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2 Genesis, Chapter 30 - a baby race and speckled cows --

2012-05-19T19:42:17Z

The New American Bible maintains that this chapter was written by the Yahwist (J) Source.

   30:1 "And when Rach-el saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rach-el envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
   30:2 "And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rach-el: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from the the fruit of they womb?
   30:3 "And she said, Behold my maid, Bilhah, go in unto her (I've never known a wife more accommodating than these biblical ladies - as Will Smith said in the film, Independence Day, "I gotta get me one of dese --!"); and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her."

In notes to this chapter, The New American Bible informs us that "In the ancient near East, a father would take a newborn child in his lap to signify that he acknowledged it as his own. Rach-el uses this ceremony in order to adopt the child and establish her legal rights to it." Of course, if you can envision the image of a delivering Bilhah, her legs spread, astride a seated Rach-el's legs, as the midwife reaches between Rach-el's legs for access to Bilhah's descending baby, it could seem to Rach-el's imagination that the baby is coming from her - Bilhah gets the pain, Rach-el gets the baby.

   30:4 "And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
   30:5 "And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob a son.
   30:6 "And Rach-el said, God hath judged me, and hath heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan."

The New American Bible relates that "Dan," had as its origin in ancient Hebrew, "dannanni," which meant, "He has vindicated me." Again, we see "Dan" as just a name, while in those days, among those people, "He has vindicated me" would have been the child's actual name - who would do that to a child? I doubt that anyone would, but it makes for a good story, and illustrates that these people were continually conscious of their dependence upon the will of their god, El Shaddai, whether outside of biblical fiction, they were or not.

30:7 "And Bilhah Rach-el's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son.
30:8 "And Rach-el said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed (and it would appear, discovered a new Olympic sport!): and she called his name Naphtali."

The New American Bible states that the name, Naphtali, originates from, "Naptule Elohim niptaltia," which meant, "in a divine wrestling match, I have wrestled," apparently foreshadowing an upcoming event in a later chapter, and confirming that the idea of a "divine wrestling match" was already present in the original oral legends. TNAB suggests that it implies the concept of an ordeal.

   30:9 "When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob to wife.
   30:10 "And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son.
   30:11 "And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad."

"Gad," according to The New American Bible, simply meant, "in luck!" or in more common phraseology, "What luck!"

30:12 "And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son.
30:13 "And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher (No mention of what Zilpah said)."

The New American Bible tells us that "Asher" is explained by the Hebrew word, "beoshri," meaning, "in my good fortune," and by the term, "ishsheruni," "they call me fortunate."

30:14 "And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rach-el said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes."

OK, let's take a well-deserved break here and talk about mandrakes.
While all parts of the mandrake plant are toxic, apparently not lethally so, as the root has been found to contain hyoscine, a powerful alkaloid, with the ability to cause hallucinations, delirium, and in larger doses, coma, but as it was believed to boost fertility, I suppose a few hallucinations and a touch of delirium were a cheap price to pay - in fact, there are people who will pay a price just for the hallucinations and delirium (though I know none of these personally). Ironically, in this instance, Leah got pregnant, while Rach-el, despite the mandrakes, did not - one would think that should have told them something.

Mandrake, with root

Others, however, began to wonder whether the possession of the roots might not bring them success in other areas as well - wealth, popularity, or the power to control their own and other people's destinies, and took to wearing them as good luck charms. Not surprisingly, the Church frowned upon this practice and when, during her trial in 1431, Joan of Arc was accused of having a mandrake about her person, the suggestion helped send her to the stake. Do you suppose that was the source of her "celestial voices"?

   30:15 "And she (Leah) said unto her (Rach-el) Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rach-el said, therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes.
   30:16 "And Jacob came out of the field in the evening (interesting, that while at home in Isaac's camp, for the first 77 years of his life, Jake was practically a Momma's-boy house plant, while Esau was (Genesis, 25:27) "a man of the field" - amazing how the authors can change the storyline at will, to serve their ends), and Leah went out to meet him (Doubtless singing to herself, "I'm gonna get laid tonight, la, la, la, la, la --"), and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
   30:17 "And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.
   30:18 "And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my handmaiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar."

The New American Bible explains the name, "Issachar" by the term, "sekari," meaning , "my reward," and from "sakor sekartika," referring to 30:16, and meaning, "I have paid for you."

30:19 "And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son (that girl is really cranking them out!).
30:20 "And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowery; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun."

"Zebulun," we're told by The New American Bible, is, as might be expected from Mesopotamia, in transition from an Akkadian-dominated region, to an Ammorite-dominated one, is from an Akkadian word, "zebullum," meaning, "bridegroom's gift." I'll bet that poor kid never got to keep any of his lunch money at school. Still, it's gotta be better than, "Supplanter."

30:21 "And afterwards, she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah."

That's it? No long, drawn out interesting story, no explanation as to why she chose the name as we have seen in previous verses, just, she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. Short and sweet. Could it possibly be, because Dinah was a girl in a society where girls had no value? There's a good possibility that the only reason she was mentioned at all, is that she plays a crucial, though passive, role in an upcoming episode. In fact, it might be wise to view all of these, not as actual people, but rather as characters in a story, as they tend to pop in and fade out, and even change their basic characteristics, as in the case of Jacob, according to what is required to advance the storyline.

   30:22 "And God remembered Rach-el, and God hearkened unto her, and opened her womb (he even brushed away the cobwebs).
   30:23 "And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
   30:24 "And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son."

According to The New American Bible, "yosep," i.e., "may he add," is the etymology of the name, "Joseph."

   30:25 "And it came to pass, when Rach-el had born Joseph, that Jacob (who was now 91) said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my own country.
   30:26 "Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.
   30:27 "And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.
   30:28 "And he (Laban) said, Appoint me thy wages and I will give it.
   30:29 "And he (Jake) said unto him (Laban) Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
   30:30 "For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased into a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now, when shall I provide for mine own house also?
   30:31 "And he (Laban) said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again keep and feed thy flock.
   30:32 "I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such will be my hire.
   30:33 "So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me."

Translation: Jake will cull through Laban's herds of cattle, goats and sheep, taking only those livestock of abnormal coloration for his own, as his wages, and if any of normal coloration should be found among Jakes's newly-formed herd, Jacob agrees in advance that Laban may rightfully consider them stolen. The New American Bible informs us that in the Near East, the normal color of cattle is a solid one, that sheep are normally light gray, and that goats are typically brown or black, which would mean that the livestock chosen by Jacob would have been those in the minority, hence he is asking a very small wage for his salary, which to the surreptitious, greedy Laban, would at first glance sound like a bargain. But Jake has a plan --

   30:34 "And Laban said, behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
   30:35 "And he (Jake) removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
   30:36 "And he (Laban) set three day's journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks (they want you to know that Laban couldn't see what Jake was doing).
   30:37 "And Jacob took him rods of poplar (a variety of tree), and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled (peeled) white strakes (streaks) in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
   30:38 "And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink."

