101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

162
yth #64:
Reuben was Jacob’s oldest son.
The Myth: And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into
Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. (Gen. 46:8)
The Reality: Reuben was called Jacob’s firstborn because that territory was where
Israel first settled after the Exodus.
As we saw in the discussion of Myth #63, tribal territories were not named after
the sons of Jacob. The names reflected existing land designations and as the territories
evolved into a political union, mythological ancestries developed. The identification of
territories with eponymous ancestors was a common practice in ancient times. The
Table of Nations in Genesis 10 shows that the practice continued well into the first
millennium B.C.
As ancestors came to be identified with territories, historical events affecting that
territory and its neighbors came to be identified as human interactions. The conquest
of a city might be described as a marriage between members of the royal family from
each city. A vassal kingdom might be described as a son of the domineering state.
This practice often led to confusion and such was common in the Bible. Consider,
for instance, how the Bible portrayed the territory of Gilead as both an existing entity
prior to the birth of the twelve tribes and as a descendant of a son of one of the twelve
tribes that conquered the territory.
The identification of Reuben as Israel’s first son illustrates one way in which such
mythologies developed. Genesis depicts Reuben as the first born son of Jacob. Therefore,
it should not be surprising that when we look at the political history of Reuben in
relation to the larger group, we find that Reuben was the first territory to be settled by
the Israelites.
When Israel came out of Egypt and circled around to Canaan, it first went through
Jordan. The southernmost Israelite territory in Jordan was Reuben, hence, poetically,
Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. The poetic metaphor became the biblical fact.