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RECHABITES

(Heb. rēḵāḇîm)

Followers of Jehonadab, who joined Jehu in his revolt against the house of Ahab (2 Kgs. 10:15-17); named after Rechab, the father or ancestor of Jehonadab. During the reign of Jehoiakim the Rechabites are described as a religiously conservative group (Jer. 35), characterized by a vow not to drink wine and strong opposition against Baalism and some practices of a settled agricultural society. Jeremiah uses the Rechabites as an example of religious obedience, in stark contrast to the people of Israel and Judah. The Rechabites also appear in genealogical lists where they seem to be associated with the Kenites (1 Chr. 2:55; 4:11-12). Also, a pseudepigraphon variously titled The History of the Rechabites or The Story of Zosimus contains an expanded exegesis of Jer. 35.

Developmentalist anthropological theory used the “doctrine of cultural survivals” to interpret the Rechabites’ abstention from wine, their dwelling in tents, and their disdain of agriculture as remnants of a much older nomadic way of life. Diffusionist theories led to the rejection of the Rechabites as survivors of earlier nomadism and reinterpreted them as the result of the contact and interaction between different groups within a given culture. Their way of life is compared to that of the prophets, abstaining because alcohol would impair their prophetic capacity and itinerating in protest of the evils of urban society. The occurrence of Rechabites in genealogies gave rise to the view that they were a guild of ancient metalworkers, organized on the model of families and known for their endogamous lines and lengthy genealogies.

Comparative research on the role of ritual self-demarcation as a substitute for actual power and the need for symbolical self-assertion by marginalized communities may provide more satisfactory hypotheses in the future to understand the enigmatic Rechabites.

Bibliography. F. S. Frick, “The Rechabites Reconsidered,” JBL 90 (1971): 279-87; C. Knights, “Who Were the Rechabites?” ExpTim 107 (1995-96): 137-40; K. van der Toorn, “Ritual Resistance and Self-Assertion: The Rechabites in Early Israelite Religion,” in Pluralism and Identity, ed. J. Platvoet and van der Toorn (Leiden, 1995), 229-59.

Hendrik L. Bosman

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RECHABITES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)