logos redux

“Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know…Let us, I say, permit the Christian man to open his mind and ears to every utterance of God directed to him, provided it be with such restraint that when the Lord closes his holy lips, he also shall at once close the way to inquiry. The best limit of sobriety for us will be not only to follow God’s lead always in learning but, when he sets an end to teaching, to stop trying to be wise.”

John Calvin, Institutes 3.21.3

I was reading through Judges today and came across this which struck me as odd: Judg. 4.11   Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

Then I started looking and noticed that Moses’ father-in-law is known alternately as: the priest of Midian (i.e. a Midianite, cf. Ex. 2.16), Jethro (cf. Ex. 4.18), Reul (cf. Ex 2.18), Hobab (cf. Jud. 4.11) and a Kenite (although an indirect reference). What’s going on?

I think part of the answer can be seen in numbers 10.29 which says: And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, l‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you, for mthe LORD has promised good to Israel.”

It seems as if Reul and Jethro then are two names for the same man, namely the father of Moses’ wife Zipporah. Perhaps one is from the language of the Midianites and the other a Hebrew variation? I don’t have time to look into it now, but that’s a guess. Hobab then seems to be Reul/Jethro’s son who is at times referred to as the father-in-law of Moses by later generations through the common feature of Hebrew lineages whereby they are not necessarily as strict in their application of epithets to the precise referent as we might be. They are often happy to apply a descriptor such as father, or son more loosely such that, for an obvious example, any Israelite can be described as the son of Abraham or refer to Moses as their father.

As to the Kenite/Midianite thing I’m not sure. However, the Kenites are referred to in Judges 4 as the “descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses,” so it is possible that they simply didn’t come to be called Kenites until after Jethro’s death. In fact it may be that Jethro’s descendants among the Israelites, as distinguished from any among the Midianites, became the Kenites.

…at Christ the King Church (CREC) in Springfield two Sundays ago. If you’re interested the sermon can be listened to here. The text is Psalm 32.

[This is my rough translation for my exegesis class. I’m not sure about the way I’ve divided verse 28. I can’t tell gramattically if what God says to them is the blessing, or if God blessed them and then said to them __. Anyway, here it is.]

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living, breathing beings^a according to her kind: domesticable animals^b and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind,” and it was so. 25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind and the domesticable animals according to their kind and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, so that they might^c have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the winged creatures of the heavens and over the beasts and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.

27 And God created the man in his image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them.

And God said to them, “Bear fruit and become many and fill the earth and subdue her and have dominion^d over^e the fish of the sea and over^e the winged creatures of the heavens and over^e every living thing that moves^f on the earth.

29 And God said, “Behold, I am giving^g you all the herbage sowing seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree which is among the fruit trees sowing seed; for you they will be for food.” 30 And for every living creature of the earth and for every winged creature of the heavens and for every creeping thing on the earth which is a living, breathing being, all green herbage (is) for food,” and it was so.

31 And God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

^a This is my attempt at a conflation of the descriptive noun “nephesh” and the adjective “hayah.”
^b(BDB 96-97)The word, “behema,” implies large animals as opposed to fish, birds, reptiles and wild animals, and as used by man. Therefore I found “cattle” (BDB 97) and “livestock” (Collins 48, ESV) to be too narrow and “beasts” to be too broad; hence the cumbersome “domesticable animals.”
^cJussive taken as Causative or Consequential.
^dFollowing ESV, Collins 48, footnote 38 rather than NAS to highlight vocabulary difference from “rule” in 1.16-18.
^eThis is a special use of the “b” prefix which only occurs with certain classes of verbs, including verbs that convey the idea of ruling or having dominion.
^fThis is the same word that has been translated “creeps” in the previous verses, but since it is referring to ‘every creature that ____ on earth,’ and since this phrase is obviously intended to make complete the list including animals of the air, and animals of the sea, it is appropriate to translate it using the more general term ‘move,’ or ‘move about.’ (BDB 943, Collins 48).
^gPerformative Perfect, Collins 49, footnote 39.