Genealogy as Theology

And how, you ask, does the Prophetess Anna (or the gospel-writer, Luke or his informant) know the genealogy of the Prophetess?

Well, when the Judahites (the descendants of Jacob that inhabited the regions marked out for the descendants of Judah and Benjamin) were carried away to Babylon for more than 70 years, they remembered the promise from the prophets of God that they would return to inherit the land that He had promised Abraham.  

As a practical matter, but also because they believed the Promise (the Abrahamic covenant), their scribes kept genealogical records of the families in captivity.  We know this from the scriptures recording their return from exile.  The precise number of each returning family group returned to the very town or rural area from which they were removed is recorded in 2 Ezra, Chapter 2 (Orthodox Study Bible).  No doubt when the ancestors of Anna had returned from the Babylonian-Persian captivity, they went back to the lands that they had occupied in Judea.  

However, there remains a question as to why anyone from the tribe of Asher would be included among the Judeo-Benjamites, because Asher, the son of Jacob, had been assigned lands in the regions that became known as the Northern Kingdom (Israel as opposed to Judah, the Southern Kingdom).  Sennacherib, King of the Assyrians, ethnically cleansed the Northern Kingdom, about 725 BC.  (4 Kingdoms, Chapter 17, Orthodox Study Bible)

This would have meant that all the descendants of Asher could have disappeared with the rest of the Ten Lost Tribes.  But instead we find that Phanuel, father of the Prophetess Anna, has survived the Assyrian genocide, the Babylonian Captivity of Judah, and begets a daughter in Jerusalem just about 84 years BC.  

This means we have to search out the tribal history of Asher, the son of Jacob (Israel).  So we must trace the tribal movements from Jacob to at least the time of the Return from the Babylonian Exile.  

Between Asher and Phanuel

From the Patriarch Jacob and his son Asher to Phanuel stretches the tortured path of the Israelites/Jews.  Anna was obviously a Jew at the time of Christ's birth, though the tribe of Asher had occupied a part of the Promised Land that had been ethnically cleansed by Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians about seven centuries before the Prophetess Anna greeted the Christ Child.  The question occurred to me: how is Anna serving in the temple of the Herodian period when all her ancestors might have been killed (if a male) forcibly married to a non-Israelite (if female) or (if allowed to live as a slave) carried away into captivity in Assyria?

We will try to find that answer.  There are some interesting historical developments, many of which I am only now discovering.  But let us begin with the circumstances of the birth of Asher. We have already noted that Jacob had two wives: Leah and Rachel, and two concubines: Zilpah and Bilhah.  Leah was very fertile early in their marriage.  There were no handmaidens serving as his concubines at the time.     Leah gave birth to  Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.  And then she stopped bearing.

Rachel was barren, even though she was greatly beloved by Jacob.  So she gave Jacob Bilhah to bear him children in her stead.  The girl bore Dan and Naphtali.  Well, if Rachel could play that game, then Leah could do the same.  So she gave Zilpah to Jacob to bear children for her sake.  Gad was the firstborn son of Zilpah; the next one was called *blessed* by Leah: Asher.  

Leah bargained with Rachel for the favors of their husband Jacob for one night and conceived Issachar.  And after another visit by Jacob, Leah bore her sixth son, Zebulun.  And finally for her last child, she bore a daughter, Dinah.  

At last, Rachel became pregnant and bore Joseph, his father's favorite.  At about this time, Jacob leaves the land where he had earned his two wives' bride price and escaped the father of Leah and Rachel, fleeing to the land of Isaac, his own father.  

God appeared to Jacob and changed to Israel  and gave him the blessing that He had given to Abraham and Isaac.  But Jacob's beloved Rachel died on the return journey between Bethel and Ephratha in giving birth to Jacob's last child, Benjamin.  

Next post will be on Jacob's special son, Joseph, and how he saves the children of Israel, including the tribe of Asher.

Who, You Ask is Phanuel?

Phanuel was of the tribe of Asher, the son of the Patriarch Jacob and the handmaid of his wife, Leah.  See Genesis, Chapter 35.  

Remember that Leah is the daughter of Laban, a relative and contemporary of Abraham.  Jacob had worked for seven years for Rachel, but instead was tricked into marrying Leah.  Then he had to work seven more years for Rachel.

After the 14 years, when both were wives of Jacob, they entered into a contest as to how many children they could produce, even enlisting their handmaids as concubines for their husband.

Asher was the progeny of Jacob and the handmaid of Leah, who had already borne some children to Jacob.  

It is educational to see that the Prophetess Anna was married only once and relatively briefly.  Once she was widowed at a young age, she went into temple service and did not re-marry.  Well before her time, Jewish society had become strictly monogamous, at least among the strict observers.

Prophetess Anna, Glorifier of the Incarnation

Luke 2:36-38 (Orthodox Study Bible)

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers, night and day.  And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.