double your pleasure

by peacefulpete 6 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete



    There are many glaringly obvious doublets in the early books of the OT. The two versions of the blessing of Jacob are a textbook case betraying the different theological perspectives and agendas of JE and P.

    Here are the two side by side for comparison.:

    (P)

    1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 "Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. 3 "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 "May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham." 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan," 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. .....(later he retturns from Paddan-Aram, land of Aram)

    (J or JE)

    1 Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am." 2 Isaac said, "Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death. 3 "Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; 4 and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die." 5 Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, 7 'Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.' 8 "Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you. 9 "Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves. 10 "Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death." 11 Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. 12 "Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing." 13 But his mother said to him, "Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me." 14 So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob. 18 Then he came to his father and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" 19 Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me." 20 Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because the LORD your God caused it to happen to me." 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come close, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not." 22 So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." 23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him. 24 And he said, "Are you really my son Esau?" And he said, "I am." 25 So he said, "Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son's game, that I may bless you." And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, "Please come close and kiss me, my son."

    27 So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said,
    "See, the smell of my son
    Is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed;

    28 Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
    And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine;

    29 May peoples serve you,
    And nations bow down to you;
    Be master of your brothers,
    And may your mother's sons bow down to you
    Cursed be those who curse you,
    And blessed be those who bless you."

    30 Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me." 32 Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." 33 Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed." 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" 35 And he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing." 36 Then he said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." And he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" 37 But Isaac replied to Esau, "Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?" 38 Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept.

    39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,
    "Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,
    And away from the dew of heaven from above.



    "By your sword you shall live,
    And your brother you shall serve;
    But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck."

    41 So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." 42 Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, "Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. 43 "Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran (meaning holy?) , to my brother Laban! 44 "Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury subsides, 45 until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?" 28: 10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. ....(he has episode with Yhwh and meets Rachel etc)

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note the significant plot differences. JE has Jacob using deceipt to aquire the blessing while P may have felt it unfitting so in his version Isaac calls for Jacob and willingly gives the blessing. Also note the advice and directive in P to get a wife from Paddan-aram (not Haran) while JE has Jacob fleeing to Haran and there finds find a wife because his mother fears for his life after cheating Esau out of his blessing. The reason for these differences seems to become clear in the way the authors continue the plots. JE simply has Jacob returning from Haran as a cowering lesser showering gifts on his murderous brother to win his acceptance. (39:9-12) P on the other hand, writing for exiles awaiting return to Palestine or recently repatriated Jews, paints Jacob's return as nothing but positive. In fact he has Elohim repeat the blessing given by Isaac to recieve the promised land and become a mighty nation (35:9-12). Given P's audience (returning Jews) it seems quite obvious why he tweaked the JE story a bit.

  • greven
    greven

    Nicely written!

    It is very clear both the manner and setting of the blessing and subsequent wife gathering differ significantly.

    A small note though: you mention verses but not the books from which these accounts were taken...

    Greven

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    all from genesis

  • gumby
    gumby

    Pete....how do we reconsile the fact that even though the stories differ......they have the same agenda? Were they copies of some earlier story, and from that the various writers of the O.T. each gave their "slant" of the original story which would explain the differences in the comparisons you showed? Where did the story originate in the first place?

    Gumby

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete


    Pete....how do we reconsile the fact that even though the stories differ......they have the same agenda?

    They don't have the same agenda Gumby. J throughout his work makes much of the angle that Yahweh works his covenants despite/or through human weakness. He seems to be doing the same in this story.

    P on the other hand was writing later, traditionally as much as 4 hundred years later, he took J (JE) and made it fit his political needs.

    Were they copies of some earlier story, and from that the various writers of the O.T. each gave their "slant" of the original story which would explain the differences in the comparisons you showed? Where did the story originate in the first place?

    There are those that say that J and E as two separate authors working in Judah and Israel made use of some comon source. However I really don't see E here as a separate narrative so as to justify such a hypothesis. Narkissos I'm sure would agree. P again is using J. There very likely were very ancient stories about Isaac and Jacob that were incorporated or fleshed out J's tale. Remember that Isaac and Jacob were posssibly local deities (Jacob-El well attested) at the earliest layers of legend and myth. There is some evidence that the rival twin story has root in the astrological struggle between day and night.

  • gumby
    gumby

    Thanks Pete. I'm glad you agreed to fill in for Narkissos while he's getting his hemmroids opererated on this week and I'm hopin the medicine they gave him gets rid of the clap for good.

    Seriously...I appreciate your comments. I suppose it would be interesting to have some of these non canonical books to see how they compared with those approved by the church.

    Gumby

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    Not sure what noncanonical books you are referring to Gumby. All the above story is from Genesis. The two versions are side by side.

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