(reading (
Hebrew characters) for (Hebrew characters)). Stucken (MVAG, 1902, 166ff.), after a laboured
proof that Reuben corresponds to Behemoth (hippopotamus), an old
constellation now represented by Aquarius, completed the circle after a
fashion, with the necessary addition of Dinah = Virgo as the missing
sign; and his results are adopted by Jeremias (ATLO2, 395ff.). A
somewhat different arrangement is given by Winckler in AOF, iii. 465 ff.
These conjectures, however, add little to the evidence for the theory,
which must in the main be judged by the seven coincidences pointed out
in Zimmern's article. That these amount to a demonstration of the
theory cannot be affirmed; but they seem to me to go far to show that
it contains an element of truth. It is hardly accidental that in each series
we have one double sign (Gemini, Simeon-Levi) and one female personification
(Virgo, Dinah), and that all the animal names occurring in the
Song (lion, ass, serpent, ram?, ox?, wolf) can be more or less plausibly
identified with constellations either in the Zodiac or sufficiently near it to
have been counted as Zodiacal signs in early times. The incompleteness
of the correspondence is fairly explained by two facts: first, that the
poem has undergone many changes in the course of its transmission,
and no longer preserves the original form and order of the oracles; and
second, that while the twelve-fold division of the ecliptic goes back to
the remotest antiquity, the traditional names of the twelve signs cannot
all be traced to the ancient Babylonian astronomy. It may be added
that there is no prima facie objection to combinations of this sort. The
theory does not mean that the sons of Jacob are the earthly counterparts
of the Zodiacal constellations, and nothing more. All that is implied is
that an attempt was made to discover points of resemblance between the
fortunes and characteristics of the twelve tribes on the one hand, and
the astro-mythological system on the other. Such combinations were
necessarily arbitrary, and it might readily happen that some were too
unreal to live in the popular memory. Where the correspondence is
plausible, we may expect to find that the characterisation of the tribe
has been partly accommodated to the conceptions suggested by the
comparison; and great caution will have to be observed in separating
the bare historical facts from the mythological allusions with which they
are embellished. In the present state of the question, it may be safely
said that the historical interpretation must take precedence. The
Zodiacal theory will have to be reckoned with in the interpretation of
the Song; but it has as yet furnished no trustworthy clue either to the
explanation of obscure details, or to the restoration of the text.
XLIX. 28b-L. 26.—The Death and Burial of Jacob; and the Death of Joseph (P, J, E).
Jacob charges his sons to bury him in the family sepulchre at Machpelah, and expires (28b-33). Joseph causes the body to be embalmed; and, accompanied by his brethren and an imposing cortège, conveys it to its last resting-place in