Before you try this at home with your family dog, expecting a parti-colored litter, be advised that it doesn't work - apparently it was an old wives tale of the time. The New American Bible tells us, "Jacob's strategem was based on the wide-spread notion among simple people that visual stimuli can have prenatal effects on the offspring of breeding animals. Thus the rods on which Jacob had whittled stripes or bands or chevron marks were thought to cause the female goats that looked at them to bear kids with lighter-colored marks on their dark hair, while the gray ewes were thought to bear lambs with dark marks on them by visual crossbreeding with the dark goats."
Those kinds of beliefs die hard. When I was five, my mother was pregnant with my sister. I, one Spring morning, was playing on our shaded front porch, when suddenly a centipede appeared. I called to my mother in a panic. In those days, it was a commonly held belief that the bite of a centipede was fatal, and though it is toxic and painful, fatal, it's not. My mother ran out, grabbed a hoe, and hacked it to pieces, then, in a gesture of relief, clasped her right hand to the left side of her chest. Four or five months later, my baby sister was born, with a linear, strawberry birthmark that certainly resembled the disjointed segments of the late centipede, located exactly where my mother had clasped her chest. Logic tells me that there cannot possibly be a connection, but I must admit, enlightened as I am as a 21st Century man, a small part of me is mystified at such a degree of coincidence. It's certainly easy to see how those of societies without scientific backgrounds, could well have accepted my above story as a perfectly valid example of cause and effect.

   30:39 "And the flocks conceived before the rods (of course they did --) and brought forth cattle that were ringstraked, speckled and spotted.
   30:40 "And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not into Laban's cattle.
   30:41 "And it came to pass, that whenever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive before the rods.
   30:42 "But when the cattle were feeble, he put them (the rods) not in: so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's.
   30:43 "And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels (though they hadn't yet been domesticated), and asses."

So -- I guess now would be a good time to once again trot out the Abraham Family Tree, since this chapter has certainly added a bunch of branches.

    Now Jacob has 11 of his 12 sons that will ultimately comprise the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and a disposable daughter. Stay tuned.

    When we last left The Faking of the Bible, all four Sources had been combined by the Redactor into the Torah, or Pentateuch, around 400 BCE.
    The Torah was then incorporated into what came to be known as the Septuagint (meaning, the seventy), the Greek version of the Old Testament. Four versions of the Septuagint exist today:
   •   Biblia Polyglotta Complutensis, A. D. 1514-1617
   •   The Aldine Edition, Venice, A. D. 1518.
   •   The Roman Edition, edited under Pope Sixtus V. , A. D. 1587
   •   Fac-simile Edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, by H. H. Baber, A. D. 1816.

   In 333 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered Syria and the Levant. Jerusalem opened its gates to him, and he entered without a struggle, according to the historian, Josephus. Alexander was shown the book of Daniel's prophecy, presumably Chapter 8, which described a mighty Greek king who would conquer the Persian Empire. The next year, 332, he moved on to Egypt, where he was viewed by the Egyptians as a liberator.
   While Aramaic had replaced Hebrew as the language of the Levant, Alexandrian Greek soon became the predominant language of Egyptian Jews, who migrated to Alexandria in large numbers after the Alexandrian conquest, and lived there during the reign of the Ptolemys. Thus the Codex Alexandrinus was originally written by those Jews, in Greek, with a targum - an accompanying, parallel translation of the Greek into Aramaic.
    The translation was begun in the time of the earlier Ptolemies, about 280 BCE. The commonly accepted story respecting its origin is contained in a letter ascribed to Aristeas, who was an officer at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The letter is addressed by Aristeas to his brother Philocrates and gives a glowing account of the origin of the Septuagint. On the advice of Demetrius Phalereus, librarian of the great Library established at Alexandria, King Ptolemy sent to the high priest at Jerusalem "thirty talents of gold and seventy talents of silver," requesting reliable translators. As a show of good faith, Ptolemy also set free a number of Jewish slaves, paying the ransom himself.
   In response, the high priest chose six interpreters from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These were sent to Egypt, along with a copy of the Torah, written in letters of gold. A great feast was prepared for the seventy-two, which continued for seven days. During this time, the translators were asked rounds of pertinent, qualifying questions and their responses duly noted and catalogued. This process finished, the interpreters were were lodged in a villa by the seashore, where the Jerusalem Seventy-Two finished their work in - I just know you're not going to believe this - seventy-two days.
    Unfortunately, it is now generally admitted that the letter was a forgery and was probably the fabrication of an Alexandrian Jew shortly before the Christian era.
   The law (i.e., the Pentateuch/the Torah) alone was translated at first. The remainder was translated sometime over the next hundred years. One result of the Alexandrian conquests - which included the entire area of the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia (Iran), and territory all the way to India - was that they spread a unifying common language, Greek. The Septuagint was responsible for spreading knowledge of the Jewish religion throughout the region, and later, Christianity as well. Smith's Bible Dictionary relates that the writers of the New Testament (originally written entirely in Alexandrian Greek) drew heavily on the Septuagint for information.
   However, Smith's also admits that the Alexandrian Septuagint was somewhat lacking in accuracy - names and words were rendered differently in different books, and there were other differences as well, but maintains that overall, the message, if not the medium, is true to the original. It sums the situation thusly, "...we may perhaps say of it that it is the image of the original seen through a glass not adjusted to the proper focus; the larger features are shown, but the sharpness of definition is lost."
    The Jewish Virtual Library gives a prime example, saying, "there are words they can't translate into Greek, such as 'berit,' which they translate 'diatheke,' or 'promise' (in Latin and English, the word is incorrectly translated 'covenant')." It further assures that "Despite these imperfections, the Septuagint is a watershed in Jewish history. More than any other event,...this translation would make the Hebrew religion into a world religion....(that) would otherwise have faded from memory like the infinity of Semitic religions that have been lost to us."
   Damn those Greeks! Now look what they went and done --

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx

2 Genesis, Chapter 29 - A labor of love --

2012-04-15T03:27:19Z

In many ancient cultures, fathers, who view daughters only as extra mouths to feed and little else, have been, in many cases, willing to pay another man a bribe to take the girl off his hands. That bribe has come to be known as a dowry. Laban, the Syrian, was a apparently a little craftier than most, as we shall see as the saga unfolds.
Much as in the Isaac story, this one also begins at a well.

   29:1 "Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.
   29:2 "And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well's mouth.
   29:3 "And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place (it was a male stone).
   29:4 "And Jacob said unto them, My brethern, whence be ye? And they said, of Haran are we.
   29:5 "And he said unto them, Know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him.
   29:6 "And he said unto them, Is he well? and they said, He is well: and behold, Rach-el his daughter cometh with the sheep (what a coincidence!).
   29:7 "And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them."

It should be obvious that Jake was angling to get rid of those guys so he could grab some alone-time with the approaching Rach-el, but two questions already leap to mind. How does he feel he has the authority to order these men around? Secondly, didn't they just water the sheep in 29:3?

29:8 "And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth."

