BRIEF NOTE: Yesterday I read some comments by @DrPJWilliams on the prodigal son and, later, read Daniel 4.
I couldn’t help but be struck by certain similarities between Nebuchadnezzar and the prodigal son.
Both men end up in far countries.
Both men hence lose their riches/inheritance.
Both men share a diet with animals (or at least try).
Both men later/eventually ‘come to their senses’ (cp. Dan. 4.34).
In both stories, ‘heaven’ functions as shorthand for ‘God’ (cp. 4.26)--a phenomenon perhaps unique to these two stories (?).
And, in both cases, conversion is not well received by those ‘already at home’:
for instance, contra the actual text of Dan. 4.19, one midrash has Daniel declare, ‘My Lord (God), let the dream be fulfilled *against* Nebuchadnezzar, your enemy!’.
Not sure quite what if anything follows from these observations.
Suggestions welcome.
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Joseph is a well known type/picture of Christ, so it’s natural for us (as Christians) to want us to map his experiences directly onto Jesus’s, all of which is well and good…
…But we can learn a great deal from a contemplation of Joseph’s life in its original (OT) context. For a start, let’s have a think about Genesis’s general flow.
As the book unfolds, God chooses out a line of promise. One by one its offshoots are peeled away as the story zooms in God’s chosen people (Israel).
The text of Mark 2.26 has caused quite a few folk quite a few problems.
Jesus seems to have thought David took the showbread from the sanctuary when Abiathar was the high priest, but the text of Samuel suggests he did it on Abimelech’s watch.
What’s gone wrong here?
Well, first of all, we need to consider a couple of relevant historical questions.
Question #1: Did Abiathar ever hold the office of high priest?
Well, we’re told three main things about him in his prophecies’ first two verses:
🔹 he was a priest;
🔹 he lived in Anathoth; and
🔹 he was the son of a certain Hilkiah.
Below, we’ll consider these facts in a bit more detail.
Let’s start with Anathoth.
Anathoth wasn’t just any old city; it was a highly significant one.
It was allotted to the line of Aaron, i.e., the line of Israel’s high priest (Josh. 21.13ff.).
As a result, it was where Eli lived.
That’s why when Solomon deposed Abiathar the priest—who was the son of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli (I Sam. 14.3, 22.9ff., 22.20, 23.6, 30.7)—, he sent him back to ‘his estate’ in Anathoth (I Kgs. 2.26–27).