Restoration Quarterly 23 (1980) 27-35.
Copyright © 1980 Restoration
Quarterly. Cited with permission.
Haggo'el: The Cultural
Gyroscope of
Ancient
Hebrew Society
MICHAEL S. MOORE
Preliminary Lexical Considerations
Some lexicographers divide the
meaning of ga'al
into two concepts.
Koehler
and Baumgartner1 and Gesenius2 assign two separate
meanings
to the word. The first centers around the idea of
"redemption"; the
second, around the concept of "defilement,"
suggesting a possible
affinity with ga'al, "to reproach or
rebuke."
Others claim to see a single root
meaning,3 a meaning which cor-
responds to its usage in the Hebrew Old
Testament, i.e., "to cover,
or protect." To illustrate, in Ruth 3:9 Ruth
asks Boaz to spread
(parash)
his wings over her, for "you are go’el." That is, Boaz was the
young widow's protector. He had already used this
protection idiom by
assuring her that the God of Israel, the God to
whom she had come for
refuge in
would illustrate a positive usage of this basic root,
"to cover."
In the Old Testament, however, one
can be covered with all sorts of
things, good or bad. Whereas Ruth was covered with the
wings of her
protector (go'el), Job uses the term to lament the day upon which he
was born:
Let that day be darkness. May God above not seek
it, nor light shine upon it.
Let
gloom and deep darkness claim it (yig'aluhu). (Job 3:4, 5, RSV)
G.
Beer further suggests, "ga'al=ga'al, cf. Mal 1, 7," a passage in
which Malachi spoke about polluted food on the altar
of God. Here
1 Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti
Libros, 1953 ed., S.v.
"ga'al,"
by L. Koehler and
W.
Baumgartner.
2 Handworterbuch uber das Alte Testament, 1853 ed.,
s. Y. "ga'al,"
by Gesenius.
3 Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Jerushalmi, and the Midrashic
Literature, 1950 ed., s.v. "ga'al," by Marcus Jastrow.
27
28
Restoration
Quarterly
again ga'al is the term used (lehem mego'al).4
The Job passage has been a thorny problem
for translators. The RV,
following LXX, Theodotian,
and Symmachus, translates yig’aluhu
"claim it for their own." Can this be the meaning? Can
gloom and
deep darkness even metaphorically reclaim the day of
Job's birth?
Perhaps. On the other hand, the AV, following
Targumim, translates the phrase ". . . let
darkness and the shadow on
death stain it." This choice, however,
disregards the context. Job
wants the clouds, darkness, and gloom to blot out the
light God was to
shine upon the day of his birth, not stain it.
Johnson's view may shed light on the
problem. Following the
Peshitta Syriac and
Latin Vulgate, he translates ". . . let darkness, let
utter blackness cover it."5 In sum,
Johnson would define go'al thus:
Qal- "to protect;" Niphal-
"to be protected," later coming to mean
in negative contexts "to be covered over; to
be coated"; then Piel-
"to coat something intensively, pollute, desecrate"; Hithpael- "to
stain."6
The argument for one root meaning
for ga'al
is interesting, if not
conclusive. It deserves consideration from a
lexical standpoint, even if
such consideration leads one to conclude no more
than that such an
argument proves more palatable than the various
attempts which have
been made to link ga'al with ga’al. Ringgren
concludes: "It seems better
to begin with actual linguistic usuage than to postulate an original
meaning."7
Go'el in the Old
Testament
Several models have been proposed to
break down the meanings of
this word by its various contexts in the Old
Testament. Ringgren
suggests it should be examined in the two broad
categories of secular
usage and religious, figurative usage.8 Lieber deduces five basic activities
of the go'el in the Old Testament:
(1) He acquires the alienated
property of a kinsman (Lev. 25:25)
4 Biblia Hebraica, 7th ed., edited by R. Kittel (
1973), p. 1108, nt. 5a.
5 A. R. Johnson,
"The Primary Meaning of ga'al," Supplement
to Vetus Testamentum
1
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1953): 73. Cf. also R. de Vaux, Ancient
Institutions, trans. by J. McHugh
(New York: McGraw-Hill 1961), p. 21: ". . . funda-
mentally its meaning is 'to protect.'"
6 Johnson,
op. cit., pp. 73, 74.
7 Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament,
1974 ed., s.v. "ga'al," by H. Ringgren.
8 Ibid.,
pp. 350-355.
The Cultural Gyroscope 29
(2) He purchases property when it is
in danger of being lost to a stranger
(Jer. 32:6ff.)
(3) He is morally, if not legally,
obligated to support the widow of his next-
of-kin in
the event of her becoming dependent on this estate for her
livelihood
(Ruth 4:4ff.)
(4) He redeems a clansman who has
been reduced to slavery by poverty
(Lev. 25:47ff.)