Again, guys, check your script, re-read 29:3 - you already rolled away the stone, watered the sheep, and rolled the stone back into his place! One would think an omnipotent god could do a better job of divinely inspiring Moses' ghost-writers into at least keeping their stories straight.
Here we have an artist's depiction of what 14-year old Rach-el* must have looked like carrying her little 2-gallon water jug to haul water for an entire flock of sheep. Note a very spry-looking 77-year old Jacob,** reclining on a rock, with a shepherd's crook in his hand, despite the fact that he barely escaped to Haran with only the clothes on his back. Artists, throughout the Christian era, have worked overtime to glamorize the biblical stories, which has gone far toward perpetuating these myths as romantic fact.

Rach-el at the Well

   29:9 "And while he yet spake with them, Rach-el came with her father's sheep: for she kept them (Enter Little Bo Peep!).
   29:10 "And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rach-el the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth (again), and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother (I must assume that by now, you're thoroughly aware that Laban was Jake's mother's brother).
   29:11 "And Jacob kissed Rach-el, and lifted up his voice and wept (I usually introduce myself to the girl first, before the kissing and the weeping, but that's just me --).
   29:12 "And Jacob told Rach-el that he was her father's brother (maybe they didn't have a word for 'cousin'), and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father.

A wise girl would have run to tell Daddy as soon as a strange man began kissing her and bawling, but I'm guessing "Stranger Danger" was a foreign concept in those days.

29:13 "And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embrace him, and kissed him and brought him to his house. And he (Jake) told Laban all these things."

I know I've mentioned the seemingly ridiculous stories compiled by Louis Ginzberg in his book, Legends of the Jews, but because they've, for the most part, been so absurd, I've chosen not to waste time and space repeating them, content with providing you a link, should you choose to pursue them yourself. But it occurred to me, that without at least furnishing a sample, it's not fair for me to expect you to understand the full degree of their absurdity. The information in them is found nowhere in the Bible, nor in any other reputable source I recognize. It's as though they took a Bible passage, then said, "OK, how can we spin this so that it will demonize Jacob's antagonist, while presenting Jacob in the most favorable light." Just to give you an example, so you won't think I'm exaggerating, let's take verse 29:13, above, and let me tell you what Legends has to say about it. In this instance, rather than their favorite whipping boy, Esau, it's the admittedly deceptive Laban they've chosen to demonize:

"In great haste Laban ran to receive Jacob. He reflected, if Eliezer, the bondman, had come with ten camels (to get Rebekah), what would not the favorite son of the family bring with him, and when he saw that Jacob was unattended, he concluded that he carried great sums of money in his girdle, and he threw his arms about his waist to find out whether his supposition was true. Disappointed in this, he yet did not give up hope that his nephew Jacob was a man of substance. Perhaps he concealed precious stones in his mouth, and he kissed him in order to find out whether he had guessed aright."

From the simple verse above, it was concluded that Laban's embrace was in fact a "pat down," to search for money bags, and the kiss an oral cavity inspection to check for jewels. With this kind of imagination working overtime to legitimize a religion, it's amazing that there are those who can still say with certainty, that they believe the Bible is inerrant.

   29:14 "And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he (Jake) abode with him (Laban) the space of a month.
   29:15 "And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for naught (nothing)? tell me, what shall thy wages be?
   29:16 "And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rach-el.
   29:17 "Leah was tender eyed; but Rach-el was beautiful and well favored.
   29:18 "And Jacob loved Rach-el; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rach-el, thy younger daughter.
   29:19 "And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.
   29:20 "And Jacob served seven years for Rach-el; and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
   29:21 "And Jacob (who would now be 84, Rach-el, 21) said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.
   29:22 "And Laban gathered together all the men of the place (like a 9-year old boys' club - no girls allowed!), and made a feast.
   29:23 "And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him (Jake) and he (Jake) went in unto her (this is why it's so important, guys, to always lift that veil - we both know you wouldn't buy a car without first checking under the hood!).
   29:24 "And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for a handmaid."

From Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, further reading reveals still more - paragraph after paragraph in fact - concocted stories, never mentioned in the Bible, of what a dastardly villain Esau was and how brave and noble was Jacob, that it's actually funnier than anything I've written here, though it was never intended to be. I won't go into the retelling of all of the tall tales, but there was a paragraph however, concerning the deception Laban perpetrated in marrying Leah to the clearly gullible Jacob, who believed he was in his marriage bed with Rach-el, that certainly smacks of poetic justice, and well worth sharing:

"During the night Leah responded whenever he called Rachel, for which he reproached her bitterly when daylight came: 'O thou deceiver, daughter of a deceiver, why didst thou answer me when I called Rachel's name?' 'Is there a teacher without a pupil?' asked Leah, in return. 'I but profited by thy instruction. When thy father called thee Esau, didst thou not say, Here am I?'"

Ouch! That's gotta sting --

    29:25 "And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he (Jake) said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did I not serve with thee for Rach-el? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?
   29:26 "And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
   29:27 "Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years."

According to The New American Bible, the custom was that after a wedding, there followed a week of feasting and celebration.

   29:28 "And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he (Laban) gave him (Jake) Rach-el his daughter to wife also.
   29:29 "And Laban gave to Rach-el his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
   29:30 "And he (Jake) went in also unto Rach-el and he loved Rach-el more than Leah, and served with him (Laban) yet another seven years (or Jacob's age 91, for those who are counting).
   29:31 "And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rach-el was barren."

At that point in time, there were wars all over the Middle East, women widowed, children orphaned, yet this god finds time to open and close women's wombs. I guess it's all about priorities.

   29:32 "And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me (how many other women have borne children for that same illogical reason?).
    29:33 "And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
   29:34 "And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
   29:35 "And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

I guess, with the addition of two new wives and four new Jacobsons, it's time to trot out the scorecard again and revise it:

    Searches of a number of Jewish names databases, came up with basically the same conclusion - Rach-el means, "ewe," or "female sheep." which I sincerely hope, what with Jacob coming from sheep country (where men are men, and sheep are understandably nervous), is only a metaphor. One source was a little kinder than the rest, preferring the term, "innocent lamb." Awwwww --
   Leah, on the other hand, no matter which source I used, meant, "weary," and I would have to question the motives of a mother who would choose that name for her child.
   "Jacob," on the other hand, meant, "supplanter," which it would appear is what he did. Bear in mind now, that we hear the name, Leah, or Jacob, and by themselves, they mean nothing to us, they're merely the names of people, but to those of that day and language, they would have been actual words: "weary," and "supplanter" - imagine saying to one of your children, "Hey, Supplanter, pass the potatoes --"
   The New American Bible relates that both the Yahwist (J) Source and the Eloist (E) Source had a hand in writing this chapter as well. Do you get the impression that the stories, floating around by word of mouth for more than a millennium, were first written down, then, based on their behavior in the story line, the names were fabricated to fit the characters?
   I've explained these various sources before in 2 Genesis, Chapter 2, but just to refresh your memory, I'll briefly explain them again, along with a little of the history of the Jewish people that these various time periods represent, so as to give you a broader picture than my previous explanation may have given you.
    The term, "Israelite" was first known to have appeared anywhere, when, in an inscription on a monolithic stone created by Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah, c1209 BCE, known today as the Victory Stele of Merneptah, were simply stated these dire words, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."

Victory Stele of Merneptah, l. Mesha Stele, r.

