The theology of the balaam oracles: a pagan diviner and the word of god
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Exposition of Numbers 22-24" (unpublished master's thesis, Dallas Theological Seminairy, 1950), p. 15; Roland Kenneth Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 620.
2 Albright, "Oracles," p. 232. 3 Noth, Die israelitischen Personnenamen, p. 76, cited by Mauch- line, "The Balaam-Balak Songs and Saga, " p. 75. A somewhat different view is given by Rene Largement: "Ni le nom de Bilecam, ni celui do son pere ne figurent exactement dans l'onomastique mesopotamienne. Toutefois, l'element cam apparait tres frequemment dans los noms propres de la Ire dynastie de 143
In view of the divergences of opinion on this technical issue among scholars of high repute, one would best move with some caution. Nevertheless, a tentative suggestion may be made. Since it seems best to regard Balaam as of Mesopotamian origin, and more specifically, Northern- Syrian,1 it should come as no surprise that his name may be explained along “proto-Aramaic” lines as an imperfect + divine name. Yet, as the word is transcribed in the Hebrew text, it receives the Hebrew connotation2 of "devourer of the people." There are other examples of intentional or non-intentional changes of names (denotation to connotation) in the Hebrew Bible. Some of these changes reflect a negative estimation of the character in the eyes of the writer. A striking example of this phenomenon is to be found in the name Jezebel as that name is explained by Leah Bronner. Miss Bronner takes the name lbzyx to be an abbreviation of lbzybx, meaning "my divine father is a prince." She writes, "the name would then be a most fitting
revelent l'existence d'un c en ouest-semitique. Le premier element: Bil, pourrait etre rapproche de Ba'al avec une vocalisation qui revelerait son oriyine mesopotamienne." "Les oracles de Bilecam et la mantique sumero- accadienne," Ecole des Lancues Orientales Anciennes de l'Institute Catho-
Grey, Travaux de l'Institute Catholique de Paris, 19G4), p. 38. Hence, Largemcnt connects the elements Bacal and cAmmu.
Present chapter; it is, noted here in anticipation of later demonstration. 2 Connotation refers to "the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in a addition to the explicit or primary meaning;" cf. deno- tation, RHDEL, pp. 311, 386. 144
appellation for a daughter of a king. The Biblical writer, however, intention- ally shortened lbzybx to lbzyx in order to mock the fanatical queen, who highly unpopular in Israel." The writer transformed the name to the taunting nickname, "un-exalted."1 The present writer suggests, therefore, that something similar may have happened with the name of the diviner in the Book of Numbers. The name Balaam, may have denoted honor in the homeland of the diviner, but it was deliberately transformed by the writer of our text to indicate a perjurious view of him. The present writer is impressed with the philological data of Albright, et al., but he is also impressed with the exegetical data of Heng- stenberg, et al. Due importance, it would seem, must be given to the play on words in Revelation 2. Bush amplifies this argument: This import of the name [ "destroyer of the people"] is confirmed by Rev. 2:6, 14, 15;, where mention is made of the Nicolaitans as holding the same doctrines with the Balaamites, and Nicolaitans is a name signifying etymologically conquerors or destroyers of the people. There is no evidence from Church history of the existence of any such heretical sect as the Nicolaitans, and therefore there need be no hesitation in taking the denomination mystically or sym- bolically as denoting false teachers of a certain type, just as the name of Jezebel occurs, Rev. 2:20, not as a historical but as a symbolical designation. It is used simply to denote a class of persons who inculcated the most abominable doctrines, and therefore were fitly denominated by the name of a woman who had proved the vilest 1 Leah Bronner, The Stories of Elijah and Elisha as Polemics Against Baal Worship, "Pretoria Oriental Series, " Vol. VI, ed. A. Van Selms (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), pp. 9-10. The author takes the element yx as a negation which occurs in Phoenician inscriptions. Compare DISO, p. 11. 145
and most detestable of her sex.1 In summary: Whereas the name Balaam in its original form may have, meant "the (divine) uncle brings forth" (a la Albright); the name appears in the Hebrew text with the suggestion "the destroyer of the people." This appears to be an example of deliberate polemics against this disreputable figure, and it was so understood in the Talmud.2 The Name Beor The name of Balaam's father may mean "torch" or "burning" from the root rfb.3 Albright suggests that the name in our text is another
(New York: Ivison & Phinney, 1858), pp. 339-40. Kuhn strongly asserts the contrary. Respecting the Nicolaitans he insists that the sect is "cer- tainly based on a Nikolaoj as the founder of the sect, since the name cannot be understood in terms of popular etymology as a transl. of Mflb Mf flB ('devourer of the people, ' bSanh., 105a)." Karl Georg Kuhn, “Balaam," TDNT, I A-G, 525, n. 10. Bush is perhaps too strong in his insistence on a symbolic sense of the term Nicolaitans, but it remains true that if "Nicolaus" was the founder of the sect, as some fathers believed, he is otherwise unknown. Compare John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), p. 58; AGL, p. 541. A connection between the supposed "Nicolaus" of Revelation 2:14 and the Nicolaus of Acts 6:5 seems rather tenuous at best See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (8 vols.; 5th ed.; reprint; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), II, 464.
