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 T h e Ox f o r d H a n d b o o k o f

GREEK AND
ROM A N
M Y T HO G R A P H Y
The Oxford Handbook of

GREEK AND
ROMAN
MYTHOGRAPHY
R. SCOTT SMITH
and
STEPHEN M. TRZASKOMA
 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, R. Scott, 1971- editor. | Trzaskoma, Stephen, editor.
Title: The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman mythography /
[edited by] R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000719 (print) | LCCN 2022000720 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190648312 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197642511 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Mythology, Classical.
Classification: LCC BL723 .O94 2022 (print) | LCC BL723 (ebook) |
DDC 292.1/3—dc23/eng20220521
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000719
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000720

DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190648312.001.0001

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Lakeside Book Company, United States of America
In memory of Ellie and Ezio.
 Contents

Acknowledgments xi
List of Contributors xiii

Introduction  1
R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma

PA RT I M Y T HO G R A P H Y F ROM A RC HA IC
G R E E C E TO T H E E M P I R E
1. The Mythographical Impulse in Early Greek Poetry  13
Pura Nieto Hernández
2. The Origins of Mythography as a Genre  29
Jordi Pàmias
3. Hellenistic Mythography  61
R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma
4. Imperial Mythography  78
Charles Delattre
5. Mythography in Latin  97
R. Scott Smith

PA RT I I M Y T HO G R A P H E R S
6. Mythography in Alexandrian Verse  117
Evina Sistakou
7. Antihomerica: Dares and Dictys  134
Ken Dowden
8. Antoninus Liberalis, Collection of Metamorphoses  142
Charles Delattre
viii   Contents

9. Apollodorus the Mythographer, Bibliotheca  151

Stephen M. Trzaskoma
10. Conon, Narratives  163
Manuel Sanz Morales
11. Cornutus, Survey of the Traditions of Greek Theology  170
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
12. Diodorus Siculus, Library  178
Iris Sulimani
13. Heraclitus the Mythographer, On Unbelievable Stories  186
Greta Hawes
14. Heraclitus the Allegorist, Homeric Problems  192
David Konstan
15. Hyginus, Fabulae  199
K. F. B. Fletcher
16. The Mythographus Homericus  211
Joan Pagès
17. Other Mythography on Papyrus  226
Annette Harder
18. Greek Mythography and Scholia  239
Nereida Villagra
19. Ovid and Mythography  261
Joseph Farrell
20. Palaephatus, Unbelievable Tales  274
Hugo H. Koning
21. Parthenius, Erotika Pathemata  282
Christopher Francese
22. Pausanias, Description of Greece  290
William Hutton
23. Tragic Mythography  300
Chiara Meccariello
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 Contents   ix

PA RT I I I I N T E R P R E TAT ION S A N D
I N T E R SE C T ION S
24. Rationalizing and Historicizing  317
Greta Hawes
25. Allegorizing and Philosophizing  331
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
26. Etymologizing  349
Ezio Pellizer†
27. Catasterisms  365
Arnaud Zucker
28. Local Mythography  382
Daniel W. Berman
29. Mythography and Paradoxography  396
Irene Pajón Leyra
30. Mythography and Education  409
R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma
31. Mythography and Politics  428
Lee E. Patterson
32. Mythography and Geography  443
Maria Pretzler
33. Mythographer and Mythography: Indigenous Categories?
Greek Inquiries into the Heroic Past  458
Claude Calame

PA RT I V M Y T HO G R A P H Y A N D T H E
V I SUA L A RT S
34. Mythography and Greek Vase Painting  477
Kathryn Topper
35. Mythography and Roman Wall Painting  490
Eleanor Winsor Leach†
x   Contents

36. Retelling Greek Myths on Roman Sarcophagi  508

Zahra Newby

PA RT V C H R I S T IA N M Y T HO G R A P H Y

37. Mythography and Christianity  529

Jennifer Nimmo Smith
38. Byzantine Mythography  547
Benjamin Garstad
39. Mythography in the Latin West  563
Benjamin Garstad
40. Mythography and the Reception of Classical Mythology in
the Renaissance, 1340–​1600  579
Jon Solomon

Index  593
 Acknowledgments

We have many people to thank, the most prominent of whom are our colleagues Piero
Garofalo (Italian, UNH) and Christopher Gregg (Art History, GMU), who gave us val-
uable guidance on several chapters. In addition, we are grateful to the John C. Rouman
Classical Lecture Series for several grants that supported the work in these pages, as
well as the Dion Janetos Fund for Hellenic Studies, which subsidized the building of our
index. We also wish to thank the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the
Office of the Provost at the University of New Hampshire for their support, including
two sabbatical periods. The Undergraduate Research Team of the UNH Greek Myth Lab
contributed to this work in sundry but important ways. Finally, we are tremendously
grateful to our contributors who, despite past and current challenges, responded with
outstanding scholarship that will doubtlessly frame future work in this field.
 List of Contributors

Daniel W. Berman is Professor of Greek and Roman Classics at Temple University.

