by
Damien F. Mackey
“The critical link between
Deborah and Gideon is in
the tribes who fought and the
tribes who refused to fight”.
What may help with the challenging chronology of the Judges
period is to recognise (i) that some of them are duplicates, and (ii) that some
of them were operating contemporaneously.
Regarding (i), I have suggested, for instance, that:
Judge Shamgar could be Samson but not Shammah
(3) Judge Shamgar could be Samson but not
Shammah
and that (as others also have suggested) the following
two names may refer to the one Judge:
Boaz and Ibzan
Regarding (ii), we read, for instance, at:
https://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-date-chronology-of-judges.htm
Did Deborah and Gideon Judge Together?
- We can
prove that Deborah and Gideon judged at the same time. After each Judge
the narrative tells us there were two periods of 40 years where the land
had rest. Most view these as two different sets of 40 years which they add
up to 80 chronological years. However, these two periods of 40 years of
rest are in fact the same period and amount to a total of only 40
chronological years. Therefore, we match the 40 years of rest of Gideon
(8:28) with the 40 years of rest of Deborah (5:31) and it creates a close
harmony with the 300 years of Jephthah in Judges 11:26.
- By
lining up the two 40 years of peace, we very nicely splice the end of
"indivisible unit 1", with the beginning of "indivisible
unit 2".
- This
shows us that Israel was being oppressed in the north by the Canaanites
at the same time the Midianites were crossing the Jordan and raiding the
crops of central Israel, then returning Transjordan.
- Deborah's
battle was at Mt. Tabor and involved 10,000 men from the tribes of
Naphtali and Zebulun: "the God of Israel, has commanded, 'Go and
march to Mount
Tabor, and take with
you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun." Judges 4:6.
- Gideon's
battle started in the valley of Jezreel, then moved Transjordan far east
of the Jordan and involved a specialized army of 300 from Manasseh, Asher,
Zebulun, and Naphtali: "the Midianites and Amalekites and the sons of
the east ... camped in the valley of Jezreel. ... Gideon ... called
together to follow him: Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them." Judges 6:33-35.
- The
critical link between Deborah and Gideon is in the tribes who fought and
the tribes who refused to fight. Deborah started judging 13 years before
Gideon and chastised the region of Gilead, and the tribes of Dan and Asher because they would not join in
the battle:
"Gilead remained across the Jordan; And why did Dan
stay in ships? Asher sat at the seashore, And remained by its landings."
Judges 5:17. She praises Zebulun and
Naphtali for
joining the battle: ""Zebulun was a people who
despised their lives even to death, And Naphtali also, on the
high places of the field." Judges 5:18
- When
Gideon (from the tribe of Manasseh) started judging 13 years later, the
same tribes fight and the same tribes refused! Gideon comes to two towns
in Gilead (Succoth and Penuel) and asks the
leaders for food to feed his army of 300 and they both refuse.
(8:5-8) Gilead had previously refused Deborah's request
for help at Mt. Tabor: "Gilead remained across the Jordan" Judges 5:17. So this was the
second time Gilead had refused to fight for their brethren. After Gideon
destroys Midian, he returns and destroys the town leaders of Gilead (Succoth and Penuel). A kind of
"two strikes and you're out" policy with God. Later Gilead would redeem themselves under Jephthah,
who himself was a Gileadite who saved themselves from the Ammonite
oppression. Perhaps still not that noble, since they were merely defending
their own home turf from the invasion of the king of Ammon. Good thing the
Gileadites had no French genes in them, or else they would have just
surrounded to the Ammonites and expected the other tribes to liberate an
fight for them!
- So we can
prove that Deborah and Gideon Judged at the same time because the same two
tribes (Zebulun
and Naphtali) willingly
supplied valiant warriors and the Gilead refused both of them to
fight. This
is an enormous key to unlocking the chronology of Judges!
- Since Deborah and Gideon judged at the same
time, then the 40 years of peace that followed both are identical and
should be laid upon one another in chronological terms because they are
concurrent.
[End of
quote]
I have also proposed
that the so-called Spartan Leonidas, at Thermopylæ, was simply a fictitious
Greek appropriation of Gideon and the 300 - that Leonidas is an inversion of
the name Gideon:
G ID
EON
L ID
EON (with the Greek ending -AS):
Leonidas and the 300
Spartans a borrowing from Hebrew epic
(3)
Leonidas and the 300 Spartans a borrowing from Hebrew epic
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