Epiphora
LITERARY STUDY OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE
By Rav Dr. Yonatan Grossman
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In loving memory of Channa Schreiber (Channa Rivka bat Yosef ve-Yocheved) z"l,
with wishes for consolation and comfort to her dear children
Yossi and Mona, Yitzchak and Carmit, and their families,
along with all who mourn for Tzion and Yerushalayim.
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Lecture #10b:
Epiphora
Epiphora, repeating a term at the end of a number of sentences just like
anophora, repeating a term at the beginning, which we discussed in our previous
lecture emphasizes that word or expression in the reader's consciousness. Admittedly, this repetition sometimes
serves as a literary accoutrement, without carrying unique significance within
it. Nevertheless, paying attention to the verse's linguistic emphases can at
times uncover an integral substrate of the hidden meaning and direction of the
narrative. We will examine this phenomenon through the story of Avraham and Sara
(then known as Avram and Sarai) in
Avraham, Sara, and Pharaoh
The Ramban directs serious criticism towards Avraham for his actions in this
passage, both for his initial decision to go down to
The Abarbanel, on the other hand, disputes this reading and sets out a totally
different one, a reading which, in my humble opinion, is supported by the
structural design of the narrative. According to the Abarbanel, Avraham's
original intent is for all the Egyptians to view Sara as his sister and seek her
hand in marriage from him. This would allow Avraham to demand an exorbitant
price for her, forestalling his consent until they would have a chance to flee.
Accordingly, Avraham never considered giving Sara to any Egyptian who might
desire her.
Indeed, Avraham mentions specifically "the Egyptians" when he describes his
concern:
Behold, please, I know
that you are a woman of beautiful appearance.
And it will be, when the Egyptians see you, and they will say, This is
his wife, then they will kill me and let you live. (Bereishit 12:11-12)
Obviously, Avraham did not think for a moment that his royal majesty, Pharaoh
himself, would desire his wife. That would be utterly illogical; Avraham and
Sara were nomads, travelers with no royal lineage and no aristocratic blood.
Indeed, when Avraham and Sara arrived in
The Egyptians saw (vayiru) the woman, that she was very
beautiful.
And Pharaoh's officers
saw (vayiru) her.
Avraham and Sara had prepared for the first seeing, but what can they do about
the second seeing? How could Avraham negotiate with the king over Sara's price?
How could he deny his proposal? Consequently, "the woman was taken to Pharaoh's
house."[1]
With the unexpected interpolation of the monarch into the narrative (a surprise
for Avraham and Sara, as well as for the reader!), the verse utilizes epiphora
that stresses "Pharaoh:"
And Pharaoh's
officers saw her (sarei Pharaoh)
And praised her to
Pharaoh, (le-Pharaoh)
And the woman was taken
to Pharaoh's house (beit Pharaoh)
Three consecutive times the verse returns to Pharaoh in the Hebrew original,
there are three four-word clauses, each of which ends with "Pharaoh" not
allowing the reader to ignore the shocking introduction of this character into
the story. In this case, paying attention to the epiphora is extremely
important, because this is how the verse alludes to the unexpected turning point
in the narrative. The narrative abruptly shifts from the progress of Avraham and
Sara's careful premeditation to the wild card that changes the game. At this
point, Avraham and Sara have no one on whom to rely but God himself, Who indeed
saves them from their adversary. It appears that the stylistic techniques of the
narrative prove that the Abarbanel's reading is correct, while the Ramban's
criticism of Avraham is unjustified.
"His Mother's Brother"
Let us examine another example of the epiphora taking a role in the subliminal
message hiding beneath the surface. After Yaakov leaves
When Yaakov saw Rachel,
daughter of Lavan, his mother's brother
And the sheep of Lavan,
his mother's brother
Yaakov drew close... and he watered the sheep of Lavan,
his mother's brother. (Bereishit
29:10)
Scripture notes no less than three times in one verse that Lavan is the brother
of Yaakov's mother, Rivka. In the first case, this is in the context of
identifying Rachel, while in the latter two, this relates to Lavan's sheep.
Indeed, the connection between Rachel and the sheep is entrenched in the
narrative. It will suffice to note that Rachel's very name has an ovine
definition a rachel is a ewe! Even more importantly, the two labor
contracts that Yaakov enters into with Lavan relate to these two elements: the
first contract is for Rachel's hand in marriage (and ultimately Leah's as well,
due to Lavan's deception), while the second is for compensation in the form of
sheep. The verses describes the overwhelming fecundity of Yaakov's wives
(chapters 29-30), in parallel with the fecundity of Yaakov's sheep (chapter 30).
(This, however, is not the occasion to delve into this at length.[2])
It may be that the epiphora appears in Yaakov's first encounter with Rachel
because the verse seeks to allude to the relationship between Rachel and sheep;
Lavan is "his mother's brother" in the context of both.[3]
Yaakov is destined to get both his wives and his wealth from Lavan.
However, it appears that in the context of the story, the epiphora under
discussion has an even more important role. Through this epiphora, the fact that
Lavan is "his mother's brother" echoes in the reader's ears. Of course, this
fact is indeed correct, but it is difficult to understand why it must be
repeated.
This emphasis is noticeable specifically when Yaakov tells Rachel (after kissing
her) about their family connections. There, Yaakov mentions the appellation
"brother," but not as describing the familial relationship between his mother
and Lavan, but rather between himself and Lavan: "And Yaakov told Rachel that he
was her father's brother and that he was the son of Rivka" (12). After Scripture notes three times in
one verse that Lavan is "his mother's brother," the reader is surprised to hear
that Yaakov is "her father's brother."
If so, why is Yaakov identified again as "the son of Rivka" during this
encounter? In the concrete context of Yaakov's story, this emphasis is extremely
important. Yaakov goes to Charan for two reasons. His mother tells him to flee
to Charan because of his brother Esav, who wants to kill him "And now, my son,
listen to my voice: arise, flee for yourself to Lavan my brother, to Charan"
(27:43). His father, on the other hand, asks him to go to Charan to find a wife
from the family of Avraham Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Betuel,
your mother's father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters
of Lavan, your mother's brother (28:2). It appears that Scripture refers to
Yaakov's mother when he encounters Rachel in order to point out that Yaakov
cannot be fulfilling his father's order, as he has not yet reached "the house of
Betuel;" he is still on the way. His encounter with Rachel is a random meeting
that occurs before Yaakov reaches the house of Betuel and Lavan.
Indeed, at the end of the day, Yaakov is destined to marry two wives, and we may
distinguish between the two relationships based on Yaakov's two aims in
traveling to Charan. Rachel, whom he meets by accident and falls in love with at
the well, is part of the story of his flight from Esav. Conversely, Leah, the
older daughter, is the one who ultimately builds the better part of the House of
Israel and the one who is buried by his side. Thus, she is the wife who is fit
for Yaakov in terms of Yitzchak's mission to marry a woman from the family and
to continue the blessing of Avraham.
This reading requires a much broader analysis than our brief discussion allows,[4]
but for the sake of our current topic, my intent is to stress that the threefold
repetition of "his mother's brother" seeks to recall to the reader the image of
Rivka and her command.
Order and Organization: The Story of Creation
Naturally, the use of anaphora and epiphora in the same unit allows one to order
and organize the unit, giving the reader a feeling of deliberate and harmonious
arrangement. This is very prominent, for example, in the story of Creation in
chapter 1 of Bereishit. The order of creation in this chapter is very
noticeable because of the division of Creation into different days. In our
context, one must recall the set formula that concludes each day: "And it was
evening, and it was morning, _____ day." This
formula which one may see as a type of epiphora creates a feeling of order
and organization.
Still, it is not only this dominant formula that gives the reader a feeling of
the order that characterizes the description of Creation. This narrative abounds
with a unique repetition of sounds, consonants, and words.
Already in the opening words, we have alliteration; the first two words in the
Torah, "Bereishit bara," begin with the same three letters:
bet-reish-alef. At the end of this verse, flowing into the next, we find
concatenation: "...the heavens and the land.
And the land was..." The second
verse continues with assonance (repetition of the same vowelization with
different consonants): "tohu va-vohu." In
the next verse, the description of creation also expresses clear order and
planning in God's words: "'Yehi or' va-yehi or," "'Let there be light'
and there was light." A near-alliteration is seen as this verse ends and the
next begins: "Va-yehi or" yields to "Va-yar."
On the second day, the epiphora stresses the water: "'Let there be a sky in the
midst of the water/ And it will be a separator between water and
water" (v. 6), followed by another case of epiphora that stress the sky:
"And God made the sky/ And He
separated between the water which was below the
sky/ And the water above the sky" (v. 7).
