"Father's house" () in the Old Testament: family? family?

“Father’s House” () in the Old Testament: Family? or Household?

Tony HK SHER

Whenever the topic “Family in the Old Testament” is discussed the term “Father’s House” (

) often turns up. This term is generally taken as the standard term for “family” in the Old Testament, and it is commonly regarded as referring both to the blood relation of the Israelites and to the basic unit of the ancient Israelite society. However , the two meanings have different coverage. As referring to blood relation, it applies to Israelites with direct kinship only. As referring to the basic unit of the ancient Israelite society, it applies to everyone in the household, including both Israelites and the non- Israelites. Can the term be used to mean both? This paper sets out to survey the usage of the term in the Old Testament and to find out what the term refers to in different contexts. After studying all 151 occurrences of the term in the Old Testament, the writer concludes that “

” is a special term that can only be used to represent the blood relationship of the Israelites. It refers to an Israelite's genealogy or blood line, or his blood relatives. It is often used together with terms like “clan”, “tribe” and “people” to represent different levels of the kinship among the Israelites. In this sense the term applies to Israelites only. However, the result of the survey also shows that when the term “house” is used by itself it has a much broader meaning ; it covers everything and everyone in the “household”, both the Israelites and the non-Israelites..