    The Stele of Merneptah is a monolith ten feet tall and five feet wide, and describes a victory that Merneptah scored over an attack on Egypt by the combined forces of Libyans and the Sea People. The mention of Israel comes near the end, in a description of some minor skirmishes with various tribes in Canaan. The implication here, is at least at this point in time, Israel is not a nation, but rather a tribe or possibly a loose coalitiion of tribes.
    The Mesha Stele is a later artifact, dating to c840 BCE and details the victory by King Mesha, of the Moabite tribes of Jordan, over a King Omri, of Israel, and featured the first use ever found outside the Bible, of the name, "Yahweh," as Mesha described how his army pillaged the temple goods of Yahweh, the god of Israel, and brought them home as a gift to his own god, Kemosh. One would think that an omniscient god could have seen that one coming.
    Those Jewish people who were not nomadic, lived in small, scattered, self-sustaining, agricultural villages with populations of 300-400 people. through about 950 BCE.
   By the end of the second Millennium, the loosely-connected association of Jewish peoples had gone from using a committee of judges settle their disputes, to the establishment of a full monarchy, under their first king, Saul, who ruled badly, and was overthrown by the first Biblical character that we can actually say probably existed, David, who united the Semitic people of the area between 1010 and 970 BCE, conquered the land and paved the way for his son, Solomon, to build the Holy Temple.
   J, or the Yahwist Source, was composed around 950 BCE.
   Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split into a Southern Kingdom of Judah and a Northern Kingdom of Israel.
   Much as in early Mesopotamia, there was constant warfare in the area as the various rulers of the Jewish nation - if it could be called that, at that early stage - attempted to unite the people, secure the territory from outside threats, and expand their land holdings, and in the process, force subjugated peoples to pay tribute to the kingdom.
   Eventually, a united effort, spearheaded by Assyria, was made to crush Jewish expansionism and end the Jewish threat to peace in the area. An alliance between Ahab of Israel and Ben Hadad II of Damascus managed to repulse the incursions of the Assyrians, with a victory at the Battle of Qarqar (854 BCE).
   E, the Elohist Source, is believed to have been composed in the Northern kingdom of Israel c850 BCE, then combined with the Jahwist Source, c750 BCE, by a Redactor, to form JE.
   The kingdom of Israel was eventually destroyed by Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III around 750 BCE. The Assyrians sent most of the Northern Israelite kingdom into exile, thus creating the 'Lost Tribes of Israel' (that the Mormons believe crafted ships and migrated to the Americas). The Samaritans claim to be descended from Israelite survivors of the Assyrian conquest. An Israelite revolt (724–722 BCE) was crushed after the siege and capture of Samaria by Sargon II.
    D, or the Deuteronomist Source, originally believed to have been the work of Moses, was, according to the unanimous opinion of modern biblical criticism, in its main parts, written in the seventh century BCE (600+), during the reign of Josiah, possibly by Josiah himself.
   It seems that by the time Josiah mounted the throne of Judah in 641, he was the beneficiary of an interesting family history. His Great Grandfather, King Hezekiah, had been quite the reformer. As often happens to stern, uncompromising, self-righteous men, Hezekiah's son, Manessa, was exactly the opposite, doing much to turn the people of Judah away from the worship of Yahweh and even adapting the temple of Solomon to idolatrous worship. During his reign, people erected fertility poles, the symbols used in worshipping Asherah, reputedly Yahweh's wife.
    Josiah, a self-styled reformer like his Great Grandfather, Hezekiah, was determined to undo the damage he perceived as having been done by his Grandfather, Manessa. He ordered the High Priest Hilkiah to use the excess tax money that had been collected over the years, to renovate Solomon's temple. It was during this time that Hilkiah discovered the Book of the Law. While Hilkiah was clearing the treasure room of the Temple, he found a scroll described as "the book of the law of Yahweh by the hand of Moses." And sonuvagun, the book backed up everything Josiah was maintaining to be true. What an incredible coincidence!
   The Assyrian Empire was overthrown by the Medes and the Chaldean, or New Babylonian Empire, in 612 BCE. (Finally, we have Chaldeans, but not in the time of Abraham, yet a further indication that those who wrote of Abe's journey from "Ur of the Chaldees," would have written at a time when the Chaldeans actually were in power, unaware of the history of the area, something we would expect from a writer in exile in a strange land.)
   In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered the Southern kingdom of Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Judean Jews to Babylon, where they were allowed to resume normal lives, but forbidden to return to the Levant.
    The combined JE Source was then joined with the D Source around 550 BCE.
   P, or the Priestly Source, certainly created after the fall of biblical Israel in 722 BCE, and possibly as late as 500 BCE, by Kohens, Jewish priests, in exile in Babylon. P essentially took an Orwellian approach to the Yahwist text and rewrote (or deleted entirely) vast sections that stated or implied that man could have a personal relationship with the biblical god without intercession by a priest. Apparently the Kohens didn't feel the Bible was all that inerrant, or they would have been terrified to tamper with it.
   In 538 BCE, Cyrus the Great of Persia (Iran) conquered Babylon and took over its empire. Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations (including the people of Judah) their freedom. According to the Hebrew Bible, 50,000 Judeans, led by Zeru-bab-el returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple. (As a sidenote, notice that the name, Zeru-bab-el, is of Akkadian/Sumerian origin, as evidenced by the typical "u" ending of "Zeru" and the reference to Babylon, or "Bab-El," but one must realize that these Jewish people have been exiled in Babylon for nearly as long as the USA has been a country.) A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judah in 456 BCE. Many Jews, descendants of those who were originally exiled to Babylon, chose to remain behind and live out their normal lives.
    Finally, all four Sources were combined by the Redactor into the Torah, or Pentateuch, around 400 BCE. Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE. From this, it's obvious that Moses - if he ever existed - had nothing to do with the writing of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, all labeled as "Books of Moses."
   It's not difficult to see how one nomadic sheepherder, who claimed to have had personal meetings with a supernatural being who created the universe, in which he was promised, for his descendants, the area of the Levant, could have generated stories which, passed by word of mouth, exaggerated in the retelling, later became the banner behind which these people would later rally in a false belief that the land was rightfully theirs. Over centuries, in their effort to forcibly take the land, the Jewish people built up enough concern among other, far more powerful nations, that a line was drawn that, once crossed, resulted in the near annihilation of the Jewish civilization.
   It's easy also, to imagine the descendants of such a conquered people trying to determine what had gone wrong. But rather than believing the problem to have been land- and glory-hungry leaders, they were instead led by their priests to convolutedly believe that the cause of their destruction lay in the likelihood that they hadn't adhered sufficiently to the precepts laid down by the very religion that brought them to the point of destruction in the first place, and that their god had chosen their near-annihilation as their punishment.
____________________________________________________________________
* The Jewish Encyclopedia relates that Rabbinical Literature (not the Bible) states: "Rachel and Leah were twin sisters, fourteen years old when Jacob came to their father's house; consequently they were twenty-one years old at the time of their marriage to Jacob (Seder 'Olam Rabbah ii.)."

