jim, even if we accept the text as historically credible and objective, there is still the issue of interpretation. isnt your rendering of the story a one-sided extrapolation? let me play the devil's advocate and extrapolate in the other direction:
esau was a hard worker: a skilled hunter (YODE( CAYD) and farmer (ISh SADEH) and a main provider for his family and the whole community, for which he gained his father's esteem; while jacob never got a job (ISh TAM) and stayed at home (ISh OHALIM) cooking and scheming with his mother, how to gain his father's blessing by, first, taking advantage of his brother's weak moments and, later, by cheating his dying father. i must admit i like your version better, but... nir cohen ---------- >>> If we can understand Genesis 25: 27, we can understand the bulk of the Patriarchal narratives. As to the key word TM at Genesis 25: 27, we need to start by looking at the words %DH and )HLYM in this sentence. CYD is “hunting”, and YD( is “know” . Esau is said to “know hunting”, that is “know [all about] hunting”. %DH can mean “place where wild animals roam”, rather than referring to a tilled field or the countryside in general. So in this particular context, this verse is telling us that Esau is a man of the “places where wild animals roam”, who “knows hunting”. Note that Esau does not hunt with the community, using nets and snares, and does not bring back food for the community. Rather, Esau hunts mainly for sport, using a bow [Q$T, at Genesis 27: 3], and brings back wild game only for his immediate family. Here, before Esau has married local Hurrian women, Esau brings back wild game for his doting father Isaac to eat, and thereby curries favor with his powerful father, who unduly favors Esau over younger twin son Jacob. By contrast, Jacob is a man of the “community”. Although )HLYM literally means “tents”, in context here it means “community”. Jacob is aware of the needs of the “community” of people who live in “tents”, of whom his father Isaac is the leader. Jacob also pays close attention to the huge flock of sheep and goats, which is the livelihood of the community. Jacob is well on his way to becoming the greatest shepherd in the Hebrew Bible. If Laxi- in Beer Laxi-Rai refers to the Lachi- in Lachi-$a, then we know from Late Bronze Age burials that meat from domesticated animals was an important part of the diet of the people there, whereas wild game was not. So by contrast to Esau, who is selfishly hunting wild game with a bow for sport, Jacob is busy attending to matters of the community, including the all-important flock of sheep and goats. That is why Jacob is said to be TM, meaning an “upright”/TM man, a man who is concerned about the “whole”/TM community. Firstborn sons who hunt with bows (Ishmael and Esau) get the shaft, and rightly so, in the Patriarchal narratives. The rightful leader of the next generation of early monotheists (Isaac and Jacob, for example) is in each case a younger son who never goes hunting. If we can understand Genesis 25: 27, we can understand the bulk of the Patriarchal narratives. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