His most recent book is Myth, Literature, and the Creation of the Topography of Thebes
(Cambridge University Press, 2015). His interests lie primarily in the areas of myth and
mythography, and specifically the representation of urban and built space in the Greek
and Roman mythic traditions.
Claude Calame is Director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
in Paris (Centre AnHiMA: Anthropologie et Histoire des Mondes Antiques); he was
Professor of Greek language and literature at the University of Lausanne. He taught
also at the Universities of Urbino and Siena in Italy, and at Yale University in the US. In
English translation he has published many books on Greek history, literature, and myth,
including, Greek Mythology. Poetics, Pragmatics and Fiction (Cambridge University
Press 2009). His latest book in French is La tragédie chorale. Poésie grecque et rituel mu-
sical (Les Belles Lettres 2018).
Charles Delattre is Professor of Ancient Greek Language and Literature at the University
of Lille. His research focuses on ancient narrative practices involving the modern notion
of “mythology.” He devotes himself to the annotated edition of part of the mythographic
corpus and to a reflection on contemporary definitions of “myth” from a perspective of
literary theory and cultural anthropology.
Ken Dowden is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Birmingham. He is
well known for his work on mythology (Death and the Maiden, Routledge 1989; Uses
of Greek Mythology, Routledge 1992; and, with Niall Livingstone, the Companion to
Greek Mythology, Blackwell 2011), as well as on religion, Homer and latterday authors
who contested Homer’s veracity. For Brill’s New Jacoby he has edited, translated and
commented on many fragmentary Greek “historians” (from Aristeas of Prokonnesos
and Diktys of Crete to Poseidonios and Dio Chrysostom), some of whom engaged in
wilful mythographic activity. His interest in the ancient novel has focused mostly on
Apuleius and Heliodoros, typically on their religio-​philosophical aspects, a mythology
of its own.
Joseph Farrell is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where
he has taught since 1984. The focus of his work is ancient Latin poetry, including its re-
lationship to Greek poetry and to Greek and Roman literary scholarship, along with its
reception from later antiquity to the present. His most recent book is Juno’s Aeneid: A
Battle for Heroic Identity (Princeton University Press, 2021).
xiv   list of contributors

K. F. B. Fletcher is Associate Professor of Classics at Louisiana State University. His re-

search focuses primarily on the Roman use of Greek mythology, especially in mythog-
raphy and Augustan poetry. In addition to articles and book chapters on a wide range of
Roman poets and mythographers, he is the author of Finding Italy: Travel, Nation, and
Colonization in Vergil’s Aeneid and coeditor of Classical Antiquity in Heavy Metal Music.
Christopher Francese is Asbury J. Clarke Professor of Classical Studies at Dickinson
College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of Parthenius of Nicaea and
Roman Poetry (2001), Ancient Rome in So Many Words (2007), and, with R. Scott Smith,
Ancient Rome: An Anthology of Sources (2014). He is the project director of Dickinson
College Commentaries (dcc.dickinson.edu).
Benjamin Garstad is Professor of Classics at MacEwan University in Edmonton,
Alberta. His research concentrates on the literature of Late Antiquity, especially John
Malalas and the origins of the Byzantine chronicle tradition, the Alexander Romance,
and the integration of myth and history in Christian literature. He prepared an edi-
tion and translation of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-​Methodius and the Excerpta Latina
Barbari for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library and is the author of Bouttios and
Late Antique Antioch: Reconstructing a Lost Historian (forthcoming in the Dumbarton
Oaks Studies series)
Annette Harder is emeritus Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Groningen
(The Netherlands). She has published on Greek tragedy, Greek literary papyri, and in
particular on Hellenistic poetry. Since 1992 she has organized the biennial Groningen
Workshops on Hellenistic Poetry, and edits the series Hellenistica Groningana. Her main
publications are Euripides’ Kresphontes and Archelaos (Brill, 1985); Callimachus “Aetia”
(Oxford University Press, 2012). She has also published several mythographic papyri in
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri and written articles on the hypotheseis of Euripides.
Greta Hawes is Research Associate at the Center for Hellenic Studies. She is author of
Rationalizing Myth in Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2014), Pausanias in the World
of Greek Myth (Oxford University Press, 2021), editor of Myths on the Map (Oxford
University Press, 2017), and codirector of MANTO (Mapping Ancient Narratives,
Territories, Objects) and Canopos.
William Hutton is Professor of Classical Studies at William & Mary and the author of
numerous publications on Pausanias, including the book Describing Greece: Landscape
and Literature in the “Periegesis” of Pausanias (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He is
currently completing a new annotated translation of Pausanias’s Description of Greece.
Hugo H. Koning is a lecturer at Leiden University. His main interests are early epic, my-
thology, and reception. He is the author of Hesiod: The Other Poet; Ancient Reception of
a Cultural Icon (Brill, 2010). He is currently working (with Glenn Most) on an edition of
exegetical texts on the Theogony and has recently published (with Leopoldo Iribarren) a
volume on Hesiod and the pre-​Socratics.
 list of contributors    xv

David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University. He is the author of books
on ancient comedy, the novel, friendship in the classical world, the emotions of the an-
cient Greeks, the classical conception of beauty and its influence, and Greek and Roman
ideas of love and affection. His most recent book is The Origin of Sin. He is a fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an honorary fellow of the Australian
Academy of the Humanities.
Eleanor Winsor Leach† held the Ruth N. Halls Professorship in the Department of
Classical Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, until her death on February 16,
2018. She was an influential and wide-ranging scholar whose work treated Roman lit-
erary, social and cultural history through a variety of methodological and theoretical
lenses, most notably by integrating the study of art—particularly painting—architecture
and monumentality into her analyses. She authored four books and numerous articles
over her lengthy career.
Chiara Meccariello is Lecturer in Greek Literature at the University of Cambridge. After
obtaining a PhD in Classics from the University of Pisa, she held postdoctoral positions
at the universities of Vienna, Oxford, Göttingen, and Cassino. Her research interests in-
clude papyrology, ancient education, Greek tragedy and satyr drama, and ancient schol-
arly and interpretive work on myth-​based poetry.
Zahra Newby is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick
(UK). Her research interests focus on the reception of Greek culture in the visual arts of
the Roman world. Her publications include Greek myths in Roman art and culture: im-
agery, values and identity in Italy, 50 BC-​AD 250 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and
The Materiality of Mourning: Cross-​Disciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 2019, co-​edited
with R. E. Toulson).
Pura Nieto Hernández is Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Classics at Brown University
and Honorary Member of the Instituto de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas y
de Humanidades Digitales at the University of Salamanca. Her primary areas of re-
search are the intersection of poetics and mythology in Homer and the archaic and
Hellenistic poets, the history of the Greek language, and Philo of Alexandria. Among
her most recent publications are “Philo of Alexandria on Greek Heroes,” in Philo of
Alexandria and Greek Myth: Narratives, Allegories, and Arguments, edited by Francesca
Alesse and Ludovica De Luca (Brill, 2019), and “Mito y Poesía lírica,” in Claves para la
lectura del mito griego, edited by Marta González González and Lucía Romero Mariscal
(Dykinson, 2021).
Jennifer Nimmo Smith is an independent scholar with close links to the School of
History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. After a MA Hons in
Classics, she went on to Byzantine Studies in further degrees. Her PhD thesis on the
Pseudo-Nonnus Commentaries on Sermons 4,5,39 and 43 by Gregory of Nazianzus was
published in 1992, and she is currently working on an edition of the text of Gregory’s
Sermons 4 and 5.
xvi   list of contributors