** Establishment of the age of Jacob at the time he first met Rach-el is a rather complex process. The last time age was mentioned, was in Genesis, 26:34, "And Esau (remember now, they're twins) was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Bashemath the daughter of El-on the Hittite:" But we will learn, in future chapters, Jacob's age when he died, and the number of years he spent in Egypt after he and his son Joseph (who by the above chapter was not yet born) were reunited, how many years Joseph spent in Egypt before he and Jake got reacquainted, and how old Joe was when he first arrived in Egypt, which, by working backward and subtracting those years from Jacob's total, gives us how old Jake was when Joe was born. Subtracting 7 years from that (how long Jake and his cousin/wives were married before Joe came along), then from that, the original 7 years Jake worked before his marriages, tells us how old he was when he first wandered into Haran.
   I told you it was complicated, and not something with which I'd like to confuse you at the moment, so just take my word for it now, and I'll amply demonstrate my math when we get to the Joseph-in-Egypt chapters. OK? Great - hi-five!

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx

2 Genesis, Chapter 28 - "Hit the road, Jake --"

2012-04-07T14:55:00Z

     Before we begin this story, let me tell you a story about a story.
   When I was a child, my friends and I, when we weren't out riding dinosaurs in our spare time, somehow managed - as much as it may surprise you - without the use of iMacs, iBooks, iPads, iPhones or iPorn, to learn a few things.
   One thing I recall vividly from my text book in second grade, was the story of how the Father of America, George Washington, when just a child himself, received a new hatchet for his birthday. Anxious to try it out, little George surveyed the rows of blossoming cherry trees lining his father's long, winding driveway. Choosing one of these, he commenced to break up the set by using his hatchet and chopping it down. Obviously his father noticed its absence on the buggyride up the driveway to the house, as he returned from a long day at the office, located his young son, and asked him about it.

   I think even those readers who may not be native to America are familiar with little George's famous reply, "Father, I cannot tell a lie - I did it with my little hatchet."
   As a reward for his honesty, little George's father, George Herbert Walker Washington, declined to punish little George W for his behavior, thus freeing little George from the belief that actions require a willingness to accept responsibility for those actions, so that should he decide to invade a country for its oil, once he'd become president, he would feel no compunction about inventing weapons of mass destruction as an excuse. But I digress --
   Once upon a time in America, in 1800, there was a "gentleman," and I use the term ever so loosely, named Weems. Reverend Mason Locke Weems, it seems, was not only a pastor but also, each in its turn, a sailor, a medical student, an accomplished player of the fiddle, author, and a traveling seller of books. During his pastoring days, which occurred sporadically whenever his book sales were down, he found himself teaching a Sunday School class in addition to his regular duties predicting hellfire and damnation. He wanted his wide-eyed young class to learn the evil of telling lies, so he concocted the story of young Washington as a shining example of the reward for always being truthful. He taught his lesson of truthfulness by fabricating a lie and passing it on to innocent little minds as the truth, a lie so convincing, that generations later, that lie could still be found in reputable text books designed to educate other little children.
   Later, he wrote a book about the life of Washington, likely just as authentic as his Sunday School story, but because, in the early 1800's, the public was hungry to learn about the father of their country (combined with the fact that there was little else but the Bible to take to the outhouse for reading material) that, authentic or not, it sold well. The story has since been deleted from all official public school books, but for many years, it was what all young children were taught.
   I have to say that there was one good thing that came from Weems' fabrication - a joke, based on the Weems story:
   One day an angry father accosted his young son, demanding to know who pushed his outhouse over the cliff. At first, the little boy denied all knowledge of the event, but his father sat him down and told him the age-old story of little G. Washington and his father's cherry tree, and after assuring his son that George's father had never punished his son because George had told the truth, the boy finally 'fessed up - he had pushed the outhouse over the cliff. His father immediately took the boy behind the woodshed, and paddled this bottom soundly. Gasping back tears, the boy reminded his dad that little George's father hadn't punished him for chopping down the cherry tree, to which his father replied, "Maybe so, but you can bet your britches little George's dad wasn't in the tree at the time!"

     And now, on to other stories fabricated by inventive men for the purpose of teaching object lessons --

28:1 "And Isaac (who, you would think, would be really pissed at Jacob for deceiving and generally making a fool of his father) called Jacob and blessed him (did the writer of this chapter even read the last chapter?), and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
28:2 "Arise, go to Padan-aram (Haran), to the house of Bethu-el thy mother's father; and take thee from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother (wouldn't want him to do as his brother Esau and marry outside the family - you have to wonder if inbreeding can result in a familial tendency toward hallucinations)."

     The Bible Atlas explains that the name, Paddan-aram, occurs only within the writings of the Priestly (P) Source, but it corresponds to the Haran of the older documents. More in harmony with the length of Jacob's flight, as indicated by the time given (Genesis 31:22, 23), is Harran-el-`Awamid, an ancient site 10 miles East of Damascus, Syria, and satisfies all the demands of history. Combine the Syrian location with the repetition of the phrase in previous chapters, "Laban, the Syrian," further reinforces my speculation that Abraham and his entire family were Syrian or Amurrite by nationality, and since the Amurrites were at the time rulers of all Mesopotamia, they would have been followers of the god Amurru, or "El Shaddai."
   I know that by now, you likely need a scorecard to figure out what's going on among this inbred family. Let me see if I can help you with that:
   Terah had 3 sons, Abram, Haran and Nahor.

Abram married Sarai, his Daddy's daughter by another mother, and the two had Isaac.

     Meanwhile, Abe's brother, Haran, married, had son, Lot, and daughter, Milcah, and apparently burned to death under mysterious circumstances, with which Abe is believed to have had a connection.
     Abe left his family in Haran, Syria, and taking with him his sister/wife Sarai and nephew, Lot, son of Abe's brother, Haran, and struck out for the plains of what would one day be Israel.
     Meanwhile, Nahor, Abe's other brother, married Milcah, his niece, and daughter of the third, now deceased, brother, Haran.
     Meanwhile, Lot's wife was turned to a pillar of salt because she glanced back over her shoulder, so Lot got drunk and had sex with his two, teenage daughters, who both bore him sons, and we must assume, all lived happily ever after.
     Then Isaac, son of Abe and his sister/wife, Sarai, married his cousin, Rebekah, daughter of Abe's brother Nahor and his niece/wife, Milcah, daughter of the now deceased brother, Haran.
     Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, Esau and Jacob.

Jacob deceived his old, blind father, Isaac, into giving him the birthright that rightfully belonged to Esau, the first-born, and to avoid Esau killing Jacob out of revenge, Jake was sent back to Haran to find a close female relative with whom he could inbreed, i.e., a wife. Did that help straighten everything out? I hope so.
I will update this chart as newer events occur, so stay tuned to this website for more exciting episodes of "Days of Our Wives" --

   28:3 "And God almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people (What was their obsession with having so many descendants?).
   28:4 "And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.
   28:5 "And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram (Haran) unto Laban, son of Bethu-el the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
   28:6 "And when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan-aram (Haran), to take him a wife from thence; and as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
   28:7 "And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram (Haran).
   28:8 "And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
   28:9 "Then went Esau unto Ishmael (who must have been about 95 by this time, and who, strangely enough, was still hanging around the neighborhood, despite the deplorable treatment shown him and his mother by his father, Abraham - in other words, he's a character in a story who is used when needed, then tucked neatly away out of sight), and took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife (translation: Abraham's grandson married Abraham's granddaughter - that family's not just close-knit, they're interwoven!)."