2 See above, p. 46. 3 So BDB, p. 129; Guyot, "The Prophecy of Balaam, " p. 332; Keil, The Pentateuch, III, 159. 146 abbreviated form of an Aramaic name. He states the original form was Bacal- ram.1 If this view prevails, it will still be true that in the present spelling the Hebrew word suggests "torch" or "burning. " Largement says that he is tempted to try to relate the name Beor with the term baru, a word signifying “diviner” [on which, consult the discussion below]. He admits, however, that the philology does not favor this view.2 One difficulty concerning the word Beor is to be found in the New Testament citation of the name. Whereas the LXX reads balaam ui[o>n Bewr In Numbers 22:5, II Peter reads Balaa>m tou? Boso seem to be an explanation fully satisfactory. Bigg gives two suggestions mentioned by Vitringa.4 One view is that the word Bosor might be a Galilean form of Beor.5 A second explanation is that the form Bosor is a paronomasia
178-84.
3 The reading Boso conjectures that Sinaiticus may have read tou? Bew>r o$j, but that the words were illegible to the scribe; hence he "did the best he could with them." He adds, "the name Bosor does not exist. It will be observed that no single MS has the right reading tou? Bew>r o$j." Charles Bigg, A Critical and Exegetical Commnetary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, ICC, (2d ed, ; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1902), pp. 212-13. 4 Ibid , pp. 283-84. 5 The some view is given, with some doubt, by J. B. Mayor, "Notes on the Text of the Second Epistle of Peter, " Expos. , 6th series, X (1904), 290, A similar viewpoint is espoused by Fronmuler as well. He 147
from rWABA, "flesh. " Hence, "son of Bosor" might mean "son of flesh." Bigg comments: Such plays upon the names of people, who for one reason or another were hated by them, are known to have been not uncommon among the Rabbis. But there appears to be no trace of this particular scorn- name, Bosor. Otherwise we might possibly have found here another reference to Jewish tradition in 2 Peter.1 Hence, the New Testament citation of the name Beor remains something of a difficulty. Neither of the two proffered explanations seems satisfying on the basis of present evidence. The Name Balak The king of Moab is named Balak [ qlABA ] a word evidently meaning "devastator."2 It does not appear to be demonstrable on the basis of present evidence that this name is an, abbreviation from a more "positive" concept. As the name stands in our text, however, it appears to be some- what ironic. He who is termed "the devastator" is sickened with fear at the presence of Israel (Num. 22:2-4). His attempts to defeat Israel through supernatural powers come to naught. Throughout the Balaam narrative, Balak status that "some grammarians maintain that in the Babylonian pronunciation the f was a kind of sibilant." G. F. C. Fronmuller, "The Epistles General of Peter, " trans. by J. Isidor Mombert, Commentary on the Holy Scriptures:
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960), p. 34. 1 Bigg, The Epistles of St. Peter, pp. 283-84. 2 So BDB, p. 118; Snaith, Century Bible, p. 286; Edelkoort, Numeri, p. 170. His fattier is named rvpc "bird," "sparrow, " cf. BDB, p. 862. 148
seems to be a rather second--rate figure At each successive "curse," Balak becomes more enraged and more helpless. At one point he was so angry he struck his hands together in rage (Num. 24:10). Even when he attempted to dismiss Balaam, he was powerless to stop the final blessings of Israel and the cursings of the nations. Thus it is at the end of our story that Balak, the would-be "devastator," leaves in stunned silence. "Devastator" indeed! It may well be that the use of name in our account is another example of subtle polemics. One may cite with Martin1 examples of the utter contempt with which Balak was held by later Israel. One example is to be found in an address by Jephthah to the king of Ammon: And now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them? [Judges 11:25, N. A. S. B.] Here we see a deliberate statement of studied contempt for the one whose name means "devastator. " He was unable to devastate Israel! Summary In view, then, of the significance of names in the ancient Near East, it is important for our study to ascertain, if possible, the meaning of the several names in our story. As for the name Balaam, we may disregard with confidence the alleged equation of Balaam and Bela. There is still some
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question, however, as to the precise significance of his name. However, whatever his name may have been in his homeland, his name has a connotation in Hebrew that may be the result of a polemical thrust. The name Balaam as well as the name Balak may be expressions of contempt and judgment on the part of the writer of our story. These two figures represent a studied attack on the people of Yahweh, and--because of the relationship of this nation to her God--such constituted an attack on the person of Yahweh Him- self. The "destroyer of the people" and the "devastator" are both powerless when they confront the God of Israel.