Joan Pagès is Lecturer in Greek Philology at the Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona. He

has published several articles and chapters of books on Greek mythography, myth, reli-
gion and Literature. In collaboration with Nereida Villagra he has recently published the
collective volume Myths on the Margins of Homer for Trends in Classics (De Gruyter).
He is currently preparing (with Nereida Villagra) an edition and commentary of the
Mythographus Homericus.
Irene Pajón Leyra (Madrid, 1977) is assistant professor of Greek at the University of
Seville. She has studied the Greek paradoxographic literature for her PhD, which is the
topic of her book Entre ciencia y maravilla: El género literario de la paradoxografía griega
(Zaragoza, 2011). Her fields of interest also include ancient Greek geography, history of
Greek zoology, and papyrology. She has been a researcher at the universities of Oxford
and Nice and at the Spanish High Council of Research.
Jordi Pàmias is professor at the Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona. His fields of in-
terest are Greek mythology, mythography and religion, and their scientific reception.
He is the editor of the reference text of Eratosthenes Catasterisms (Budé, 2013). His most
recent works include “The Reception of Greek Myth”, in L. Edmunds (ed.), Approaches
to Greek Myth, 2014; and “Greek Mythographic Tradition”, in R.D. Woodard (ed.),
Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography (forthcoming at Cambridge
University Press).
Lee E. Patterson is Professor of History at Eastern Illinois University, where he teaches
courses in ancient Greece, Rome, Armenia, Persia, and other areas. He is the author of
Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece (University of Texas Press, 2010). Much of his current re-
search focuses on Roman-​Armenian relations, on which he is currently writing a book
and has recent publications in Revue des Études Arméniennes and other venues.
Ezio Pellizer† held a chair in Greek literature at the University of Trieste from 1973
to 2010. He had wide ranging interests, including early archaic poetry, especially
Semonides, on whom he published an edition with Gennaro Tedeschi (Semonides:
Testimonia et fragmenta [Rome: Ateneo 1990]). He also published a number of articles
and books on myth and mythography, with which he was centrally concerned in his later
career. In 1990 he created and directed the Gruppo di Ricerca sul Mito e la Mitografia
(GRIMM) and devoted great efforts toward a digital project, DEMGOL (Dizionario
Etimologico della Mitologia On Line).
Maria Pretzler is Associate Professor in Ancient History at Swansea University (UK).
Her interests in myth and geography started with Pausanias, leading to further research
on travel writing and ancient geographers. She is author of Pausanias: Travel Writing
in Ancient Greece (Duckworth, 2007). When she is not busy following ancient writers
to the ends of the earth, she works on various aspects of Peloponnesian history, with a
focus on small communities.
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli FRHistS holds two MAs, a PhD, a Postdoc, and Habilitations
to Ordinarius. She has been Professor of Roman History, Senior Visiting Professor
 list of contributors    xvii

(Harvard; Boston U.; Columbia; Erfurt), Full Professor of Theology and Endowed Chair
(Angelicum), and Senior Fellow (Durham, twice; Princeton, 2017-​; Sacred Heart U.;
Corpus Christi; Christ Church, Oxford). She is also Professor of Theology (Durham,
hon.; KUL) and Senior Fellow/​Member (MWK; Bonn U.; Cambridge). Recent books
include Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), Social Justice (OUP 2016), Lovers of the Soul (Harvard
2021) and Patterns of Women’s Leadership (OUP 2021).
Manuel Sanz Morales is Professor of Ancient Greek at the Universidad de Extremadura
in Cáceres, Spain. He has published on Greek textual criticism, the transmission of clas-
sical texts, Greek mythography, Greek literature, and the classical tradition. His most
recent publications include Chariton of Aphrodisias’ “Callirhoe”: A Critical Edition
(Universitätsverlag Winter, 2020) and, co-​authored with Manuel Baumbach, Chariton
von Aphrodisias “Kallirhoe”: Kommentar zu den Büchern 1-​ 4 (Universitätsverlag
Winter, 2021).
Evina Sistakou is Professor of Greek Literature at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. She is the author of Reconstructing the Epic: Cross-​ Readings of the
Trojan Myth in Hellenistic Poetry (Peeters 2008), The Aesthetics of Darkness: A Study
of Hellenistic Romanticism in Apollonius, Lycophron and Nicander (Peeters 2012) and
Tragic Failures: Alexandrian Responses to Tragedy and the Tragic (De Gruyter 2016). She
has published articles on Apollonius, Callimachus, Lycophron, Euphorion, Greek epi-
gram and Hellenistic aesthetics.
R. Scott Smith is Professor of Classics at the University of New Hampshire, where he
has taught since 2000. His major field of study is ancient myth and mythography, with
special focus on the intersection of mythography, space, and geography. He is cur-
rently co-director of a digital database and map of Greek myth, MANTO: https://
manto.unh.edu. In addition, he is interested in how mythography operates in scholia
and commentaries and is undertaking a student-supported project to translate
mythographical narratives in the Homeric scholia. He also produces the podcast, The
Greek Myth Files.
Jon Solomon holds the Robert D. Novak Chair of Western Civilization and Culture at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-​Champaign. Publications include Ben-​Hur: The
Original Blockbuster (2016), Boccaccio’s Genealogy of the Pagan Gods (2011, 2017), The
Ancient World in the Cinema (1978, 20012), Ptolemy’s Harmonics (1999), and six dozen
articles/​anthology chapters in classical studies, including ancient Greek music, med-
icine, poetry, Roman cooking, and reception of Hollywood Ancients and classical
allusions in contemporary cinema
Iris Sulimani is Senior Lecturer at the Open University of Israel. She is the author of
Diodorus’ Mythistory and the Pagan Mission: Historiography and Culture-​heroes in the
First Pentad of the “Bibliotheke” (2011) and has published other works on historiography,
mythography, and geography of the Hellenistic period. She is also interested in the
 Visit https://ebookmass.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks and enjoy
exciting offers!
xviii   list of contributors

utopian idea in antiquity and is currently working on Plutarch’s biographies of mythical

figures.
Kathryn Topper is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Washington. Her
publications include The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium (Cambridge University
Press, 2012) and articles on a variety of issues in and related to Greek vase painting and
myth. Her current research focuses on the Thalamegos of Ptolemy IV Philopator and its
relationships to Dionysian cult and Egyptian religion
Stephen M. Trzaskoma is currently Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California
State University Los Angeles. Formerly, he served as Professor of Classics and Director
of the Center for the Humanities at the University of New Hampshire. His two primary
research areas are Greek prose fiction and ancient mythography, and he has published
numerous studies in these areas, as well as translated key primary sources.
Nereida Villagra is Associate Professor at the Classics Department of the University of
Lisbon, and member of the research Centre for Classical Studies of the same University.
She obtained her PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2012 and has
published papers or chapters on mythography, textual criticism and Greek literature.
She has just recently published a a co-edited volume (with Joan Pàges) Myths on the
Margins of Homer for Trends in Classics (De Gruyter) She is currently preparing a
commented edition of the Mythographus Homericus in collaboration with Joan Pagès.
Arnaud Zucker is Professor of Classics at University Côte d’Azur (France), CNRS,
Cepam. He received a Phd in Anthropology from the École Pratique des Hautes
Études and a Habilitation thesis in Classics from University Aix-​Marseille. His key re-
search topics are ancient zoology, ancient astronomy, and mythography. He is coauthor
with J. Pàmias of Ératosthène de Cyrène. Catastérismes (Belles Lettres, 2013), coeditor
of Lire les mythes (Septentrion, 2016), and author of L’encyclopédie du ciel. Mythologie,
astronomie, astrologie (Laffont, 2016).
 I n t rodu ction

R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma

1. Greek and Roman Mythography Today

In 1987 Albert Henrichs concluded an important article by noting that “[l]‌arge areas
of the history of Greek mythography are still unexplored, and several important
collections of myths lie ignored,” further admonishing us that “[m]odern interpreters
of Greek myths must constantly re-​examine and strengthen the old foundations. If
not, they build castles in the air” (1987: 267). This handbook is a testament to how dif-
ferent matters are today with regard to Henrichs’s first assessment and how little they
have changed with regard to his second. In the retrospect provided by the passage of
some three decades, Henrichs’s article seems to straddle a line that divides an earlier
period, in which mythography—​which for the moment we will define at a broad level
as ancient writing about myth or the recounting of myth in prose with no pretensions
to artistry—​and the suriving mythographical works were seen as having interest only
as sources of mythical data and variants, and our current scholarly era, when new
approaches have advanced our understanding of the aims and motivations of the works
themselves. Although mythography is yet firmly fixed in the minds of some classical
scholars as a specialist’s marginal enterprise, not only have mythographical works be-
come the object of broader and more intense study, but the very nature of mythog-
raphy has been investigated more thoroughly, and the extant texts have come to be
seen both for their continuing value as sources for Greek myth and for the inherent
interest in their role in intellectual and cultural life down to the end of antiquity and
beyond. The various chapters in this handbook are intended to take stock of that prog-
ress by carefully examining the status of the scholarship on the subject, but also to cul-
tivate additional advances by making more accessible to nonspecialists the important
mythographical authors and works and the practical and theoretical questions that
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Genesis (x. 10, 11) it is apparent that Nimrod is the name of an
individual, the traditional founder of the Babylonian-Assyrian Empire.
As Cush is here called the father of Nimrod and in verse 8 is the son
of Ham, Hebrew tradition would appear to have regarded Hamites as
the founders of the Babylonian power. Possibly the Redactor of
Genesis who combined these verses which belong to the tradition of
J with verses 5‒9 which are from “P” may have thought so. But in the
independent “J” narrative it is very probable that Cush, father of
Nimrod, represents the third or Kassite dynasty (Κοσσαῖοι) which
held sway in Babylon from about 1750‒1200 b.c. Even so, the
identification of Nimrod himself remains a puzzle, and it is not yet
possible to say whether he is a legendary or an historical character,
or partly both.

began to be a mighty one in the earth] i.e. was the first grand
monarch (for the idiom, compare Genesis ix. 20). In Genesis x. 9, he
is further and quaintly described as “a mighty hunter before the
Lord.”

¹¹And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and

Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
11. Ludim] reckoned in Jeremiah xlvi. 9 and Ezekiel xxx. 5
(Revised Version “Lud”) among the auxiliary troops of Egypt
(Mizraim). Probably not the Lydians of Asia Minor are meant, but a
people of north Africa not yet known. Both this word and Lehabim
may be variants for the Libyans, tribes west of Cyrene (compare 2
Chronicles xii. 3, xvi. 8). See also verse 17, note on Lud. Of the
Anamim, Naphtuhim, nothing is certainly known.

¹²and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whence

came the Philistines ¹), and Caphtorim.
 ¹ Hebrew Pelishtim.

12. Pathrusim] the inhabitants of Pathros (Isaiah xi. 11), i.e.

Upper Egypt.

Casluhim] not identified.

from whence came the Philistines] Elsewhere (Jeremiah xlvii. 4;

Amos ix. 7; compare Deuteronomy ii. 23) the Philistines are said to
have come from Caphtor. It is natural therefore to think that an
accidental transposition has taken place, and that this clause,
whence ... Philistines, originally followed Caphtorim. Note, however,
that the same order is found in Genesis x. 14.

Caphtorim] i.e. the inhabitants of Caphtor, which has usually

been taken to mean the island of Crete, but is also plausibly
identified with “Keftiu,” the south-west coastlands of Asia Minor.
Compare Macalister, The Philistines, pp. 4 ff.

¹³And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and

Heth;
13. Canaan begat] Of the four sons of Ham—viz. Cush, Mizraim,
Put, Canaan—note that the sons of Put are omitted. After the sons of
Cush (verse 9), and of Mizraim (verse 11), we here pass to the sons
of Canaan.

Zidon his firstborn] From the time of David downwards Tyre takes
precedence of Zidon in any mention of the Phoenician cities in the
Old Testament, but Zidon was the older of the two cities, as is here
implied and as the Roman historian Justin (xviii. 3) asserts. So we
find the Phoenicians in the earlier books of the Old Testament called
Zidonians, not Tyrians (e.g. Judges iii. 3; 1 Kings v. 6). Homer also
refers not to Tyre but to Zidon.
 Heth] i.e. the Hittites, a northern non-Semitic race, who from
about 1800‒700 b.c. were a great power, extending over part of Asia
Minor and northern Syria from the Orontes to the Euphrates. The
references to them in the Old Testament make it probable that Hittite
settlements were to be found in various parts of Palestine. This fact
and their dominant influence, circa 1300 b.c., throughout Canaan
and Phoenicia probably accounts for their inclusion as a “son” of
Canaan.

¹⁴and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the

Girgashite;
14. the Jebusite] the ancient population of Jerusalem, compare
Judges i. 21; 2 Samuel v. 6.

the Amorite] compare Numbers xiii. 29, xxi. 21; Judges i. 35. The
name (probably a racial one) was frequently used of the pre-
Israelitish inhabitants of Canaan (“Canaanites” being the
geographical description). In a more restricted sense it was used to
denote the people of Sihon, east of the Jordan.

¹⁵and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite;

¹⁶and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the
Hamathite.
15. the Hivite] In Joshua xi. 3, the Hivites are placed in the
extreme north of the land, “the Hivite under Hermon,” but the word
may be an error for Hittite (see above verse 13). In Joshua ix. 7 and
Genesis xxxiv. 2 they are located at Gibeon and Shechem. The
Arkite and Sinite lived in Lebanon, the Arvadite (compare Ezekiel
xxvii. 8) on the sea-coast north of Gebal (Byblus), the Zemarite a
little to the south of the Arvadite, and the Hamathite furthest to the
north on the Orontes.

17 (= Genesis x. 22, 23).

The Sons of Shem.
 ¹⁷The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and
Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and
Hul, and Gether, and Meshech ¹.
¹ In Genesis x. 23, Mash.

17. The sons of Shem] These occupied the middle geographical

“zone.”

Elam] is the name of a land and nation north of the Persian Gulf
and east of Babylonia, and is often referred to in the Old Testament.
Though settled by Semites at a very early date, it was subsequently,
circa 2280 b.c., possessed by a non-Semitic race, who even
extended their power over Babylonia itself. The inclusion of Elam
among the Semites is doubtless due to its proximity to Asshur, and,
though not strictly correct, is very natural.

Asshur] The Assyrians, who are so frequently referred to in the

Old Testament, were mainly, if not entirely Semitic: a martial and
ruthless people whose conquests in the 14th‒7th centuries have
made them world-famous.

Arpachshad] a somewhat obscure name. In the last part (chshad)

the same consonants occur as in the name “Chasdim,” the
“Chaldees” of the Old Testament. Possibly two names have been run
together, the second being that of the Chaldees or Chaldeans, a
Semitic race who from circa 900 b.c. dominated Babylonia,
assimilating with the earlier Semitic inhabitants. This conjecture has
some support in the surprising fact that the Chaldeans are not
otherwise mentioned in the table; it is opposed by the fact that
Arpachshad occurs elsewhere, verse 24; Genesis x. 24, xi. 10 ff.

Lud] the name suggests the Lydians, but how this non-Semitic
people situated on the west coast of Asia Minor comes to be
included with Asshur and Aram as a son of Shem is a mystery.
Possibly therefore a Semitic region, called Lubdu, between Tigris
and Euphrates is meant.

Aram] the “Syrians” of the Authorized Version; better called

Arameans. They were widely settled in the lands to the north and
north-east of Palestine, with important centres in Damascus (Syria
proper) and the north of the Euphrates valley (the Aram-Naharaim of
the Old Testament). So great and lasting was their influence on
Israel that the Aramean dialect eventually superseded Hebrew and
was the ordinary language of Palestine in the time of Christ.

Uz] From Genesis x. 23 it appears that in Chronicles the words

“And the children of Aram ¹” have dropped out, so that “Uz” etc.
appear as the immediate descendants of Shem.

¹ The Alexandrine MS. (A) of the LXX. has the words.

Neither Uz nor the three following names have been satisfactorily

identified. For “Meshech” Genesis x. 23 (Hebrew but not LXX.) reads
“Mash.”

18‒23 (= Genesis x. 24‒29).

Appendix to the Sons of Shem.
South Arabian Tribes.

¹⁸And Arpachshad begat Shelah, and Shelah

begat Eber.
18. Eber] The Hebrew word usually means “the land beyond” and
may have originated as a personification of the population beyond
the Euphrates. It is further possible that Eber is an eponym, not
merely of the Hebrews, but of the Habiri, a much wider stock of
Semitic nomads, of whom the Hebrews formed an element, and who
overran and harassed the settled peoples of Palestine in the fifteenth
century b.c.
 ¹⁹And unto Eber were born two sons: the
name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the
earth was divided; and his brother’s name was
Joktan.
19. two sons] one (Peleg) representing, roughly speaking, the
northern or Mesopotamian Semites; the other (Joktan), the south
Arabian tribes.

Peleg] see below on verse 25.

²⁰And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph,

and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah; ²¹and Hadoram,
and Uzal, and Diklah; ²²and Ebal ¹, and
Abimael, and Sheba; ²³and Ophir, and
Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of
Joktan.
¹ In Genesis x. 28, Obal.

20. Joktan begat Almodad] All the names of the sons of Joktan
here given, so far as they have been identified, represent peoples
situated in south Arabia or on the west coast of the Red Sea lying
over against south Arabia. The only familiar name is that of the
unidentified Ophir, which possibly but not certainly may be the “El
Dorado” to which Solomon sent his fleet for gold.

24‒27.
The Descent of Abraham from Shem.

These verses are compressed within the smallest limits from

Genesis xi. 10‒26. For another example of this extreme abbreviation
compare verses 1‒4 (= Genesis v. 3‒32).
 ²⁴Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah; ²⁵Eber,
Peleg, Reu; ²⁶Serug, Nahor, Terah; ²⁷Abram
(the same is Abraham).
25. Peleg] the name perhaps signifies “Division” (see verse 19),
and may refer to some great period of migration among the Semitic
tribes.

28‒31 (= Genesis xxv. 12‒16).

The Descent of the Ishmaelite Tribes from Abraham

²⁸The sons of Abraham; Isaac, and Ishmael.

²⁹These are their generations: the firstborn
of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, and Adbeel,
and Mibsam,
29. Nebaioth] Compare Isaiah lx. 7.

Kedar] Isaiah xxi. 13‒17.

³⁰Mishma, and Dumah, Massa; Hadad, and

Tema,
30. Dumah] Isaiah xxi. 11.

Massa] Proverbs xxxi. 1 (Revised Version margin).

Hadad] The name begins with the Hebrew letter Ḥēth and
therefore differs from the Hadad of verse 46 and of verse 50 and of 2
Chronicles xvi. 2 in which the first letter is Hē, a softer guttural than
Ḥeth.

Tema] Isaiah xxi. 14.

 ³¹Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the
sons of Ishmael.
31. Jetur, Naphish] compare v. 18‒22.

32, 33 (= Genesis xxv. 1‒4).

The Descent of Arabian Tribes from Abraham through
Keturah

³²And the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s

concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan,
and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and
Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and
Dedan.
32. Keturah] called a wife of Abraham in Genesis xxv. 1. The
Chronicler by calling her a concubine may imply that he considered
that the tribes descended from her were not so closely akin to Israel
as the Ishmaelites, or possibly he held that Sarah ought to be the
only wife of Abraham, and “corrects” his source accordingly.

Medan, Midian] Kindred tribes often bore names only slightly

differing in form.

Midian] In Judges viii. 14 the Midianites are reckoned as

Ishmaelites.

Sheba, and Dedan] Sheba and Dedan in verse 9 (which belongs

to the same source P) are included among the Hamitic peoples.
Doubtless the names in the present passage, which comes from J,
refer to the same tribes; but J follows a different tradition as to their
origin. Possibly there is truth in both views, and the people of Sheba
were of mixed African and Arabian descent.
 ³³And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher,
and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these
were the sons of Keturah.
33. Ephah] Isaiah lx. 6.

Hanoch] as Genesis xxv. 4. Compare verse 3.

34‒37 (compare Genesis xxxvi. 10‒14).

The Descent of the Tribes of Edom from Abraham.

³⁴And Abraham begat Isaac. The sons of

Isaac; Esau, and Israel.
³⁵The sons of Esau; Eliphaz, Reuel, and
Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah.
34. Esau] “Esau is Edom,” Genesis xxxvi. 1, 8.

³⁶The sons of Eliphaz; Teman, and Omar,

Zephi ¹, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and
Amalek. ³⁷The sons of Reuel; Nahath, Zerah,
Shammah, and Mizzah.
¹ In Genesis xxxvi. 11, Zepho.

36. Teman] Amos i. 11, 12; Habakkuk iii. 13. The word means
South, and is applied in the first passage to Edom itself, in the
second to the wilderness of Edom, both being south of Canaan.

Kenaz] Other references (Judges i. 13, iii. 9, 11) show a close

connection with Caleb, which in turn implies that the Calebites were
closely related to the Edomites (compare iv. 13).
 Amalek] the eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites who lived in
the south and south-east of Palestine, see iv. 42 f.

38‒42 (compare Genesis xxxvi. 20‒28).

The Genealogy of the Horite Inhabitants of Seir.

³⁸And the sons of Seir; Lotan and Shobal and

Zibeon and Anah, and Dishon and Ezer and
Dishan. ³⁹And the sons of Lotan; Hori and
Homam ¹: and Timna was Lotan’s sister.
¹ In Genesis xxxvi. 22, Hemam.

38. The sons of Seir] Chronicles omits the further description

given in Genesis “the Horite, the inhabitants of the land,” words
which show clearly that these “sons of Seir” were not descendants of
Esau, but aboriginal inhabitants of the land.

Lotan] perhaps to be connected with Lot, a name anciently

associated with the land or people dwelling east of the Jordan
(compare Genesis xix. 30).

⁴⁰The sons of Shobal; Alian ¹ and Manahath

and Ebal, Shephi ² and Onam. And the sons of
Zibeon; Aiah and Anah. ⁴¹The sons of Anah;
Dishon. And the sons of Dishon; Hamran ³ and
Eshban and Ithran and Cheran. ⁴²The sons of
Ezer; Bilhan and Zaavan, Jaakan ⁴. The sons
of Dishan; Uz and Aran.
¹ In Genesis xxxvi. 23, Alvan.

² In Genesis xxxvi. 23, Shepho.

 ³ In Genesis xxxvi. 26, Hemdan.

⁴ In Genesis xxxvi. 27, and Akan.

40. Aiah and Anah] See Genesis xxxvi. 24.

43‒51a (compare Genesis xxxvi. 31‒39).

The early Kings of Edom.

⁴³Now these are the kings that reigned in the

land of Edom, before there reigned any king
over the children of Israel: Bela the son of
Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
⁴⁴And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah
of Bozrah reigned in his stead. ⁴⁵And Jobab
died, and Husham of the land of the
Temanites reigned in his stead.
43. kings] Note that the kings are of different families and
localities. They may be compared with the “judges” of early Israel.

in the land of Edom] In early times the mountainous region of

Seir, extending from the south-east of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of
Akaba, but the precise territory of the Edomites is uncertain and of
course must have varied from time to time. In the post-exilic period
Edomites (Idumeans) pressed up into the south of Judah (compare
ii. 42), and Edom (Idumea) continued to play an important and often
sinister part in the history of Israel till long after the Chronicler’s
lifetime. See (e.g.) 1 Maccabees v. 65; 2 Maccabees x. 14‒17. The
Herods were of Edomite descent.

before ... Israel] i.e. before Saul; or possibly “before David,” if the
phrase means before the reign of the first Israelitish king over Edom.
For the use made of this statement in the discussion of the date of
the Hexateuch, see Chapman, Introduction to the Pentateuch, p. 40,
in this series.

Bela the son of Beor] possibly the same as the familiar Balaam
son of Beor, the consonants of the names differing in Hebrew only by
the final m. See, however, Gray, Numbers (International Critical
Commentary), pp. 315, 324.

⁴⁶And Husham died, and Hadad the son of

Bedad, which smote Midian in the field of
Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of
his city was Avith. ⁴⁷And Hadad died, and
Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead.
46. smote Midian in the field of Moab] An isolated historical
notice, interesting as showing the power of Edom at some period.
The Midianites centred round the lands east of the Gulf of Akaba, but
bands of them were constantly pushing northwards and harassing
the territories of Edom, Moab, and Israel (compare Numbers xxii. 4;
Judges vi.; etc.).

⁴⁸And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by

the River reigned in his stead. ⁴⁹And Shaul
died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor
reigned in his stead.
48. Rehoboth by the River] not “the River,” par excellence (i.e.
the Euphrates), as the Revised Version translators supposed; but
either the Wady el-Arish, the stream on the boundary of Egypt or
Palestine; or else a river in north Edom, Rehoboth being
distinguished from other places of the same name by being the city
on its banks.
 ⁵⁰And Baal-hanan died, and Hadad ¹ reigned in
his stead; and the name of his city was Pai ²:
and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the
daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-
zahab.
¹ In Genesis xxxvi. 39, Hadar.

² In Genesis xxxvi. 39, Pau.

50. Hadad] As in verse 46; in Genesis xxxvi. 39, “Hadar.”

Possibly the king whom David overthrew, 2 Samuel viii. 14, compare
1 Kings xi. 14 (perhaps a son of this Hadad).

⁵¹And Hadad died.

51a. And Hadad died] repeated by a copyist’s error from verse
47; the words are not found in Genesis.

51b‒54 (compare Genesis xxxvi. 40‒43).

The “Dukes” of Edom.

And the dukes of Edom were; duke Timna,

duke Aliah ¹, duke Jetheth; ⁵²duke Oholibamah,
duke Elah, duke Pinon; ⁵³duke Kenaz, duke
Teman, duke Mibzar; ⁵⁴duke Magdiel, duke
Iram. These are the dukes of Edom.
¹ In Genesis xxxvi. 40, Alvah.

51b. dukes] The word means “leader of a thousand.” The list

which follows is probably topographical, not chronological. It seems
to give the names of the districts into which Edom was divided at the
time when the list was drawn up.

duke Timna, etc.] Render, the duke of Timna, etc.

Aliah] In Genesis xxxvi. 40, “Alvah.”

 Chapters II.‒VIII.
The Genealogies of the Tribes of Israel.
Attention is now narrowed down to those in the true line of
descent, from Abraham through Isaac (“in Isaac shall thy seed be
called,” Genesis xxi. 12) and from Isaac through Jacob = Israel,
Genesis xxxii. 28 (compare Genesis xxvi. 2‒4).

The Chronicler deals very unequally with the tribes in their

genealogies; as the following table shows:

ii. 1‒iv. 23. Judah (102 verses).

iv. 24‒43. Simeon (20 verses).

v. 1‒26. Reuben, Gad, and Eastern Manasseh (26 verses).

vi. 1‒81. Levi (81 verses).

vii. 1‒40. Issachar, Zebulun, and Dan (according to a

correction of the text, vii. 6‒11, and 12), Naphtali,
Eastern Manasseh (again), Ephraim, and Asher (40
verses).

viii. 1‒40. Benjamin (40 verses).

It may easily be seen that the tribes in which the Chronicler is

really interested are the three southern tribes, Judah, Simeon, and
Benjamin, together with the priestly tribe, Levi.

The order in which the tribes are mentioned is geographical,

Judah and Simeon the southern tribes first, then the eastern tribes,
Reuben, Gad, Manasseh; then (conveniently) Levi, and then the
northern tribes of western Palestine, ending with Benjamin (viii., ix.
35‒44) and the list of inhabitants of Jerusalem (in ix. 1‒34).

Chapter II.
1, 2 (compare Genesis xxxv. 22b‒26).
The Sons of Israel.

¹These are the sons of Israel; Reuben,

Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar and
Zebulun; ²Dan, Joseph and Benjamin,
Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
II. 3‒IV. 23.
Genealogies of Judah.

3‒17.
Descendants of Judah to the Sons of Jesse.