      The New American Bible confirms that this chapter too, was written by the Priestly (P) Source, believed to have been composed by an Aaronid priest (a priest from the lineage of Moses' brother, Aaron) sometime around 550 BCE and incorporated into the Torah about 400 BCE. It's the P Source who consistently refers to the Bible's god as, "El-Shaddai," the same name by which the god, Amurru was known.
      TNAB points out that this chapter gives a reason for Jake's trip to Haran (Padan-Aram) as being a bit more noble than the fact that he was running scared for fear that his brother would kill him for deceitfully usurping Esau's birthright and blessing (and extra share of inheritance): that of concern for his family's racial purity - the same issue that concerned Adolph Hitler so greatly.
      It further relates that the account of Esau's marriages is intended to explain the racial mixture of the Edomites, who were descended in part from tribes related to Israel, in part from older peoples in Edom called Hittites, Horites, or Hivites, and in part from the Ishmaelite (Arabian) tribes who later invaded the region.

28:10 "And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.
28:11 "And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep."

While the King James version of the Bible states in 28:11 that Jake "lighted upon a certain place," The New American Bible relates that he "came upon a certain shrine," giving us an entirely different impression of the area.
Interesting, in that when Abe sent his servant to Haran to find a wife for Isaac, the man was a virtual caravan, with ten camels - (which wouldn't yet be domesticated for another 5 or 6 hundred years) - yet it would appear that 77-year old Jacob was hoofing it alone, on foot, without any of the comforts of home - wouldn't that imply he left hastily?

NearEast Map

   A quick, brief history/geography lesson here - it will only hurt for a little while, I promise.
   As regards Beer-Sheba, settlement in that area, according to the archaeological findings of the Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology, began as early as the 4th millennium BCE (which saw the world population double, from 7 million to 14 million). The earliest inhabitants lived in caves, crafting metal tools and raising cattle.
   Haran (aka, Harran) was a major ancient commercial, cultural, and religious center, the ruins of which are located a few miles from the modern village of Altinbasak, Turkey, but would have been located in Assyria during its early years, the 3rd millennium BCE. The reason for its prosperity was that it lay on the route opened by the Akkadian king, Sargon (you recall Sargon, abandoned by his mother as a baby in a little reed container placed in the river - no, wait, that was Moses - no, wait, that was Sargon -- confusing when these stories start to melt together, isn't it?). As you doubtless remember from Genesis, Chapter 13, it was located only 24 miles from a city named, Urfa (see red circle, above map), and as you may recall from our earlier discussions regarding Sumerian cities, "Ur" simply meant, "city." Residents of Ur-fa (yes, it still exists) are convinced that it was their city that was the "Ur" in which Abraham was born, and they even have a monument there to that effect. Leaving Urfa for Haran, only 24 miles away, would certainly make more sense than traveling from the larger city of Ur, in lower Mesopotamia, all that great distance. And that would go even further toward confirming that Abe and his entire family were in fact, Syrian, aka, Amorite, and that their "El Shaddai" was in fact the Amorite, or Amurrite god, Amurru.
   Lastly, Beth-El, the location of Jake's camp-out. Ancient historians Eusebius (263-339 AD) and Jerome (c.347?-420 AD) describe it in their time as being a small village that lay 12 Roman miles north of Jerusalem, to the east of the road leading to Neopolis.

   28:12 "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it (The writers of this verse must have been working without the inspiration provided by their god's much-touted omniscience, or they'd have foreseen that we'd one day fly to the moon without locating the heaven at the end of their ladder - now if it had been an escalator, they might have had my attention).
   28:13 "And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, I will give it, and to thy seed;
   28:14 "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
   28:15 "And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

Jake looks pretty good for 77, doesn't he?
That must be what they call artistic license --

The New American Bible informs us that the Hebrew word, translated into "ladder" in the King James version above, was, "sullam," and that it actually means, "stairway," and that the corresponding verb, "salal," means to heap something up, such as dirt for a highway or a ramp. We're told that the imagery in Jacob's dream derives from the Babylonian ziggurat we learned of much earlier, with brick steps leading to a little temple at its top (see below) reserved for whichever god to whom it's dedicated, on his occasional visits to earth to impregnate virgins or whatever else gods do in their spare time.

Babylonian Ziggurat

    28:16 "And Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not (A wiser man might have simply concluded that he'd had a weird dream, maybe a pepperoni pizza before bedtime or a bad bowl of chili --? I misspoke - there is no such thing as a bad bowl of chili - there's only good, better, and mine).
   28:17 "And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (I'm not clear, is he saying heaven is dreadful, the gate is dreadful - what exactly about this place fills him with dread?).
   28:18 "And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on top of it (He's walking from Beer-Sheba in what will one day be southern Israel, all the way to Haran, in Assyria, seemingly with no pack animals, and he carries a jug of oil with him? Why? Or is this like a cartoon character who, when he needs something, it seems to automatically materialize, like Wylie Coyote's anvil?)."

The New American Bible informs us that the custom of erecting a stone, or in Hebrew, "Masseba," of varying shape and size, in an upright position, for religious purposes or "sacred pillars," in the Palestinian area, goes back in time far into the pre-Hebrew era. Since from that time, until long after Hebrews inhabited the area, many, if not most of these, were erected to numerous gods that doubtless the Israelite religious hierarchy would have considered pagan. By the time we arrive at Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we will find that many of these will be ordered torn down.

28:19 "And he called the name of that place Beth-El (House of God): but the name of that city was called Luz at the first."

