Abimelech

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Abimelech ( Hebrew אֲבִימֶלֶךְ, "My father is king") is the name of several biblical persons:

Judges of the People of Israel

The judges of Israel
Book of Judges

1. Book of Samuel

The death of Abimelech

Abimelech is mentioned in Ri 9.1  EU as the son of Jerubbaal . This name was added to the judge Gideon ( Ri 6,32  EU ). In addition, both are connected with the place Ofra in the tribal area of Manasses . According to Ri 8.31  EU he actually appears as the son of Gideon. His mother, a concubine of Gideon seems to be the aristocracy of the (Canaanite) city Shechem to come ( Ri 9,1f  EU ). This is the only way to explain that Abimelech is heard there.

Meaning and career

The Hebrew Bible mentions Abimelech as the first to attempt to establish a monarchy in Israel beyond the judge principle . The attempt failed after a few years, and it only included very limited parts of Israel, so that only Saul is referred to as the first king of Israel.

First Abimelech succeeded in persuading the oligarchy in the city-state of Shechem to recognize him as a military leader. Equipped with money from the temple treasury of Baal -Berit ("Baal of the covenant" or "Baal of the contract", city god of Shechem) ( Ri 9,4  EU ), he hired a mercenary troop, with whose help he made Ofra , the place of origin of his Father, attacked, and the leading family, his own kin, destroyed. In fact, he took over monarchical rule over the place. The people of Shechem did not hesitate to recognize him as their king. The process must not be regarded as new: the change from oligarchy to monarchy occurred repeatedly in the Canaanite city-states (and in many other cultures). As a criticism of royalty, the iotam fable is woven into the book of judges at this point .

It can be assumed that Abimelech incorporated other small areas of his monarchy through fighting. At the height of his power he seems to have moved his residence from Shechem to Aruma (cf. Ri 9,41  EU ). Open rioting broke out in Shechem, which found a leader in the Gaal who had just arrived . Warned by the loyal Zebul ( Ri 9.30f  EU ), Abimelech attacked his original power base and destroyed it.

During the siege of Tebez Castle , a woman throws a millstone on his head. Since Abimelech does not want to be remembered as a ruler who was slain by a woman, he asks his armor bearer to grant him the coup de grace.

King of Gerar

Representation in the Tanach / Old Testament

In the Abraham story Gen 20–21  EU , Abimelech is king of Gerar . The parallel story about Isaac ( Gen 26  EU ) also calls him “King of the Philistines ”. Both patriarchs come to his territory because of a famine and pass their wives off as their sisters. Abimelech recognizes this lie - in the case of Abraham through a divine dream face - and, contrary to expectations, proves to be extremely generous towards the refugees. Abimelech made a covenant with both fathers ( Gen 21.27  EU and Gen 26.28  EU ). The story culminates in the construction of some wells by Isaac, the most important of which is given the Hebrew name "Seven" or "Oath", from which the name tradition of the place Be'er Scheva ("Well of the Oath") goes back.

interpretation

Gen 20

Gen 20 is linked to the following two chapters (21 and 22) through various special features:

  • The stories take place in the south of Judah.
  • The narrator uses Elohim (instead of Adonai) as God's name.
  • The framework is similar (one person is always at risk of death, but God intervenes to keep the person alive).

Gen 20 takes up the theme from Gen 12: 10-20 again. There are various similarities and differences. The two positions have the following in common:

Gen 12 V. Gen 12: 10-20 Gen 20 Gen 20 V.
11f Abram pretends to be his wife Sarai as a sister. Abraham pretends to be his wife Sarah as a sister. 2
14f The foreign ruler (Pharaoh) takes them to himself. The foreign ruler (Abimelech) takes them to himself. 2
17th The ruling house is temporarily plagued by God as long as Sarai is there. The ruling house is temporarily punished with Abimelech's inability to conceive or of all women at court being unable to give birth while Sarah is there. 17f

But there are also some differences:

Gen 12 V. Gen 12: 10-20 Gen 20 Gen 20 V.
10 Abram and Sarai move abroad due to famine. The reason for the migration of Abraham and Sarah is not given. A famine is unlikely to be the reason, because it would have affected the whole of southern Palestine and moving to Gerar would then have had no prospect of more food. 1
11-13 Abram passes his wife Sarai off as a sister because he fears the Egyptians might kill him to take his wife. No reason is given as to why Abraham presents his wife as a sister. In any case, beauty can most likely no longer be the reason for the very old Sarah. see. Gen 18.13; 17.17; 21.5
17f It is not clear from the narrative how Pharaoh knows that it is actually Abraham's wife. An inset explains how the king learns that this is actually Abraham's wife. 3-7
18f Abram's silence after the Pharaoh's allegations can be interpreted as an admission of guilt. Another insert tries to make Abraham's behavior as plausible as possible and to excuse it. 10-13
19th Here the statement appears as a lie Abrams and Sarai. Here the lie is turned into a half-truth (Sarah is the half-sister of Abraham). 12
16 Pharaoh gives gifts to Abram before the truth emerges. Abraham receives the royal gifts only after the facts have been discovered - so he does not owe his wealth to a lie. 14th

If you ask yourself what the author's intention was, Köckert assumes that he would like to portray Abraham and Sarah as the first Jews in the Diaspora. It is emphasized that they stay there for a long time. The place name "Gerar" also has certain similarities to the Hebrew verb "gur" (to stay as a stranger / guardian). In this strange place, contrary to Abraham's expectation, there is fear of God: Abimelech is innocent, behaves completely correctly and is still generous in the end (the payment corresponds to about 11.5 kg of silver and the right to stay is generous). God even honors Abimelech with a divine speech in a dream. The prophetic role of Abraham lies less in predicting future events than in intercession prayer. The closed oath between Abraham and Abimelech is not sworn by "his" God, but by "God", who is here already intended as the ruler of the world. The narrative aims to exemplify the relationship between Israel and the peoples in non-Jewish foreign countries (using the example of Abraham's relationship to Abimelech) as well as God's relationship to other peoples (using the example of divine behavior towards Abimelech). The probably Persian author respects the prohibition of mixed marriages (e.g. Esr 9), but is also against a radical demarcation between Jews and non-Jews.

Others, especially advocates of the original source model, consider a constitution in the later royal period to be likely. It was then written by the Elohist at the end of the 7th century, when in the year 701 BC. Jerusalem was miraculously saved. Therefore, all three chapters (Gen 20-22) reflect a God-brought about rescue from a danger of death and pre-Deuteronomic language (Abimelech, Ishmael, Isaac). A less controversial consensus is that genes 20-22 * arguably largely originated from one author.

Gen 21: 22-34

This story of a covenant between Abraham and Abimelech originally followed on from the first story, which was about a friendship covenant in Gerar. Here, however, there is a dispute about the wells: Abimelech's slaves forcibly took Abraham's well. When Abimelech heard about it, he protested his ignorance and innocence. Abraham puts seven (שֶׁבַע) lambs in particular, which is an implicit reason for the name (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע = seven wells). The explicit name etiology lies in the fact that they swore there (נִשְׁבְּעוּ) together (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע = oath well). So Abraham again takes over the well in Beersheba and plants a tamarisk tree there, worshiping Adonai as the eternal God. Later Isaac also built an altar here. Köckert sees territorial claims of the Jews of the Persian period in this story, in whose territory Beersheba is no longer located.

High priest

According to some texts of the Tanach, Abimelech, son of Abiatar, was high priest at the time of King David ( 1 Chr 18,16  LUT ; 2 Sam 8,17  LUT ). In the more recent Bible translations the name has been corrected to Ahimelech accordingly 1 Sam 22.20  EU , 23.6 EU and 30.7 EU .

The contemporary Arabic name Abumuaileq

The name Abimelech was changed over time via Abumelek (Arabic / أبي مالك "My father is king") to Abumuaileq (Arabic / ابومعيلق).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Matthias Köckert: Abraham. Ancestor, role model, cult founder . S. 163-175 .
  2. ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Gen 20-22 as a theological problem . In: On the way to the final form from Genesis to II. Regum . S. 59-73 .
  3. ^ Matthias Köckert: Abraham. Ancestor, role model, cult founder . 2017, p. 186-190 .
predecessor Office successor
Gideon Judge Tola