³The sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, and

Shelah: which three were born unto him of
Bath-shua the Canaanitess. And Er, Judah’s
firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord;
and he slew him. ⁴And Tamar his daughter in
law bare him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of
Judah were five. ⁵The sons of Perez; Hezron
and Hamul.
 5. The sons of Perez; Hezron and Hamul] So Genesis xlvi. 12.
The only reference in the Old Testament to Hamulites is Numbers
xxvi. 21. On the other hand Hezron, a south Judean tribe (Joshua xv.
3), is a clan of the first importance in the genealogies. From Hezron
are descended not only the family of David (verse 15), but also the
great Calebite and Jerahmeelite clans (verses 18‒24, 25‒33, etc.).
The name Hezron might bear the significance “an enclosed place” as
opposed to movable encampments, and Atarah (verse 26) who is
said to be the mother of certain Jerahmeelite families has much the
same meaning. Both names therefore may not be eponymous either
of individuals or places, but may originate in the desire to preserve
the fact that the families named as their sons were nomads who had
abandoned wandering for settled life. If so, it might help to explain
the fact that Hezron (compare Carmi, ii. 7, iv. 1, v. 3) is also
mentioned as a son of Reuben (v. 3; Genesis xlvi. 9, etc.).

⁶And the sons of Zerah; Zimri ¹, and Ethan, and

Heman, and Calcol, and Dara ²: five of them in
all.
¹ In Joshua vii. 1, Zabdi.

² Many ancient authorities read, Darda. See 1 Kings iv. 31.

6. the sons of Zerah] This genealogy appears only in Chronicles.

Zimri] LXX. (B) Ζαμβρεί (β being merely euphonic) here and also
Joshua vii. 1 where Hebrew has “Zabdi.” LXX. is probably right in
identifying the two. Either form might arise from the other by easy
textual corruption.

Ethan ... Dara] Read, Darda with Vulgate, Targum, Peshitṭa The
same four names in the same order occur 1 Kings iv. 31 as the
names of wise men whom Solomon surpassed in wisdom. They are
there called sons of “Mahol” who may have been either a nearer or
remoter ancestor than Zerah. Ethan however is there called the
Ezrahite (= probably “son of Zerah”). [Psalms lxxxviii., lxxxix. bear
respectively the names “Heman the Ezrahite,” “Ethan the Ezrahite,”
but these (it seems) were Levites (compare xv. 17, 19, where see
note).]

⁷And the sons of Carmi; Achar ¹, the troubler of

Israel, who committed a trespass in the
devoted thing. ⁸And the sons of Ethan;
Azariah.
¹ In Joshua vii. 1, Achan.

7. the sons of Carmi] Carmi is probably to be taken as the son of

Zimri (= Zabdi, Joshua vii. 1). Targum however has “Carmi who is
Zimri.” See note on Zimri, verse 6.

Achar] This form of the name (instead of “Achan,” Joshua vii. 1)

is used by the Chronicler to bring out better the play on the Hebrew
word for “troubler.” The Hebrew runs, “Achar ocher Israel.”

⁹The sons also of Hezron, that were born unto

him; Jerahmeel, and Ram, and Chelubai.
9. Jerahmeel] For his descendants see verses 25‒41. The
descendants of his younger brother Ram are given first. They
purport to be the ancestry of David and his family.

Chelubai] Another form of “Caleb”; see note on verse 42.

¹⁰And Ram begat Amminadab; and

Amminadab begat Nahshon, prince of the
children of Judah; ¹¹and Nahshon begat
Salma, and Salma begat Boaz; ¹²and Boaz
begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse;
 10. Ram] The descent of David from Judah is given also in Ruth
iv. 18‒22 and Matthew i. 3‒6. Ram as a clan parallel with the great
clans of Caleb and Jerahmeel is strange; for it is not known
otherwise in the Old Testament Further, as the descendants of Ram
given in verses 10‒12 are the family tree of David (contrast the clans
and cities in the lines of Caleb and Jerahmeel) it may be supposed
that Ram owes his position here simply to the Chronicler’s desire to
incorporate Ruth iv. 19, where also this pedigree of David is given.
Note also that in verse 25 a Ram is mentioned as a son of
Jerahmeel and grandson of Hezron.

Nahshon, prince, etc.] See Numbers i. 4, 7, ii. 3.

¹³and Jesse begat his firstborn Eliab, and

Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third;
13. Shimea] so also xx. 7; but “Shammah” 1 Samuel xvi. 9.

¹⁴Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth;

14. Nethanel] the same name as Nathanael (John i. 45). The
fourth, fifth and sixth brothers are not elsewhere named.

¹⁵Ozem the sixth, David the seventh:

15. David the seventh] Jesse had eight sons (1 Samuel xvii. 12;
compare xvi. 10, 11). Here one seems deliberately passed over,
perhaps because he had no children. (The Elihu “one of David’s
brethren” of 1 Chronicles xxvii. 18 is probably to be identified with
Eliab and not to be regarded as an eighth brother.)

¹⁶and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail.

And the sons of Zeruiah; Abishai ¹, and Joab,
and Asahel, three.
 ¹ Hebrew Abshai.

16. sons of Zeruiah] Joab and his brothers are always thus
named after their mother; perhaps their father died while they were
young, or we may have a relic here of the ancient method of tracing
kinship through the mother.

¹⁷And Abigail bare Amasa: and the father of

Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
17. the Ishmaelite] 2 Samuel xvii. 25, “the Israelite,” an error
yielding no satisfactory sense.

18‒24 (compare verses 42‒55.)

Descendants of Caleb.

¹⁸And Caleb the son of Hezron begat children

of Azubah his wife, and of Jerioth: and these
were her sons; Jesher, and Shobab, and
Ardon. ¹⁹And Azubah died, and Caleb took
unto him Ephrath, which bare him Hur.
18. Caleb] a clan dwelling in southern Judea, and probably
distinct from Judah in the time of David (1 Samuel xxv. 3, xxx. 14).
Other references to them or rather their reputed founder Caleb ben
Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Numbers xxxii. 12; Joshua xiv. 6, 14; 1
Chronicles i. 36, where see note on Kenaz) point to an original
connection with the Edomites. Their importance in these lists is
explained by the fact that they were incorporated in Judah, and, after
the exile, occupied townships close to Jerusalem (verses 50‒55)
“forming possibly the bulk of the tribe in post-exilic Judah, since the
Chronicler knows so few other families” (Curtis, Chronicles p. 89).
See also W. R. Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 279
ad fin.