     First, take note of, "the name of that city" - there has been no mention so far in this chapter that there was a city where he spent the night, no mention that any of the rocks he found were remnants of any ancient city, as one might expect of a Tel (remember back when I told you that a "Tel" was the ruins of a destroyed city, and that those fallen bricks, stones, etc., would often be used to build a new city atop the ruins of the old?). That there may have been a shrine there, we can gather from notes in The New American Bible.
     To confuse the matter further, this is Abraham's grandson - Abe is by then long since dead - and Genesis, 28:19 clearly states that Jacob named this "holy" site, The House of God, or Beth-El. But hopping into our time machine for a moment - don't worry, that's the beauty of time machines, I can bring us right back to this very second, no one will even notice you're gone - if we go back to the days when Abe first arrived in the Palestinian region, from Haran, in Genesis, Chapter 12, we read how he initially came near the city of Shechem, on the plains of Moreh (named for the Amorites), but he found Canaanites already there, so he built an altar to El-Shaddai, who appeared and promised him everything but a 7-11 Franchise, and moved on, 12:8 "And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-El (Say what --?!), and pitched his tent, having Beth-El on the west and Hai on the east...." Abe camped at a place called Beth-El, that wouldn't be named that until Abe's 60-year old grandson so named it over a hundred years later. The Great Redactor (R), who wove this hodgepodge of legends and fables together, must have missed that one. Now let's get you back to your present time -- and here we are - see, your coffee's still hot.
   Further, Wikipedia, a good source for initial information (but one I normally use only supplementally, or as an arrow to point me toward other sources), in this instance, relates that "Luz" was an ancient Canaanite name. It may, or may not be coincidence that "luz" is also the Latin word for "light," in fact the very name, Lucifer, with whom the biblical "devil," or "Satan," has been associated, actually came from the phrase, "Luz Ferrer," (no relation to the late actor, Jose), which means, "Light Bringer." Oddly, in terms of a Latin source for the name, "Luz," Latin wouldn't be spoken in this region until the first century BCE, nearly a millennium and a half into this area's future.
   This in itself is interesting, in that in ancient Greek mythology, a demi-god (the son of a god-human relationship) named Prometheus (in Greek, the name means, "Forethought"), felt sorry for Humans, who at the time, had not discovered how to make fire. Prometheus brought fire down from heaven and gave it to Humanity. This angered the gods, who had him chained to a rock, where every day, vultures landed and tore out his entrails, which grew back overnight, so the whole thing could be repeated the next day.
   It would seem that the Judaic/Christian/Islamic religion was not the only one that felt that things would be better if Mankind never acquired knowledge. It should not come as any surprise that "LuzFerrer," or "Lucifer," should be demonized if he brought light - which could well be symbolic of either fire or knowledge - to Man, and be associated with the biblical Satan, whom, by the way, more than halfway through Genesis, we've still yet to meet. Lucifer has also been known as the "morning star," that we now know as Venus, and interestingly, when we finally reach the Book of Revelations, we will find that Yeshua (Jesus) is called, "the morning star," but interestingly, the Bible stops short of calling him Lucifer.

   28:20 "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on,
   28:21 "So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God (And if not --?):
   28:22 "And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee."

And thusly, the Priestly (P) Source established a precedent that would assure themselves of a steady income, nearly four millennia before they would ever evolve into Television Evangelists. Can I get an Amen --?!

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx

2 Genesis, Chapter 27 - "Oh, what a tangled web we weave --"

2012-03-25T20:38:21Z

    We're going to begin a new feature here on iHoi (in His own image, for those of you who are acronymically challenged), that will not be a regular one, but rather will pop up if and when circumstances present themselves. This feature will be titled in fond memory of the Saturday Night Live character that comedian Dana Carvey, in drag, created for that show, "the Church Lady," whose catch-phrase was, "Well, isn't that special?"
   So this is what I will call, an "Isn't That Special?" moment.
   You're all familiar with Pythagoras, right? No, he's not the guy who runs the Greek deli on the corner that makes those great gyro (and by the way, they're pronounced, "he-ro," not "jy-ro," for those of you who don't know better) sandwiches. He was a Greek mathematician and mystic who was born about 560 BCE on the Greek island of Samos, and lived and studied in Egypt for over ten years, absorbing the ancient culture and philosophy found there, and when in 525 BCE, Egypt was conquered by the Persians, Pythagoras was taken captive to Babylonia, where he lived among the Persians - undaunted, he studied their culture and philosophies as well, thus originating the philosophy, "Eh, whadaya gonna do --?"
   As a sidenote, when Pythagoras finally left Persia for his home island of Samos, he wore pants! Unheard of at the time in his own land of toga-wearing philosophers, Pythagoras adopted the Persian custom of wearing pants, presumably so he'd have pockets, but that's never been confirmed.
   Anyway, the reason you know Pythagoras today was not his bold transition to Wranglers, but because you learned in school that he was the Father of Mathematics, that he was credited with having discovered pi, and was responsible for what is now known as the Pythagorian Theorum, which states that, "In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs." Yeah, I know - it's all Greek to me --
   But the point of all of this are the fascinating legends that grew up about him - remember now, this was 500 BCE, with an emphasis on the BC!
   From her book, Pythagoras Trousers, by Margaret Wertheim, we learn that Pythagoras was rumored to have been the son of the god, Apollo, by a virgin birth to his mother, Pythais - at least that was her story, and she was sticking to it. Pythagoras' earthly father, Mnesarchus, was told by the oracle of Delphi that a special child would be born to his wife. Hmmmm --
   Pythagoras was said to have worked miracles, conversed with demons, and listened to the music of the stars. For a time, he lived in solitude atop a holy mountain. He tried teaching his mathematical philosophies back on his native island of Samos, but the Samosians had no interest ("A prophet is not without honor, save in his own land." - Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4), so as Yeshua (Jesus) and later Muhammed, Joseph Smith and David Koresh would do when faced with similar rejection, Pythagoras moved to an isolated area on the border of Greek and Italian territories and began his own cult. He often taught in parables, called akousmata by the Pythagorians, and in fact, a number of parables found in the New Testament are known to be versions of earlier Pythagorian akousmata. He was in fact the father of modern physics, but his influence took a very circuitous route before it finally got here, but that's another story.
   Oh, and before I forget, "It is said that on his death, he ascended directly into the heavens from a temple of the muses." 500 BC folks, 500 B-freakin'-C!!!
    "Well, isn't that special?"

   OK, now to Genesis 27:

    27:1 "And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he (Esau) said unto him (Ike), Behold here am I.
   27:2 "And he (Ike) said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
   27:3 "Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison;
   27:4 "And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die (Note to Self: 1. Eat a little lunch, 2. Die).
    27:5 "And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it.
   27:6 "And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son (note the phraseology here - "Esau his son," vs "Jacob her son"), saying , Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,
   27:7 "Bring me venison and make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death.
   27:8 "Now therefore my son, obey my voice according to what I command thee.
   27:9 "Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father, which he loveth (It takes two young goats to make a bowl of stew?):
   27:10 "And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
   27:11 "And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:
   27:12 "My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, not a blessing (feel the fear? It will stay with him always).
   27:13 "And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse my son (once again, the woman is guilty, the man, guiltless): only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
   27:14 "And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved.
   27:15 "And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house (House? When did they move out of the tent and invest in real estate?), and put them upon Jacob her younger son:
   27:16 "And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck (Aha! So that's why she needed two young goats, to have enough skin to cover Jake's arms and neck - but have you ever smelled the skin of a freshly-butchered animal? If you have, you won't soon forget it):
   27:17 "And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
   27:18 "And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he (Ike) said, Here am I, who art thou, my son?
   27:19 "And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thou may bless me (Sorry, Rebekah or no Rebekah, this one's on him - he had a choice to be, or not to be, a sleezebag).
   27:20 "And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me (Now he brings his god into it, making the big guy his accomplice, yet he's still picked as this god's chosen one!).
   27:21 "And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not (Did Ike already suspect that Jake was a sleezebag? Between the two, it would seem Ike was more omniscient than his god!).
   27:22 "And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he (Ike) felt him (Jake), and said, The voice is Jacob's voice but the hands are the hands of Esau.
   27:23 "And he (Ike) discerned him (Jake) not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he (Ike) blessed him (Jake).
   27:24 "And he (Ike) said, Art thou my very son, Esau? And he (Jake) said, I am (And his pants lit up like Moses' Burning Bush! This is the guy who, in a future chapter, will be renamed, Israel, who will found the entire Israeli nation, and who will eventually have a country named after him!).
   27:25 "And he (Ike) said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he (Jake) brought it near to him (Ike), and he (Ike) did eat: and he (Jake) brought him (Ike) wine, and he (Ike) did drink.
    27:26 "And his father Isaac said unto him, come near now, and kiss me, my son.
   27:27 "And he (Jake) came near, and kissed him (Ike): and he (Ike) smelled the smell of his (Jake's) raiment, and blessed him (Jake), and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed (but that super-sensitive sniffer couldn't detect the distinct odor of freshly-removed goat skin!).
   27:28 "Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine (who could ask for anything more?):
   27:29 "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethern, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee (Alzheimer's must have set in, as Rebekah had only the two sons - or, someone has this left over from another story and decided to stick it in here - or, the story originally had Isaac having more than two sons, but an editor decided it worked better to concentrate only on the two, and didn't proofread well enough to remove that reference): cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