(5) He avenges blood when it has
been shed (Num. 35:17ff.).
Spiritual
Equilibrium
Leviticus 25 is the usual starting
point in discussions concerning the
meaning of ga'al.10
Predictably, all the legal material which deals with
the duties of the go'el is predicated by
is done,
Yahweh's
chosen people (25:17, 20ff.). Yahweh owns the land;
merely sojourns there (25:23). This land ('eres) is to
be treated as a
ge’ullah by
In the book of
In
Isaiah 41:14; 43:14; 44:6 and 24, the writer refers to Yahweh as
restoring, and bringing
with himself.11a This spiritual
relationship was foundational to the
Israelite's
social and economic existence.12
Luzbetak
defines equilibrium thus:
a state of balance. ..a feeling of "well-being" characterized by an
over-all steadi-
9 Encyclopedia Judaica, 1971 ed., s.v.
"Redemption," by D. L. Lieber.
10 0ne has to decide
however, if the Leviticus material is a compilation of ancient or
contemporary laws. In addition,
one's concept of the relative personality or impersonality
of Yahweh enters the picture here.
11 The inclusion of all
these elements, land, cult, clan, and security, led H. C. Brichto
to
conclude that these elements make up a Biblical
complex (an anthropological technical
term), "Kin, Cult, Land, and Afterlife--A
Biblical Complex,"
Annual 44 (1973): 1-54.
11a On
Job
N.Y.:
Doubleday, 1973), p. 146: "It is not clear here whether Job has in mind a
human
agent who will act as his vindicator. The strongest
point in favor of taking the vindicator
and guarantor as God is the specific reference to
seeing God in 26b. . . . The application
of the term go'el to God in this context is
questionable since elsewhere in Job's
complaint it is God himself who is Job's adversary
rather than defender."
13 Brichto,
op. cit., p. 23: "Death does not
constitute dissolution but rather a transition
to another kind of existence, an afterlife in the
shadowy realm of Sheol. The condition
of the dead in this afterlife is, in a vague but
significant way, connected with proper
burial upon the ancestral land and with the continuation
on that land of the dead's
proper progeny." In Brichto's
schema, then, the go'el
"was not merely a close-kinsman
obligated to blood-vengeance or privileged to
redeem property. The go'el
is he who
redeems the dead from the danger to his
afterlife by continuing his line," p. 21.
30 Restoration
Quarterly
ness in the
culture, a high morale, self-confidence, and a sense of security.13
One
feels justified in using this technical term for several reasons, but
it is not the purpose here to enter into an extended
anthropological
analysis of ancient Hebrew society. This paper is primarily a philological
study of the meaning of a particular word and its
usage in the Old
Testament literature. Luzbetak is an
anthropologist and “equilibrium”
is an anthropological term, yet the overall
usefulness of this term
ought to be evident after further inspection. “Equilibrium” incorporates
the many analogous meanings attested by a solid
consensus of Biblical
scholarship on the matter.
Social
Equilibrium
Interfamilial, interclan,
and intertribal relationships can better be
understood in terms of social equilibrium, as
ramifications of
spiritual relationship with Yahweh. Again, several analogous concepts
can be found in the relevant literature. Johnson14 talks about the
Israelite’s
nephes as
something which was extended spatially and
temporally, through one’s bayith, ‘ebhed, or mal’ak; temporally,
through one’s dabhar (including either berakah or ‘ararah), and the
Israelite
sem. “Corporate personality,”15
“grasping of a totality,”16
“vitality of extended family group,”17 “total
contents of the soul,”18
“interests of his kinsman”19—these are some of the
parallel phrases
one finds.
Is it not more accurate today to
posit that where manslaughter
occurs, or where one's husband or male children
perish, or where one
is forced by poverty to sell his ancestral real
estate--that where
anything of this nature occurs in the Old
Testament--that these are
characteristics of social dysfunction,
i.e., social disequilibrium? When
this has been established, the function of the go'el can be more
clearly
seen: to work through the proper channels, whether
spiritual, social,
13 L. J. Luzbetak,
The Church and Cultures (Pasadena: William
Carey Library, 1970),
p. 221.
14 A. R. Johnson, The One and the Many in the Israelite
Conception of God (
15 Ibid.,
p. 3.
16 J. Pedersen,
pp.
106-133.
17 Encyclopedia Judaica,
s.v. "Redemption."
18 Pedersen, op. cit., p. 382.
19 Pope, op. cit., p. 146.
The Cultural
Gyroscope 31
or economic20 and serve as the
society's "cultural gyroscope."21 The
solidarity of the Israelite family, clan, and nation
depended upon his
assuming this responsibility.
