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

Myths of the Heroes 273
named Ahijah, from Shiloh, tore his coat into twelve pieces and gave ten strips to Jeroboam.
This, he told the recipient, was a sign that God would take ten tribes away
from the house of Solomon and give them to Jeroboam, and that Solomon’s heirs
would be left with one tribe.
We noted in Myth #63 the confusion over the tribal division here. The implicit
idea was that Judah had one tribe and Israel had the rest. But Jerusalem, the capitol of
Judah, was located in the territory of Benjamin. So there was confusion over whether
the split should have been 10–2 or 11–1, a confusion that we will see repeated.
When Solomon died, Jeroboam led the Israelites out of the confederation with
Judah and established two religious centers, one at each end of the country, in Ephraim
and in Dan, and placed images of a golden calf in each.
Jeroboam’s revolt had the encouragement of the priesthood in Shiloh, a cult center
where the Ark of the Covenant had resided in the pre-monarchical period. David
transferred the Ark to Jerusalem and political and religious rivalry broke out among
various priestly factions. The northern priesthood, as indicated by Samuel’s diatribes
against kingship before he anointed Saul, had a strong antipathy to the institution of
kingship. It believed in priestly guidance as the basis of moral authority.
The break with Judah gave Shiloh the opportunity to reassert its religious authority
over Israel and resume its position of primacy within Israelite affairs. Jeroboam,
however, was not an especially religious figure. He only concerned himself with the
religious issues to the extent it affected his ability to keep Israel divided from Judah.
Eventually, Jeroboam declared that anyone who wanted to be a priest could become one.
After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest
of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and
he became one of the priests of the high places. (1 Kings 13:33)
This did not sit well with the Shilohites. It undercut their authority and diminished
the importance of their cult center. Jeroboam had become the enemy.
This is the historical background for the story of Micah. Micah stole eleven hundred
pieces of silver. When he returned the silver, two hundred pieces were converted
into graven images and sanctuaries were set up first in Ephraim and then in Dan. The
key metaphors concern the silver.