Aqhat, is born, and he is a fine son. But, later in the story, the goddess Anat has Aqhat killed. Now, Danel must find Aqhat’s “fat and bone,” because there has to be a proper burial. Danel does find Aqhat’s “fat and bone,” and so the cycle begins again. In this case, Aqhat must be buried “in the grave of the gods of the netherworld,” i.e., the departed fathers and kings who are also called the rephaim. There are some Rephaim texts (UT 121–124) that show how these rephaim were invited to the funeral by Danel. They come first to the threshing floor and then to the palace. They come for the food and drink, but they also come to bless. We do not have all of the story, but I think that Danel is not only blessed again, but he also has another son. The cycle turns again.
Abraham
With the story of Aqhat in mind, we turn back to Genesis. The cycle that deals with Abraham is contained in Gen 11:27—25:11 (“These are the stories of Terah”). At the beginning of this material, we learn about the death of Abraham’s father, Terah. Since it is not mentioned, we are left to assume that indeed there was a burial. We have the post-funeral blessing in Gen 12:1–3. In this story we have to wait a long time for the next element or the birth story. In chapter 21, we have the story of the birth of Isaac. Sarah, with the help of Yahweh, produces a son for Abraham to help him in his old age, and more importantly to be his heir. In Gen 21:12, we catch a glimpse of how the heir (and his heirs) will “call forth” to Abraham at his grave. As the cycle turns, there should be another burial. Genesis 23 tells us about the burial of Sarah. In the Genesis cycles (as discussed above), the last three sections of each cycle deal with 1) death and burial, 2) another word concerning the heirs, and 3) another death and burial. Following the burial of Sarah, the second section from the end (Gen 24:1—25:6) mentions how Yahweh has blessed Abraham in every way, how Abraham arranged for the “right” wife for Isaac, and gives us some information concerning Abraham’s other children. The last section of the Abraham material is about his death. By this time, it should not surprise us to read in Gen 25:9 that “Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him . . .” And the expected note in v. 11 reads, “It was after the death of Abraham that Elohim blessed Isaac, his son.”
Jacob
The cycle that deals with Jacob is contained in Gen 25:19—35:29 (These are the stories of Isaac). Isaac has the “right” wife. He has already been blessed after the burial of his father (Gen 25:11), so that an heir will be in the picture. Therefore, the first element in this cycle is the birth of Jacob and Esau with the epic notation that “the older shall serve the younger.” As we have noted in these epic cycles, the younger son always rules (and so it was with David). All of these cycles have their own individual ways of arriving at a similar end. In the Jacob material, Jacob obtains his father’s blessing before his father’s death, and he takes an epic journey in order to get away from Esau but also for the purpose of obtaining his rightful wife. This part of the story is very much like the story of Keret from Ugarit who also must go on such a journey to get his rightful wife.45 Jacob gets his wives and finally his children are born. In Gen 35:16–21, we have the death and burial of Rachel. “Jacob set up a sacred pillar on her grave” (v. 20a). Next there is a list of Jacob’s heirs, and finally there is the death and burial of Isaac (Gen 35:27–29). Esau and Jacob buried Isaac.
Joseph
The Joseph material is contained in Gen 37:2—50:26 (These are the stories of Jacob). Here the heirs are already born, so the first thing to establish is that the younger will rule the elders. In fact, Joseph is really not the youngest, but he is next to the youngest and Jacob’s favorite. In 37:2–36, the fact that Joseph will rule is driven home again and again even though at the end of the chapter one wonders, how will this be? But Joseph is very successful. In chapter 48, Joseph and his sons are blessed, and within these blessings we are able to discern that the real blessing and the continuation of that blessing will come from God and the fathers, who will bless them as they call forth the names of the fathers at the tomb. They will become a multitude. In Gen 49:29—50:14, the death and burial of Jacob is given in great detail. In the first part, Jacob is still alive, and he charges his sons to bury him with his ancestors in the cave “that Abraham purchased.” After Jacob died, he was embalmed, and “the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.” Then Joseph was granted permission to take his father’s remains to Canaan. According to this story, Joseph left Egypt with a huge entourage made up of Egyptian officials, his brothers, other relatives, and a military guard. When this group was still east of the Jordan river, they arrived at the threshing floor of the Atad. There they lamented and mourned for seven days. As in the story of Aqhat, the funeral begins at the threshing floor; but in this story instead of moving to the palace (to complete the ritual), they continue their journey, moving to the cave that Abraham had purchased.46 This is the way the story reads.47 We really do not have to assume that Joseph and his brothers were blessed because of their efforts; it is clear that in Gen 50:15–21 Joseph will care for the brothers and their children. Finally, we have in Gen 50:22–26, the death and burial of Joseph with his request that his bones be brought up from Egypt.48
When we look at all of these stories and see the importance of burial, blessing, and birth to both the form and content of these stories, we see from a slightly different angle what we have said before: this material was shaped in part by funeral rituals and was used by the monarchy in the interest of the monarchy.
Proper Burial
The importance of proper burial can be seen in some of the materials that we have concerning David. In 2 Sam 21:10–14, David takes a chance. On the one hand, he can score some political points if he gives Saul and his sons proper burial rites in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. But on the other hand, by so doing, David could be sending the wrong signal to the house of Saul. After all, to give proper burial is one way of preserving a dynastic line. Up to this point, our discussion of proper burial has concentrated on the royal tomb, but we also know that proper burial was important to all members of society. We now know that the people formed funeral associations (a marzeah) to take care of burial and mourning rites, and they usually had a place to meet (called “the House of the Marzeah” or Bet Marzeah).49 In Jer 16:1–9, there is a gruesome picture of life or rather death in Judah. The word is do not marry, because your children will die and not be buried; “they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground.” In v. 5 Yahweh says, “Do not enter the Bet Marzeah, . . . for I have taken away my Shalom from this people.” In other words, there is no point anymore in proper burial and “the care and feeding of the dead,” because there will be no blessing, i.e., no Shalom to put it into the words of Jeremiah and of the royal tomb liturgy from Ugarit. So, there will be no burial, no blessing, and no children.
One thing that we do not know very much about has to do with when these funeral rituals were used. They must have been used at the time of burial, but also they may have been used in some kind of yearly ritual. Some people have thought that the reference in 1 Sam 20:6 by David to an annual sacrifice by his whole family may have had to do with “the care and feeding of the dead.” It would also renew the blessings for such a family. I think that we really do not know much about this. However, I do think that the Ugaritic funeral ritual which we have been discussing was used in connection with the enthronement of the new king. Did enthronement take place at the tomb? We can say that David became king of both Judah and Israel in Hebron and that the scribes of the monarchy located the tomb of the fathers in Hebron. Here David could become king and receive the blessings of the ancestors. David’s rebel son, Absalom, also became king in Hebron. Solomon became king in Jerusalem before the death of David, but since David was buried there, they both started a new tradition. I think that all of this means that the monarchy had a real need for Genesis.
Characteristics of This Translation
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