The go'el functions as a restorative
agent whenever there is a breach
in the clan's corporate life. In Lieber's model, this would include his
obligations a) to support an Israelite widow who is
a blood relative and
b)
to redeem a clansman who has been reduced to slavery
by poverty.22
In
this paper only the first of these obligations will be examined.
H. H. Rowley's study on the book of
Ruth reveals how entangled
this problem has become.23 His survey
shows that some are divided
over whether Ruth's marriage was levirate or ge'ullah. I. M.
Epstein
sees it as ge'ullah; J. A. Bewer does also,
even to the point of dismissing
all references to the levirate law in the book as
interpolations by
partisans of Ezra and Nehemiah. On the other hand,
H. A. Brongers
believed that one of the book's purposes was to
bring the two institu-
tions together. J. G. Frazer
and J. F. McLennan even see polyandry
or group marriage as having evolved into levirate
and ge'ullah
arrange-
ments. A. Bertholet
and G. Margoliouth see ancestor worship behind
all of this.24
Rowley concludes that, if one dates
Deuteronomy late,
the law of
Deut. 25:5-10 reflects a limitation of something that was once wider in
the
childless widow to the wider duties devolving on the next-of-kin.25
Within the schema of this paper it is
irrelevant as to whether levirate
marriage is separate from or included in ge'ullah or whether
the book
of Ruth represents a "transitional stage
between redemption-marriage
as an affair of the clan and levirate-marriage as
an affair of the
20 These divisions reflect a
Western tendency to catalogue and fragment. The Hebrew
go'el probably perceived no
such distinctions.
21"Cultural gyroscope"
is Luzbetak's phrase, op. cit., p. 221.
22 Cf. above, p. 3.
23 H. H. Rowley, "The Marriage of
Ruth," in The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays
(London:
Lutterworth Press, 1952), pp. 161-186.
24 Any further discussion of
this point is outside the bounds of this inquiry, except to
note that Brichto, op. cit., p. 50, draws a sharp
distinction between the Jewish and pagan
models of afterlife: a) Pagan belief (incl. ancestor
worship) was magical, mechanical,
amoral; b) Hebrew belief was based entirely upon the
individual's moral relationship'
to Yahweh.
25
Cf. Rowley, op. cit., p. 170ff., for all pertinent information, explanations, and
bibliographical data concerning these
many diverse points of view.
32
Restoration
Quarterly
family," as M. Burrows suggests.26
Broader perspectives are called
for--"wider duties," to use Rowley's
terminology.
Naomi's role in the story of Ruth
has perhaps been misunderstood
or underplayed. After all, it was Naomi who first
encouraged Orpah
and Ruth to find husbands of their own, houses of
their own a
people of their own, and gods of their own (Ruth
1:8-15). In other
words, the Israelite widow wanted her non-Israelite
daughters-in-law to
find some semblance of normality and well-being
again. It was Naomi
who mourned the true depth of her calamity by
stating to the women:
"I
went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty"; i.e., the
bayith and the sem of Elimelech were in danger of being wiped out in
Ruth,
for Boaz quickly recognized that Ruth was a woman of worth
(
help (3:9).
The writer points out that Boaz was
Naomi's kinsman (2:1), a fact
Naomi
joyfully proclaims to Ruth (
(qarobh),
the one who was able to restore their family, ravaged by
famine and death, to a state of equilibrium.27
It was Naomi who
engineered Ruth's meeting with Boaz (3:2-5), and it
was Naomi whom
the women congratulated, not Ruth, because the Lord
had provided
her with a go'el. Some of the other elements necessary for social
equilibrium are mentioned also: sem (
nephes (
of the main themes of the book is God's kindness
to the living as well
as the dead by mercifully restoring Elimelech's family to a state of
equilibrium, a theme which is all the more
dramatized when one
realizes in genealogical perspective who Obed, Naomi's go'el, really
was.
One of the most interesting
functions of the go'el
was the responsi-
bility to restore justice.
Murder, manslaughter, and war are crimes
punishable by the State in western society, i.e.,
by an external system
of justice. Hebrew culture was much different. J.
Pedersen discusses
the difference:
24 M. Burrows, "The
Marriage of Boaz and Ruth," Journal
of Biblical Literature
59
(December 1940):445-454.
25 N. B. (as per Brichto's thesis) Naomi is grateful that Yahweh has not
forgotten the
living remnants of the family as well as the dead;
viz., the sem
of Elimelech, extended
through Mahlon, and
later extended through Obed (Ruth
The Cultural Gyroscope
33
The law of restoration belongs to a community
which is not held together by
external powers above it, but by
inner forces creating the harmony.11
When
that harmony is disrupted by any of these crimes, it is again the
responsibility of the go'el to see to
it that equilibrium is restored. Two
examples may be cited.