Having discussed the meaning of the name Balaam, we may now direct our attention to the vexing problem of the identification of his homeland. There are two verses in our pericope which are crucial to an understanding of this issue. The first is Numbers 22:5a: rOfB;-NB, MfAl;Bi-lx, MykixAl;ma Hlaw;y.iva Om.fa yneB; Cr,x, rhAn.Aha-lfa rw,xE hrAOtP; So he sent messenger to Balaam the son of Beer at Pethor, which is near the River, in the land of the sons of his people. [N.A.S.B.] The second is the initial couplet of the first verse in the Balaam oracles, Num- bers 23:7b: 150 rmaxyo.va OlwAm; xWAyi.va qlAbA yniHen;ya MrAxE-Nmi Md,q,-yrer;hame bxAOm-j`l,m, And he took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, Moan's king from the mountains of the East, [N.AS.B.] In these two verses there are several geographical terms which must be explained. The traditional critical approach, crystallized by Well- hausen, was to regard these several geographical data as irreconcilable.1 In Chapter III of the present study there was a presentation of a number of diverse schemata, varied attempts at reconstruction of what was thought to be a "confused narrative." For Noth, for instance, the data are so discordant that he is able to state, "the Balaam story is obviously not a unified whole."2 If, however, one is to take a harmonistic approach, Noth's conclusion is not "obvious" at all. When one approaches the data of our text apart from negative prejudice, the places may be seen to fit together quite nicely. The atomizing approach of the critics led to unsatisfying and unscientific results. The results may be said to be "unsatisfying" in that the arguments of one critic fail to impress another critic, and certainly leave no positive impression among the conservative reader of the text. The results 1 See Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel, preface by W. Robertson Smith (First pub. in 1678; Meridian Books; Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1957), pp. 356-57. 2 Marlin Noth, Numbers: A Commentary, trans. by James Martin, “The Old Testament Library," ed. G. Ernest Wright, et al. (Philadelphia: The Press, 1968), p. 171. 151
may be said to be "unscientific" in that the various critical approaches do not begin with an explanation of the text as it stands, but rather begin with a rewriting of the text on the basis of subjective presuppositions. These observations seem particularly fitting when we turn to the issue of the home- land of Balaam. So diverse have the suggestions been for his homeland, that one is left with the impression that the only point of agreement among the several critical scholars is that Balaam was not a native of Israel! He has been called the following: (1) an Edomite,1 (2) a Moabite,2 (3) an Ammonite,3
who change "Aram" in 22:7 to "Edom" [Mrx to Mdx]. A sampling of the proponents of this view includes Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testa-
Wright, et al. (2 vols.; Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961, 1967), 1, 297; James Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934), pp. 41, 170-71; Wilhelm Vischer, The Witness of the Old Testament to Christ, Vol. I. The Pentateuch, trans. by A. B. Crab- tree (London: Lutterworth Press, 1950), p. 233; and (the early) William Fox- well Albright, "The Home of Balaam, " JAOS, XXXV (1915), 389.
was presented by Theodore H. Robinson. He wrote: "Balaam is a genuine ecstatic, but he is not an Israelite, and probably comes from the settled agricultural country of Moab." Prophecy and the Prophets in Ancient Israel (London: Duckworth, 1923), p. 34.
