Bethuel

Bethuel (בתואל – Hebrew for “house of God”), in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man, [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0128.htm#5 Gen. 28:5] ] the youngest son of Nahor and Milcah, [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0122.htm#21 Gen. 22:21-22] ] the nephew of Abraham, and the father of Laban and Rebekah. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0122.htm#23 Gen. 22:23] ; [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0128.htm#5 Gen. 28:5.] ]

Bethuel was also a town in the territiory of the tribe of Simeon, west of the Dead Sea. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt25a04.htm#30 1 Chron. 4:30.] ] Some scholars [e.g. Albright] identify it with Bethul [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0619.htm#4 Josh. 19:4] ] and Bethel in southern Judah, [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0608.htm#17 Josh. 8:17] ; [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0612.htm#16 12:16] ] to which David gives booty. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt08a30.htm#26 1 Sam. 30:26-27.] ]

Hebrew Bible

The man Bethuel appears nine times in nine verses in the Hebrew Bible, all in Genesis. Adherents of the documentary hypothesis often attribute most of these verses to the Jahwist source. [E.g., Richard Elliott Friedman "The Bible with Sources Revealed", 66, 68, 69. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003; ] and the remainder to the priestly source. [E.g., Friedman at 71, 76.]

Bethuel lived in Padan-aram. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0125.htm#20 Gen. 25:20.] ] Bethuel's uncle Abraham sent his senior servant (possibly Eliezer of Damascus) to the land of his birth to find a wife for his son Isaac. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#2 Gen. 24:2-4.] ] By the well outside the city of Nahor, in Aram-naharaim, the servant met Bethuel’s daughter Rebekah. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#10 Gen. 24:10-15.] ] The servant told Rebekah’s household his good fortune in meeting Bethuel’s daughter, Abraham’s relative. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#47 Gen. 24:47-48.] ] Laban and Bethuel answered, “The matter was decreed by the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be a wife to your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.” [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#50 Gen. 24:50-51.] ]

After meeting Abraham’s servant, Rebekah “ran and told all this to her "mother’s" household”, [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#28 Gen. 24:28] ] that Rebekah’s “"brother and her mother" said, ‘Let the maiden remain with us some ten days’”, [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#55 Gen. 24:55] ] and that “they sent off their "sister" Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, ‘O "sister"! May you grow into thousands of myriads.” [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#59 Gen. 24:59-60.] ] Some scholars thus hypothesize that mention of Bethuel in [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0124.htm#50 Gen. 24:50] was a late addition to the preexisting story. Other scholars argue that these texts indicate that Bethuel was somehow incapacitated. Other scholars attribute the emphasis on the mother's role to a matralineal family structure.

A generation later, Isaac sent Jacob back to Padan-aram to take a wife from among Bethuel’s granddaughters, rather than from among the Canaanites. [ [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0128.htm Gen. 28:1-2.] ]

Rabbinic interpretation

In the Talmud, Rabbi Isaac called Bethuel a wicked man. [Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 64a; see also Genesis Rabbah 60:12 (wicked); 63:4 (a rogue); Leviticus Rabbah 23:1 (a deceiver); Song of Songs Rabbah 2:4 (a trickster); Zohar 1:136b (sinful); Rashi to [http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=8220&showrashi=true Gen. 25:20] (wicked).] The midrash identified Bethuel as a king. [Numbers Rabbah 14:11.]

In the Talmud, Rab in the name of Rabbi Reuben b. Estrobile cited Laban’s and Bethuel’s response to Abraham’s servant that “The matter was decreed by the Lord” [), the Rabbis asked: “Where was Bethuel?” The midrash concluded that Bethuel wished to hinder Rebekah’s marriage, and so he was smitten during the night. (Genesis Rabbah 60:12.) The Rabbis said that Abraham’s servant did not disclose Bethuel’s fate to Isaac. [Genesis Rabbah 60:15.]

In his retelling of the story, Josephus reported that Rebekah told Abraham’s servant, “my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; and Laban is my brother; and, together with my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, and is the guardian of my virginity.” ["Antiquities" [http://www.interhack.net/projects/library/antiquities-jews/b1c16.html 1:16:2:248.] ]

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