Whenever possible, revenge was to be systematically
carried out
against the individual who robbed the offended
party of part of the
clan's nephes as stated in the Torah (Num. 35:19). Yet, because an
individual's nephew extends through
his bayith, sem, and
personal
possessions in Semitic cultures, there are instances
in the Old Testament
where the avenger of blood (go’el haddam) not only kills the guilty
party, but also all of his family, as well as
confiscating or destroying
his possession's. In.1 Kings
Baasha, leaving
him no kinsman to wreak counter-revenge. In a
similar case, Yahweh directs the camp of
his family and his personal possessions for
disobeying his clear
command (Josh. 7:lff.). Such total vengeance is
difficult for western
minds to comprehend and may underlie much of the
Occidental
world's attempts to see a different God in the
Old Testament from the
God
revealed in the pages of the New Testament. To Hebrew minds,
however, the disruption of social equilibrium
meant simply that it had
to be restored. The principle remained the same.
Whereas western
societies restore justice by means of external
laws imputed by the
State,
ancient Israelite society restored justice by means of the divinely
appointed agent of restoration (Lev. 25:25ff.).29
Ancient Near Eastern
Parallels
Although there are no cognate forms for ga'al in the contemporary
Near
Eastern texts which have been discovered so far,30
the redemption
of property and persons is fairly commonplace.
In the Laws of Eshnunna,
for example, paragraph 39 states:
28 Pedersen, op. cit., p. .392;
29 Cf. T. B. Kiddushin 20b.
In commenting on Lev. 25:47, 48 R. Ishmael suggested
that even though the human tendency is to reject an
idolater who happens to be an
Israelite,
maybe Yahweh commanded his redemption so that he would not be absorbed
by the heathens.
30 However, cf. H.B. Huffmon, Amorite
Personal Names in the Mari Texts (
John
Hopkins Press, 1965), p. 179, for an exception found in the Amorite personal
name
Ga'alalum.
34
Restoration
Quarterly
If a man is hard up and sells his house, the
owner of the house shall (be entitled to)
redeem (it) whenever the
purchaser (re)sells it.)39
This
law is similar to that of Leviticus 25, except for the conditional
character of this law compared with the unconditional
right in Leviticus
for the original owner to redeem what was
originally "given" to him
by Yahweh. Khafajah text
8231 places another qualification on the
reselling of property. Under this legal code one
cannot "redeem the
field with money belonging to another person."33
Again, the Levitical
law makes no such demand.
A closer parallel can be found in the Laws of
Hammurabi,34 where
the sale of patrimonial land is banned altogether.
Greenberg comments
that this custom might have been based on a
feudalistic economy in
which all land belonged to the king and was held only
as a grant or fief
by his subjects: "They had possession, but
not ownership of the
property entrusted to them."35 In
contrast,
own the land himself (Lev. 25:23) and was unwilling
for
up a monarchy like their Near Eastern neighbors (1
Sam.
Several
other examples of property redemption could be cited, but
perhaps Stamm's
summary can suffice:
The ge'ullah, as a right or duty to buy back lost family
property or slaves, was not
limited to
sold, as well as persons. In
takes the place of the Hebrew
ga'al.36
Yahweh never unconditionally gave the
to be stewards of it as strangers and sojourners
in it with himself,
according to the covenant agreement they ratified
through Moses.
There
is a world of difference, practically speaking, between giving
something to someone and temporarily loaning it,
until the time for
the giving of a much greater gift.37
31 J. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (
1969),
p. 163.
32 R. Harris, "The Archive
of the
Studies 9 (1955): 96,97.
33 Ibid.,
p. 97.
34 Pritchard, op. cit., p. 163.
35 Encyclopedia Judaica, S.v.
"Sabbatical Year and Jubilee," p. 577.
"Theologisches Handworterbuch des Alten Testament, S.v. "ga'al," by
J. Stamm,
cited in D. Leggett, The Levirate and Go'el Institutions in the
Old Testament (Cherry
Hill,
N.J.: Mack Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 63-65.
37 Heb. 12: 18-24.
The Cultural Gyroscope 35
Conclusion
It is hoped that this fresh treatment of the
word ga'el
as well as the
institution for which it stands can clear away some
of the misconceptions
orbiting around it and allow it to be seen in a
clearer light: a referent
for the divinely appointed agent of restoration; a
cultural gyroscope
in an amphictyonic
confederacy built on the cornerstone of a firm
relationship with Yahweh and
extending through the family, tribe, and
providing solidarity, security, and justice for
It is further hoped that the anthropological
concept of equilibrium
can serve to provide an investigative framework broad
enough in
perspective to allow the institution to be seen more
distinctly in its
various spiritual, social, and economic
dimensions. In this way others
continue their investigations within a more
scientifically accurate
schema.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
Restoration
Quarterly Corporation
www.restorationquarterly.org
Please
report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at: