well our best information is that historically converts could not marry into priestly families -- josephus makes a to-do about it when he is given a wife by the emperor and finally when he dumps his illegal wife that emperor had given him and marries a priestly wife he feels relieved, rabbinic literature also prefers that priests marry "connected" (read priestly) wives. the claims about the rechabite women's ability to marry into priestly families are based on a special status they receive from Moses-- "all the days", and jeremiah's wording "before the Lord always." and we can trace another tradition in this regard-- moses tells the israelites to love the "ger" (understood by the rabbis as "convert") and give him bread and rainment-- say the rabbis-- bread, the temple showbread; rainment-- priestly clothes. -- allow his descendants to marry into priestly families. the rabbis were extraordinarily generous towards converts-- but that does not mean any converts were priests. of course, they were not.
Herb ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Brooks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 6:25 PM Subject: Re: orion-list Jeremiah's Eternal Priesthood, the Rechabim > > Ian writes: > > On page 229 of JBJ Eisenman writes "We shall see below how the > > Rabbinic tradition also connects these "Rechabites" [..] with the > > High Priest or High Priest class..." Then on page 241 he writes "If > > we keep in mind the Rabbinic notices above that "the sons" or > > "daughters of the Rechabites" married those of the High Priest..." > > The trouble is, looking "below" page 229 and "above" page 241, I > > could find no Rabbinic tradition cited... > > ***** > > Geof writes: > > On page 999 of JBJ, note 22, Eisenman writes: '....followed by the > > tradition in the Yalkut on Jer.35.12, that the grandsons of the > Rechabites > > served in the Temple and their daughters married the sons of the > Priests.' > > > I have foolishly let go of my copy of JAMES THE BROTHER OF JESUS. > > But I specifically remember a footnote that quotes the 2 sections of > Talmud that testify to Rechabites gaining entre into the priestly world > by marrying the children of the High Priest. > > I wish I had the footnotes right in front of me.... but if someone > has a copy of the book in front of them... it should be straightforward > to find. > > I will be responding to some of the other posts today or tomorrow. > > George Brooks > Tampa, FL > For private reply, e-mail to "Herb Basser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
