Manhunter analysis - part 70: The relationship between Katz and Zeller

CATEGORY: MOVIES     [Hidden plot related]

In order to help determine what is going on between Beverly Katz, the woman who does the hair analyses on the tissue note, and Brian Zeller (the fibers analyst) who 'betrays' her by divulging the truth to Will Graham (i.e., that Molly is committing incest with Kevin), we need to start at a very early point in biblical history, in specific, during the time of Noah.

The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah which appears in Genesis 10 of the Hebrew bible, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective. The significance of Noah in this context is that, according to the Hebrew bible (Genesis 6), the population of the Earth was completely destroyed during the Flood because of the wickedness of the Earth's inhabitants. Noah and his family were the sole survivors to continue the human race; consequently, all humans on Earth are descendant from him. A literal interpretation of Genesis 10 suggests that the present population of the world was descended from Noah's three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. Until the mid-19th century, this was taken by many as historical fact, and still is by many Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

Shem is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each to have yielded different translations. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arpachshad. Shem signifies name or renown (the Scriptures have been given to us through the family of Shem, and Christ was of that family).

Japheth is often regarded as the youngest son, though some traditions regard him as the eldest. They are listed in the order Shem, Ham, and Japheth in Genesis 5:32 and 9:18, but treated in the reverse order in chapter 10. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of the Europeans. In the bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madi.

Some writers have associated Noah's sons with different skin colors or alleged races. For instance the Jewish text Pirqei R. Eliezer, depicts God as dividing the Earth among Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and attributing different skin colors to them (literally, —'blessing' them with different skin colors): light colored skin for the Japhetites, and medium dark or brown for the Semites, and dark brown or black for the Hamites.[a]

With the above in mind, let us now examine Katz's and Zeller's names:

As indicated in part 64 of the analysis, Katz is a frequent German surname, and that it is also a common Ashkenazi Jewish surname. It is an abbreviation formed from the initials of the name Kohen Tzedeq, and has been used since the seventeenth century, or perhaps somewhat earlier, as an epithet of the descendants of Aaron. In the Hebrew bible, Aaron, sometimes called 'Aaron the Levite', was the brother of Moses, and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites. Aaron was descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and thus from Noah’s son Shem.[b] Since Beverly Katz has brownish skin, we see that she could represent a descendant of Shem. However, based on her last name alone, she could represent an Ashkenazi Jew.

Zeller: like Katz, Zeller is a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname. In Hebrew the word Askhenaz designates the region of middle Europe now known as Germany. The patriarch Ashkenaz was Gomer’s first son, and thus descended from Japheth. In Rabbinical texts Ashkenaz is believed to be the ancestor of the Germanic, Scandinavian and Slavic peoples, because of the similarity of the names Gomer and German, and the similarity of Ashkenaz to the name of the mythological founder of the Germans and Scandinavians Aschanes or Askanius (German) and Ask (Scandinavian).[c] Since Brian Zeller has white skin, he represents a descendant of Japheth, and if we go according to the Rabbinical texts, he represents an Ashkenazi Jew.

If our 'skin color theory' is correct, then as stated, since Katz's skin is light brown, she is a descendant of Shem. As to why a woman character, not a man, is being used here to represent a descendant of Noah, recall that we said earlier in the analysis that the name 'Beverly' is androgynous. Then, it seems the clue is contained in the writings of the English poet, William Blake: referring to Shem, Blake says that he is "the Female-Male, a Male within a Female hid as in an Ark & Curtains."[d]

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim, are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany. Thus, Ashkenazim or Ashkenazi Jews are literally "German Jews." Later, Jews from Western and Central Europe came to be called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany.[e]


a. Wikipedia, 'Generations of Noah'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_of_Noah.
b. Wikipedia, 'Katz (surname)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_(surname).
c. Wikipedia, 'Ashkenaz'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenaz.
d. Blake, William, Milton, a Poem 37:38 and Jerusalem 75:13, The Complete Writings of William Blake, Ed. Geoffrey Keynes, Nonesuch Press, 1957, in Damon, Samuel Foster and Morris Eaves, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake, Brown, 1988, p. 371.
e. Wikipedia, 'Ashkenazi Jews'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews.