Summarizing Samaria

Impression Report 5

Ephraim and Manasseh

Andrew Sharp

9/29/13
[Edits and additions in brackets by Alana.]

            First the fortress temple at Shechem. Namely Shechem the town / fortress /  rubble heap. Kinda got built and destroyed a bunch. Built in a valley. Not exactly standing to this day. Mentioned how Abraham went to “the place of Shechem” and that maybe(likely?) it was destroyed at the time of his visit, a pile of rubble and ruins. Quite likely true if you have a conservative date for Abraham, then his visit lies in a period of time that the location was thought to be abandoned according to archaeological work.

            The place got beat up a lot. After all Shechem lies in the more northern reaches of the Promised Land, the section that was quite more traveled. Being near major routes was great for commerce, but made the keeping of the funds it generated, nearly impossible. Why? Because every time a nation went on the war path (literally) it didn't look like a real bad option to go loot Shechem, because after all, this “mouse hole” of a land wasn't as hard to defeat as major nations like Egypt or Syria, so why not just go ransack the Levant and loot it?

            Next we talked about how Jacob went to Shechem and how his kids kinda screwed things up and how Jacob did too, and how social conventions of the day made things a bit more complicated to understand than the text explains. How dads kind of need to be men and lead rather than ignore and overlook problems in the family. Kind of a running theme between the events at Shechem for Jacob and the events surrounding the rape of Tamar in the time of king David.

            To let a woman in your household be dishonored or damaged is to take dishonor to your family's name, and something must be done to fix that. Neither Jacob nor David did. They seemed to overlook the issue. Jacob's sons didn't. They told the “rapist” (even if perhaps it was consensual sex, because the term translated “rape” here also means “to dishonor her” so we can't be sure it was rape) that if he didn't get circumcised, along with all of the town, then Shechem (the man) could not have their sister in marriage. They then used their time of healing to slaughter all of them to redeem their sister's honor (whether she wanted it or not). Not too long after, seeing that dad has been no help and isn't taking his “head of household” job seriously, [Rueben] sleeps with his dad's concubine so as to raise himself up as the oldest and “take the job” so to speak. Humans are nuts.

            After that lovely piece of information we discussed Joshua and his building an altar to God in Mount Ebal. Which is next to Shechem, opposite Mount Gerezim. The whole place is actually laid out in such a fashion that to the east things go down into a bit of a valley, and to the north, south, are the two mountains and to the west things are kind of hilly. Shaped almost like a culdesac. Which makes sense and is perfect for the story of how the Israelites stood on both mountains and spoke curses and blessings to the people from them. They aren't far from each other, and it's not unlikely that in more rural times, (like at the time of the story) you could probably hear someone speaking loudly from the base of one mountain, and hear another person in reply on the other.

            We discussed Rehoboam  and his going to Shechem to be crowned king of Israel. That this location was often chosen for [corronations?]

           We went to Jacob's well. Drank well water. Tasted welly. Talked about how in John 4 when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well, it was likely this well, and that it was and is quite deep. Like 30 feet wouldn't likely be an exaggeration.

           






Then we went to Samaria[/Sebaste]. Home of the Samaritans [edit: technically, modern day Samaritans live on Mount Gerizim, where we also visited, and on the outskirts of Tel-Aviv.  Samaria/Sebaste was the capital of Omri and Ahab's kingdom...and was also later built up by Herod the Great], go fig. North west of Shechem. Great view. Had lunch. Took pictures in wedding dining room thingy at restaurant.

  

            Went to Shiloh. Saw some pretty cool mosaics, but didn't quite make time to go see them up close. Stood in the approximate location the tabernacle may have stood in Shiloh. Why would Shiloh be a good place to choose for your cultic center?

Andrew makes his way up the hill from a possible location of the Tabernacle below.  

[I would just like to add this picture of a wolf on a bicycle.  These things are all over Shiloh for some reason.... I suppose they're pointing out biking trails, but really, why a wolf?  One of the worst nightmares I remember as a child involved wolves on bicycles...and no, I'm not joking.  So, I guess, in some way, these signs are a dream come true?]