Michael - good question. I've written more about ...

2009-11-09T21:28:16.745-06:00

Michael - good question. I've written more about this in a brief article that I will send you directly by email.

"According to 1 Samuel 10:2, her tomb was in the t...

2009-11-09T12:52:07.596-06:00

"According to 1 Samuel 10:2, her tomb was in the tribal territory of Benjamin, which begins five miles north along the Hinnom Valley of Jerusalem. So all this expense and rancor is over Jews who want to pray at what likely was originally the tomb of a Muslim holy man!"

While I'm open to skepticism, I am curious about the full details. Genesis 35:19 identifies her grave site as "on the road to Ephrath, which is Beth Lehem". Can this be in the Binyamin location? If there is any discrepancy between those identifications, have there been attempts to explain it?

Assuming there is no contradiction, whose word are the two sides taking for the identification of the site? The Muslim claim that the site is the "Bilal ibn Rabah", not kever Rahel, dates back a full nine years. I'm guessing that the 1700-year Jewish claim was probably staked "officially" by Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, i.e. the Ari z"l. Of course, such a claim would be taken on faith, as would the claim that this is simply a Muslim burial place. (I took some info from http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=1923)

Comments on BiblePlaces Blog: Rachel’s Tomb, Then and Now

Michael - good question. I've written more about ...

"According to 1 Samuel 10:2, her tomb was in the t...