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Cited by 0Biblical Studies and InterpretationNarrative Theory and AnalysisClassical Studies and Philology

Genesis by the Numbers: A Reassessment of the Years of the Patriarchs, Beginning with the Joseph Story

Driver, Daniel R.·2019·Journal of the Bible and its Reception
DOI 10.1515/jbr-2019-1003
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Abstract

Do the numbers of years in Genesis add up? Biblical scholars have learned to attend to the art of biblical narrative. Is there also an art of biblical numbers? If so, could its rediscovery lead to a better understanding of the contours of the biblical text, and its complex meanings, as well as its reception history prior to the Enlightenment? This article’s provisional answer to these questions is yes. It looks at two key numbers associated with the Joseph Story: a span of twenty-two years, which a variety of readers calculate as the time that Joseph lived away from his family in Egypt; and a double span of seventeen years, which the Bible suggests is the length of time that Joseph lived under his father’s protection in Canaan, and that Jacob in turn lived under his son’s care in Egypt. The study finds that, since Spinoza, modern assessments of these numbers have been constrained by a strongly linear view of time, as may be seen in the work of Robert Alter, among many others. It criticizes linear time as reductive insofar as it flattens the numbers of Genesis into chronologies and timelines. It also draws attention to an aspect of figural time, which it describes as symmetrically folded time, to help characterize the non-linear, isotropic way that numbers seem to behave in the Bible and in the Bible’s pre-modern reception. The findings about figural time in the Joseph Story raise significant questions about the compatibility of narrative, literary-critical, and theological approaches to the time-denominated numbers of Genesis.

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Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Davidson, Robert. 1979. Genesis 12–50. CBC (Cambridge Bible Commentary). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Dillmann, August. 1897. Genesis, Critically and Exegetically Expounded, vol. 2. Translated by William B. Stevenson. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
  3. Gunkel, Hermann. 1997. Genesis: Translated and Interpreted. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press.
  4. Spinoza, Benedict de. 2007. Theological-Political Treatise. Translated by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Ussher, James. 1658. The Annals of the World: Deduced from The Origin of Time, and continued to the beginning of the Emperor Vespasian’s Reign, and the totall Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Common-wealth of the Jews. London: Tyler, Crook, and Bedell.
  6. Ussher, James. 2003. Larry Pierce and Marion Pierce, eds. The Annals of the World. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.

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Authors
Driver, D. R.
Affiliations
Atlantic School of Theology (CA)
Corresponding author
Driver, Daniel R.
ORCID
Driver, Daniel R.
Venue
Journal of the Bible and its Reception
Publisher
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Published
2019-04-01
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
67-95
ISSN
  • 2329-440X (ISSN-L)
  • 2329-4434
DOI
10.1515/jbr-2019-1003
OpenAlex
W2944601576
Semantic Scholar
a7335355343692da2616cdb8b72b41b0c573b5f7
Cited by
0
References
34
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of the Bible and its Reception (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
Keywords
Genesis, Joseph Story, biblical numbers, linear time, Spinoza, Robert Alter, reception history, Jacob, Joseph, biblical narrative

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