Jacob and Esau

I believe the birthright entitled you do a double portion of the inheritance but that you would then be responsible for the womenfolk.

To summarize, Jacob and his mother were heroes for following the desires of God at any costs.

Sometimes the “will of God” is interpreted to justify what we want to do. Also, the victors write the history.

Reminds me of Manifest Destiny: “the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.” It was our destiny to take this land from the native inhabitants… the BoM feeds into this idea.

Sometimes the “will of God” is interpreted to justify what we want to do. Also, the victors write the history.

That’s what bugs me the most… the victor, “Jacob” and his descentants, wrote the “history” from their perspective. Just like most Judeo-Christians today, it’s read and understood in such a way that Jacob is made to be the hero, while Esau is the fool. Yet… even with all that filtering, Jacob seems to me like an awful, selfish, greedy son. Which means, he was most likely even worse.

When it comes to the OT, when you look at any of the many stories that are in there, you have to first ask yourself this simple question: Is this literal or figurative? After that, ask yourself this second question: whether it is real or figurative, is there an implied figurative meaning in the story?

This will help get through some of it without the hangups. For example, the story of Job is impossibly terrible if we take it as a literal history… the Devil convinces God to unjustly test Job… The test is severe… for some reason, Job doesn’t abandon God, even though God has abandoned him, etc, etc, etc. But taken figuratively, there’s a lot we can learn in self-reflection by pondering the story. PS, Job is written as an epic poem. In other words, it was presented as fiction in its original form. PPS, Job is considered by many to be the oldest work of the OT.

Now the story of Jacob and Esau is quite perplexing on its surface. Even as a literal story, though, it’s not quite as bad as you’ve painted it. Esau married two Hittite (Canaanite) women in Genesis 26, which was explained to have been against his parent’s wishes in Genesis 27 and 28. Esau is portrayed as a man who didn’t honor his birthright in Genesis 25. Furthermore, there is a not-so-subtle implication that Esau was violent: He plotted to kill Jacob after Isaac’s death. So, in a certain way, even as a true history, Jacob (who married in the covenant), was presented as being more aligned with God, something that Isaac wasn’t able to perceive in his old age, but even after discovering the deception, recognized that Jacob, rather than Esau, was following God.

But, I will tell you from my own perspective that I don’t believe there ever was anyone named Abraham, or Isaac, or Rebekah, or Esau or Jacob; or rather, I suppose there have been lots of people with those names, but the people in Genesis with those names didn’t really exist – my viewpoint alone and I don’t mean to impose my belief on anyone. With that in mind, the only thing that matters to me is the figurative reason for the story to exist and to be retold.

IMO, this is an apropos story for the founding of the Israelite people. Their progenitor Jacob/Israel in a very obvious way represents the Israelite “little-brother-syndrome”. The people of Israel seem, throughout their early history, to have always been a downtrodden people who never measured up to the great empires. They were nomadic at first, enslaved later, nomadic again, disorganized even later, and always at the mercy of neighboring states. But they eventually rose to prominence and power because God didn’t abandoned them and they didn’t abandon God (fully). During all this time, a neighbor state of ethnic relatives, Edom, was described as being the offspring of Isaac’s other son, Esau. It would have been natural to embrace a founding story that included overcoming an unrighteous brother to become favored of God and still favored above the Edomites, because of God’s love. (After their empire disintegrated into two competing factions, Judah and Israel, they were both eventually pretty much wiped out, but this was long after the story of Jacob and Esau had been codified).

Thinking of how the ancient cultures would have viewed this story, it’s a lot less shocking. Nearly all people lived their lives in subservience to higher earthly powers. This is nothing more than the story of how one good person overcame the indignation of being the servant of his bad brother.

As an exercise, think how you might view the story differently if it detailed a young man who was a slave to an unkind master but somehow turned the tables in the slave records office to become the master and the other the slave. This would feel justified rather than deceitful.

As an exercise, think how you might view the story differently if it detailed a young man who was a slave to an unkind master but somehow turned the tables in the slave records office to become the master and the other the slave. This would feel justified rather than deceitful.

To me, that sounds a lot like the story of Joseph of Egypt after he was cast into the Egyptian prison. We get the sense that Joseph made it because a) he was favored of God, b) he was industrious, smart, and resourceful, c) he kept/reset himself to have a good attitude while being in prison, d) he got a lucky break in the dream department, and e) he had “Charisma” (quoting Terry Pratchett’s Nightwatch series theme).

Well it does happen in real life – Donald Trump’s older brother fell by the wayside and King George managed to replace his older brother Edward, who was probably a Nazi sympathiser.

Very interesting point. I wonder what a Book of Laman or Book of Lemuel or Book of Sam might read like?

The Book of Laman

Chapter 18:

“We’ve finally set up for ourselves a pretty good life here in the valley. It’s been tough; we’re still camping. But now Nephi’s talking about how God told him in a dream to build a boat and sail to who-knows-where. I don’t see why we have to pack up and move AGAIN. Nephi keeps acting like he’s in charge, even when father’s still around. I spoke with Lemuel, and we both agreed we needed to tell Nephi how it is. And Nephi FA-REAKED. He said if we touched him, he’d kill us. He looked like he meant it to. He knows I’ve got no qualms about tying him up for a bit, to let him simmer down (I think he’s still bitter about last time). But as psycho as he is, I don’t want this to turn into a blood feud. He is my brother, after all.”

Chapter 20:

“We’ve been stuck on this boat for DAYS… no land in site. I think we’re gonna die. Lemuel cracked out the wine last night. We figure, if we’re going to die, we’d better enjoy life while we still can. And do you know how our little prick of a brother, Nephi, responded? Complained we were too loud. I swear, if he keeps this up, I’m going to tie him to the mast.”

Those are hilarious renditions.

I think all of the “bad guys” of the OT and BoM aren’t as bad as the good guys make them out to be. The “righteous” tend to simply be ignorant of their own flaws.

I didn’t really sink my teeth into the OT until my mission and I gotta tell you, this was one of those things that was a total headscratcher. There were a lot of cases where prophets and such would do unethical things like lie for a birthright in this case. Or commit genocide. The OT is extraordinarily troubling- so much that it makes up the overwhelming majority of fuel for biblical critics. Genesis also reads a bit like a myth. It was my first literal belief to go as a result. Life is much simpler when the flood didn’t happen literally. The logistics of the Ark are impossible and there is strong evidence against a global flood, never mind the implications of genocide.