The Blessing of Jacob

   27:30 "And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting (sounds a bit like a Noel Coward stage play, doesn't it?).
   27:31 "And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.
   27:32 "And Isaac his father said unto him (Esau), Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.
   27:33 "And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
   27:34 "And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
   27:35 "And he (Ike) said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.
   27:36 "And he (Esau) said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times (One translation of the name "Jacob" is explained as meaning "supplanter" or "deceiver"): he has taken away my birthright; and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he (Esau) said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
   27:37 "And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord (hey, c'mon, is it really carved in stone?), and all his brethren (what brethren? He has only the one brether --) have I given him for servants; and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
    27:38 "And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept (So, Jacob - are you proud of yourself? And Ike, really? What does it take to dig into your blessing-bag and pull out just one more?).
   27:39 "And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;
   27:40 "And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off they neck (I don't want to spoil the rest of the story, but for any inerrancy enthusiasts out there, at no time did Jake ever have dominion over Esau, nor a yoke on Esau's neck).
   27:41 "And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
   27:42 "And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
   27:43 "Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
   27:44 "And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away;
   27:45 "Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him (guess she forgot the part she played in all this): then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived of you both in one day?"

Of this story, The New American Bible relates that Jacob's behavior in conning Esau out of his birthright, which guarantees the bearer a double share of any inheritance there might be, as well as his stealing Esau's blessing, which according to custom, should rightfully have gone to Isaac's firstborn, was considered deplorable, even by the Yahwist author who wrote the story, as evidenced by the way he made us, the readers, empathize with Esau's grief and sense of loss. But it goes on to say that the story's purpose lay in demonstrating the mystery of god's ways in salvation history, i.e., his use of weak, sinful men to achieve his own ultimate purpose. I suppose that, as might be expected, represents the positive twist on the narrative, but the other side of the coin could just as well reflect pure and simple bad judgment. It has been 3500 years since these men, if they ever existed, would have lived, and any ultimate purpose this Bible's god may have had, has still not made itself clear, and in fact, appears to have served no purpose whatever.

27:46 "And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?"

    This verse, according to The New American Bible, much like verses 26:34-35, of Genesis, Chapter 26, were written not by the Yahwist (J) Source, as was the rest of the chapter, but by the Priestly (P) Source, and cites concern over racial mixture of the Abrahamic lineage as the reason for Jacob's hasty departure for Haran, rather than cowardliness for fear of retribution for his covetous, dishonorable and deceptive behavior.
    So here we have Isaac just a bowl of stew away from Death's Door. Again, I'm really not one to spoil a story's ending, but Isaac doesn't die until Chapter 35, a good fifteen or twenty years later, and that represents a bunch of bowls of stew.
    In The Legends of the Jews, Volume 1, several reasons are given for Isaac's blindness:

"When he lay bound upon the altar, about to be sacrificed by his father, the angels wept, and their tears fell upon his eyes, and there they remained and weakened his sight." Wouldn't one normally think they would have miraculous healing power?

"He was stung by the smoke arising from the sacrifices offered to their idols by his daughters-in-law in his own house."

"...he had brought the scourge of blindness upon himself by his love for Esau. He justified the wicked (Esau) for a bribe, the bribe of Esau's filial love, and loss of vision is the punishment that follows the taking of bribes. 'A gift,' it is said, 'blinds the eyes of the wise.'"

    Nevertheless (according to the legends) his blindness proved beneficial for Isaac as well as Jacob. As a consequence of his physical ailments, Isaac remained homebound, and so he was spared the pain of being pointed out by the people as the father of the wicked Esau.
    They're really working hard here to paint the most negative possible picture of Esau, so that the despicable behavior of Jacob, by contrast, will appear justified, but Jacob's future behavior will further prove his deplorable character, without any help from Esau.
    Another Jewish legend, from the same source, explains why there was sufficient time for Jacob to kill two goat-kids, dress them, for Rebekah to cook the meat and make it into stew, and for hand and neck coverings to be fashioned from the goat skins - we're talking hours here, poor Ike must have been starving by the time he finally got lunch.

"Esau sallied forth to procure what his father desired, little reckoning the whence or how, whether by robbery or theft. To hinder the quick execution of his father's order, God sent Satan on the chase with Esau. He was to delay him as long as possible. Esau would catch a deer and leave him lying bound, while he pursued other game. Immediately Satan would come and liberate the deer, and when Esau returned to the spot, his victim was not to be found. This was repeated several times. Again and again the quarry was run down, and bound, and liberated, so that Jacob was able meanwhile to carry out the plan of Rebekah whereby he would be blessed instead of Esau."

    First of all, throughout this biblical narrative, Esau has been known for his skill with a bow and arrow - in fact, Ike even told him to take it with him - why would he chase a deer on foot and run it to ground? Secondly, even had he illogically chosen the latter course, as his entire purpose for going hunting in the first place was to take back a deer to make venison stew for his Dad, why would he tie it and go in search of other game rather than hurrying back to his tent to make stew for his Pops? And lastly, assuming the least likely scenario, instead of killing the deer with an arrow and hurrying back with it, Esau chose to chase it down on foot, hog-tie it, and leave it and search for other game, after the first deer escaped, wouldn't logic dictate he wouldn't be dumb enough to do it again? An old Marx Brother's joke - often sources of great wisdom: A man goes to a doctor, wiggles his arm a certain way, and says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do that." The doctor says, "Well, don't do that!" Rimshot, please! Pa-dum-pum! But serially folks, you tie up one deer and it gets loose, you don't do it again! I'm just sayin' --
    I could fill two or more such pages as this with legends of Jacob and Esau from this source, but they all demonize Esau and attribute to Jacob the most angelic of motives, which would be expected of the members of a nation named after the biblical character they're supporting. Many of these have references to events far in the future of the alleged time of Isaac and Jacob, and are clearly cases of writers of a later time, most likely even A.D., using events of their own time to attempt to claim prophetic status for characters who lived centuries, if not millennia earlier.
   We'll continue the wacky adventures of Jacob in the next chapter, as he sleeps on a rock and has a vision.

pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx