Mamre

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The "Oak of Abraham" on the site of the Russian Orthodox Holy Spirit Monastery in Hebron

The Mamre , according to the Bible ( Gen 13,18; 23,17  EU ) a town of Abraham , the patriarch of the people of Israel . The grove consists of trees ( Hebrew אֵלון), which are usually referred to as terebinths or holm oaks in Bible translations . The place is near Hebron in the West Bank. Mamre, who was an Amorite , is named as its owner ( Gen 14:13  EU ).

Surname

The etymology of the Hebrew place name ממרא mamre ' is uncertain. A derivation from the root מרא mr- ' "fatten" is possible. An “artificial personal name” of an ally of Abraham is derived from this place name. In the Qumran texts, the place name is spelled slightly differently: ממרה. The Greek form ( Septuagint , Onomasticon ) is Μαμβρη Mambre , the Latin ( Vulgate ) also Mambre.

Biblical basics

The biblical story describes Abraham here as a nomad who pitched his tent in various places in Canaan as a stranger. The grove was then probably one of his first permanent residences in the land that God had promised him ( Gen 12  EU ).

The place has become known as the scene of a peculiar encounter between Abraham and God ( Gen 18.1–15  EU ). God appears here in the form of three "men" whom Abraham gives hospitality to. His wife Sarah listens to the conversations in the tent and witnesses that her husband receives the promise of a descendant from the guests. She laughs at that because she has so far been childless and at 90 years of age has long been unable to give birth. Then God asks through the voice of one of the visitors: “Should something be impossible for YHWH ?” - and affirms that in a year she will have a son. Sarah, who feels caught, is afraid.

This episode is followed by the story of the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah , for the sparing of which Abraham argued and argued with his God and appealed to God's universal justice ( Gen 18  EU ). But only his nephew Lot and his family escape the judgment that the men who visited Abraham in the Mamre Grove carry out at God's command.

Then Abraham leaves the grove and moves on to other areas. Only after Sarah's death does he acquire a piece of arable land for her burial: Machpelah “opposite” Mamre, which is also located near Hebron ( Gen 23.19  EU ). Then begins the story of Isaac , who looks for a wife in Abraham's old homeland and finally buries his father in a grave cave acquired with the field of Machpelah near the Mamre grove ( Gen 25.9f  EU ).

The Mamre grove, together with the Machpelah cave, represents the great promise of land and people to Abraham, which is of extraordinary importance in Judaism , Christianity and Islam .

interpretation

First of all, it is noticeable that Lot's reaction (Gen 19) to the visit of the two angels is very similar to the reaction of Abraham to the visit of the three men (Gen 18).

Gen 18 Gen 19
Abraham sits (ישֵׁב) at the entrance of his tent (v. 1) Lot sits (ישֵׁב) in the entrance area to Sodom (v. 1)
He looks (וַיַּרְא) and runs towards them (לִקְרָאתָם) (v. 2) He looks (וַיַּרְא) and runs towards them (לִקְרָאתָם) (v. 1)
He bows to the earth (וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אָרְצָה) (v. 2) He bows to the earth (וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אָרְצָה) (v. 1)
His self-designation towards the visitors is "your servant" (עַבְדְּכֶם) (v. 3) His self-designation towards the visitors is "your servant" (עַבְדְּכֶם) (v. 2)
He offers them to wash their feet (וְרַחֲצוּ רַגְלֵיכֶם) (v. 4) He offers them to wash their feet (וְרַחֲצוּ רַגְלֵיכֶם) (v. 2)

The key elements of the Sodom episode again have structural similarities to the Mamre episode (Gen 18: 1–15):

Gen 18 Gen 19
divine visit and human hospitality (vv. 1-8) divine visit and human hospitality (vv. 1–3) or the absence of the same (vv. 4–11)
divine announcement (of a future son to Sarah) (vv. 9-10) divine announcement (of the destruction of the city) (vv. 12-13)
human doubt about the divine announcement (expressed by Sarah's laughter וַתִּצְחַק, vv. 11-15) human doubts about the divine announcement (expressed by the fact that Lot's sons-in-law regard the announcement as a joke כִמְצַחֵק, v. 14).
the fulfillment of the announcement, which is not included in the scene, but is made up in Gen 21 the fulfillment of the announcement (vv. 15-28)

So the Sodom episode can also be understood as an answer to the question raised in the Mamre episode in v. 14: Should God be too difficult or impossible for something? The answer to the Sodom episode is then: no; if God can destroy the cities, then He will also make the miraculous birth possible.

Local traditions

After excavations in Chirbet Nimra, 1 km north of Hebron, a building from the 6th / 5th centuries. Century BC According to scientists, the oldest local tradition is believed to be here.

Independently of this, there is a local tradition in Ramet el-Chalil, 3.5 km north of today's Hebron, which goes back to Roman and Byzantine times.

In the Russian Orthodox Holy Spirit Monastery in Chirbet Sibte, two kilometers north-west of Hebron, there is a tree relic that is known in Christian tradition as "Abraham's oak" or "Mamres oak". The tree is said to be 5000 years old. The oldest historical evidence for this site, however, only dates back to the 19th century.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Gesenius, 18th ed. 2013 , p. 691.
  2. Christfried Böttrich , Beate Ego, Friedmann Eißler: Abraham in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, ISBN 978-3-52563398-4 , p. 54.
  3. Stuart A. Irvine: 'Is anything too hard for Yahweh?' Fulfillment of Promise and Threat in Genesis 18-19 * . In: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament . tape 42.3 , 2018, p. 285-302 .
  4. Stuart A. Irvine: 'Is anything too hard for Yahweh?' Fulfillment of Promise and Threat in Genesis 18-19 * . In: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament . tape 42.3 , 2018, p. 285-302 .
  5. a b c Detlef Jericke:  Hebron. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific Bibellexikon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on September 26, 2017.
  6. Christfried Böttrich , Beate Ego, Friedmann Eißler: Abraham in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, ISBN 978-3-52563398-4 , p. 111.