A similar case of epiphora confronts the reader in the description of day three:
"The land produced vegetation plants bearing seed according to their kinds
and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds."[5]
Even on the fourth day, we cannot avoid the repetitions of words. When God
discusses the purpose of the heavenly bodies, the anaphora is prominent and
emphasized:
And they will be
for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.
And they will be
lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the land.
Complementing the assonance that opens the story (tohu va-vohu), it is
worth mentioning the assonance in the blessing that appears twice at the end "
Indeed, the creation of the sixth day is characterized by these sorts of
repetition:
God made the wild animals according to their kinds,
The livestock
according to their kinds,
And all the creatures
that move along the ground according to their kinds. (1:25)
The same is true of the description of the first humans' vegetarian diet:
I give you every
seed-bearing plant... They will be
yours for food.
And to all the beasts
of the land and to all the birds of the heavens... I give every green plant
for food. (1:29-30)
These repetitions are not omitted even from the summation of the seventh day,
which is constructed in triplicate:
Thus the
heavens and the land were completed in all their vast array. By the
seventh day God had completed the work He had done; so on
the seventh day He rested from all his work which He had done. And God blessed the seventh
day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work
which God had created to do. (2:1-3)
These verses
are deserving of a broad analysis (in particular the last verse's restatement of
"had done" as "had created to do"). For our purposes, it is enough for us to pay
attention to the unique solemnity that accompanies this special day because of
the repetition of words and whole expressions.
The literary
structure here is not mere artifice; the echoing words, consonants, and vowels
in this story are connected to the Torah's theme the Creation of the Universe
is an ordered, planned, and organized process. This is not a circumstantial
creation that is the result of battles among gods and demigods (as found in the
creation narratives of many ancient peoples). The Torah presents the universe as
created as an expression of God's free will, and the reality in this chapter
appears to be an elaborate, deliberate reality. In this case, I do not believe
that each and every case of epiphora or anaphora is a unique contribution. On
the contrary, the significance of each can be derived only by considering the
whole, the linguistic totality of the entire unit. The many repetitions add to
the orderly design of this chapter; an all-encompassing overview allows us to
feel their significance and their contributions to this story.
One can take
note of cases of anaphora and epiphora easily because of the ordered structure
of these phenomena. Since this repetition is tied to the beginning or end of
each sentence or clause in a series, it is noticeable to the reader's eye. This
is not so is the phenomenon of the keyword, in which one particular word or
phrase is interwoven throughout the length of the narrative. The keyword does
not always jump out at the reader in an initial survey. God willing, we will
dedicate our next lecture to this phenomenon.
(Translated
by Yoseif Bloch)
[1]
G. J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC (Waco, TX, 1987), p. 289,
points out that the verb "taking" in this verse indicates some delicate
wordplay. This word has different meanings in Tanakh; sometimes, it
denotes physically taking hold of something, but sometimes it denotes marriage,
as in, "When a man will take a woman" (Devarim 22:13, 24:1). How should
we understand the word here?
[2]
The structure of this story explores the relationship between the marriage
contract and the ranching contract, as R. E. Samet has pointed out (Iyunim
Be-Parashat Ha-Shavua, 1st ed. (Jerusalem, 5762), pp. 75-88.
[3]
This connection arises in an additional case of wordplay: "Yaakov drew close and
rolled the stone off of the mouth of the well, and he watered (va-yashk)
the sheep of Lavan, his mother's brother. And Yaakov kissed (va-yishak)
Rachel" (vv. 10-11). This pair of homographs with different roots and
vowelization, but spelled exactly the same (v-y-sh-k) in the Torah scroll
forces the reader to consider Yaakov's actions together what he does to the
sheep and what he does to Rachel.
[4]
For more on this matter, see my thorough article: "'Et Asher Tiddor Shallem'
Le-Mashma'ut Maavak Yaakov Ve-Hamalakh," Megadim 26 (5756), pp.
9-26. For a different reading, according to which the encounter between Yaakov
and Rachel is connected specifically to the mission of Yitzchak, see the article
by Y. Feintuch, "Ha-Sullam Ve-Ha-Be'er Iyun Be-Parshiyot Yaakov",
Megadim 39 (5764), pp. 9-32.
[5]
This verse is cited by Frank Polak as an example of epiphora in biblical
narrative (F. Polak, Ha-Sippur Ba-Mikra, p. 35).