184 cannot be cited in support of it. In J, Mamre is said
to be in Hebron, in P (where the tree is never mentioned) it is a
name of Hebron, and in 1413. 24 it becomes the name of an Amorite
chief, the owner of the trees. So S here, as shown by the addition of
(Syriac characters).
- ↑ The only point on which it is impossible to follow We. is his assumption that Hebron is the fixed residence of Abram in all strata of J, and that the notion of his migratory life arose from the amalgamation of E (which puts Beersheba in the place of Hebron) with J. There was probably a whole cycle of Yahwistic legends, in which he is represented as living in the Negeb (see already on 129ff.). So far as mere literary criticism goes, there is no reason why the addition should not be prior to RJE.