NOm.fa ynb Crx in some Hebrew manuscripts [14 are cited by BHK; the BHS fascicle on Numbers has not been issued at the time of this writing], SP, Syr, Vulg. Hence, e. g., Lamsa's English translation of the Peshitta reads “Ammon.” 152
(4) a Musrite,1 (5) a Hittite,2 and a North-Syrian.3 In order to make an evaluation of these several viewpoints, it is necessary to turn to the two passages cited above, Numbers 22:5a and Number 23:7b, and to examine the several geographical data in these texts. The Identity of "The River" Numbers 22:5 reads, in part, rhAn.Aha-lfa rw,xE hrAOtP;, “to Pethor which is by the River." Before seeking to identify Pethor, one may seek to determine the meaning of the term the River. Against Cheyne, who suggested that this term refers to "the River of Musri,"4 most scholars identify the river designated in our verse to be the River Euphrates. There are biblical passages in which the word Euphrates is used to refer to that river. One example may be cited: 1 Cheyne suggested changing the word hrAOtP; in Numbers 22:5 to tboOhr;; he thus read the "E" section of the verse as follows: "And he sent messengers to Balaam, son of Beor (more probably Achbor), to Rehoboth, which is by the River [of Musri].” Further, he argued that it was through "historical ignorance" that "Musri" dropped from the text. T. K. Cheyne, "Some Critical Difficulties in the Chapters on Balaam, " ET, X (1898-99), 401-402. 2 This unique viewpoint was stated by A. H. Sayce, who suggested that Balaam, was from a Hittite city named Pethor, and that he might have then migrated to Edom as a Hittite chieftain and subsequently founded a kingdom there. "Recant Biblical and Oriental Archaeology: Who Was Balaam?" ET, XV (1903-1904), 405.
Albright [see n. 1 on the preceding page], "Oracles," p. 233. Contrast J. Halevy who argued many years ago that Balaam was from the area of Damascus. "Reserches Bibliques: Patrie de Balaam, " RS, II (1894), 201-209. 4 Cf. n. 1, above. 153
In that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying: To your seed I give this land, from the River of Egypt, to the Great River, the River Euphrates [rhAn.Aha df :trAP;-rhan; ldoGAha Genesis 15:18].1 There are other passages where the noun rhn is used apart from other qualifying adjective or proper noun, yet where the meaning “Euphrates” is evident from the context. In some of these cases, the word rhn is definite. Two examples may be given. And Jacob "stole the heart" of Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him that he was fleeing. So he fled with all that he had; he rose and crossed the [ Euphrates ] River [rhnh] and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead [Genesis 31:20-21]. And I will establish your boundary, from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the Wilderness to the River [Euphrates] [rhnh]; for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand [Exodus 23:31]. There are also passages in which the noun rhn is indefinite, but wherein the meaning "Euphrates" is evident from context.3 The most 1 Compare also Gen. 2:14; Deut. 1:7; 11:24; Josh. 1:4, etc. 2 Cf. Josh. 24:2, 3, 14, 15; II Chron. 9:26. On the trans- lation of Jvs My by "Sea of Reeds, " see most recently William F. Stine- spring, "Some Remarks on the New English Bible," Understanding the Sacred
Further, rhn may mean "the Nile River" in Isa. 19:5. Cf. BDB,. p. 625. The literary-critical issue of "The River" as against "The River Euphrates" will not he discussed at this point, though George Adam Smith regarded this as one of the "small symptoms, which geography supplies, of the truth of the critical conclusions as to the Gate of the Hexateuchal docu- ments." George Adam Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the
University" (2d ed.; New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1901), p. 69. 154 natural interpretation of the words in question in Numbers 22:5 would then be “to Pethor which is by the River [Euphrates].” Further, this meaning agrees with the parallel text, Deuteronomy 23:5 [Eng. , v. 4] where Pethor is located in Mesopotamia [Myrhn Mrx]. Pethor, then, is to be located in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. The Location of "Pethor" Turning now to the meaning of the Hebrew term rvtp, it may be observed that this word was misunderstood in the ancient versions. The LXX rendered faqoura, rendering the Hebrew hrvtp of Numbers 22:5 as a single word, rather than as the name of a city with a directive he ending.1 In the Vulgate the term was taken as a personal appellative, ariolum, "sooth- Directory: ted hildebrandt -> otesources otesources -> Ancient Ecologies and the Biblical Perspective otesources -> The rhetoric of the father otesources -> God's Perspective on Man otesources -> Mythopoetic language in the psalms otesources -> Wilfried warning ted hildebrandt -> History of the rise of the huguenots ted hildebrandt -> Dasv: Digital American Standard Version dasv: Revelation 1 ted hildebrandt -> Illustrations otesources -> The Treasury of David by Download 3.14 Mb. Share with your friends:
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