According to the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

, Merari (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: , ''Mərārî'') was one of the sons of Levi, and the patriarchal founder of the

Merarite The Merarites were one of the four main divisions among the Levites in Biblical times. The Bible claims that the Merarites were all descended from the eponymous Merari, a son of Levi, although some biblical scholars regard this as a postdictional m ...

s, one of the four main divisions among the Levites in

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

times. The

word ''Merari'' means ''sad'', ''bitter'' or ''strong'' (in the sense that a dish with a bitter taste might be said to have a "strong" taste). The Merarites were charged with the transportation and care of the structural components of the tabernacle. Richard Elliott Friedman attributes the genealogy to the Book of Generations, a document originating from a similar religiopolitical group and date to the

priestly source The Priestly source (or simply P) is perhaps the most widely recognized of the sources underlying the Torah. It is both stylistically and theologically distinct from other material in the Torah, and includes a set of claims that are contradicted b ...

. According to some biblical scholars, the Torah's genealogy for Levi's descendants is actually an

aetiological Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the levites - the Gershonites,

Kohathites The Kohathites were one of the four main divisions among the Levites in biblical times, the other three being the Gershonites, the Merarites, and the Aaronites (more commonly known as Kohanim). The Bible claims that the Kohathites were all descende ...

, Merarites, an
Aaronids
according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, ''Levite'' was originally just a job title, deriving from the Minaean word ''lawi'u'' meaning ''priest'', rather than having been the name of a tribe.

References

{{reflist Book of Numbers people Levites Tribe of Levi

See also

References