Puns, Politics, and Perushim in the Jacob Cycle: A Case Study in Teaching the English Hebrew Bible

Volume 9, No.3 Spring 1991 103 PUNS, POLITICS, AND PERUSHIM IN THE JACOB CYCLE: A CASE STUDY IN TEACHING THE ENGLISH HEBREW BIBLE Marvin A. Sweeney Marvin A. Sweeney is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. During 1989-90, he was a Yad HanadivIBarecha Foundation Visiting Fellow in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Isaiah 1-4 and the Post-Exilic Understanding of the Isaianic Tradition (1988). Dedicated to the blessed memory ofmy teacher, Rabbi1. Jerome Pine, Ph.D., ofDecatur, Illinois I "Why should I learn Hebrew? The Bible has already been translated into English. Isn't that good enough?" How many times have you heard this from undergraduate students in your introductory Bible courses? In fact, this question applies not only to Bible but to the entire range of Jewish literature that is now available in English translation. But the reality of our situation is that although we as Judaica scholars are relatively well-trained in Hebrew and the other languages in which Jewish literature is written, our undergraduate courses are by and large taught to students who read Jewish texts in translation. We may also teach a growing number of language courses in Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, etc., but by the time most of our undergraduate students develop the expertise to benefit fully from reading Jewish texts in their original languages, they are about ready to graduate. Nevertheless, the undergraduate college or university is where many of our students find the opportunity to study Jewish languages. It is therefore up to us to encourage them to make use of this opportunity by demonstrating the importance of understanding Hebrew from the first survey course based on translated texts. Puns are an ideal tool for demonstrating the importance of understanding Hebrew because they depend on sound associations between 104 SHOFAR different words to make their point. The problem is, no matter how clever, meaningful, or hilarious the pun, the point is entirely lost when it is translated into another language. The Hebrew Bible is full of them. Everybody knows, for example, that Abram means "great father" or that Eve means "life," but commentators do little more than note the presence of these word plays in their discussion of the text. Although some systematic investigation of puns in the Hebrew Bible has already been carried out,l interpreters for the most part treat them as witty asides that have only marginal relevance to the overall interpretation of the text at hand. But puns can often have a larger interpretative significance. In his study of the puns employed in the narratives concerning Joseph at the fountain (Gen 49:22) and Jacob at the ford (Gen 32:23-33), Gevirtz points to such interpretative significance by demonstrating their "geo-political" function. That is, Gen 49:22 associates the house of Joseph with the region of Beer Sheba on the basis of a pun which associates the word 'Sur, "fountain," with the Wilderness of Shur where Hagar found water in the wilderness. Likewise, the gid hanna.reh, "sinew of the hip," in Gen 32:32 associates Jacob with the tribes of Gad and Manasseh east of the Jordan River. Although such "geo-political" concerns are always acknowledged, especially in relation to the Jacob cycle (Gen 25-35) which focuses on Jacobi Esau, and Laban as the eponymous ancestors of Israel, Edom, and Aram, most commentators tend to emphasize the interpersonal or interfamilial issues or issues pertaining to ancient near eastern background or literary growth in their interpretations of these narratives.3 But the etiological l See S. Gevirtz, "Of Patriarchs and Puns: Joseph at the Fountain, Jacob at the Ford," Hebrew Union College Annual 46 (1975), p. 33, n. 1, and Y. Zakovitch, "Explicit and Implicit Name Derivations," Hebrew Annual Review 4 (1980), pp. 167-181; cf. B. O. Long, The Problem ofEtiological Narrative in the Old Testament, BZAW 108 (Berlin: A. Topelmann, 1972). 2E.g., N. Sarna, Understanding Genesis: The Heritage ofBiblical Israel (New York: Schocken, 1966) and J. G. Gammie, "Theological Interpretation By Way of Literary and Tradition Analysis: Genesis 25-36," in Encounter with...