|
|
|
Question:
If Jacob tricked Isaac by pretending he was Esau, why wasn't Esau considered more righteous and therefore a Father of Judaism? We always hear about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Answer:
All we have is the story as it comes to us, and that question is not addressed in the story. Here are some factors that might apply,though.
In ancient Semitic culture (there was no Hebrew culture yet) a blessing was not revocable.
The Word Lives
The concept here is that a word spoken has its own existence and power, so a blessing once given was a power already implemented.
So when the father gave the blessing, that was the one blessing he had power to give. Thus a different second blessing had to be pronounced upon Esau.
Divine Promise
The decisive factor, however, in the Bible story, is the concept of divine promise. The blessing was incidental to the choice of Jacob to be the line for the new nation. Or more correctly, it was irrelevant.
God had already promised that Jacob was "the son of promise," which makes it even more stupid for Jacob to have acted deviously to steal the birthright.
Esau's Nation
Esau also became the father of a great nation, called Edom, a nickname for Esau, which may mean "red." There is a lot of fun playing on this word in the story of Esau (Edom, the red man) selling his future for a bowl of red (adom) stew (Genesis 25:30).
Esau moved east across the Jordan to live among the descendants of Seir. We are told the people of Seir were Hurrians (Horites). The land was still called Seir in the Genesis story at the time when Jacob returned to Canaan from Haran, where he worked for his wives' father, Uncle Laban, for 20 years, to be reconciled to his brother.
You can read about Edom again at the time of the entry of Jacob's descendants into Canaan, after the Exodus and 40 years in the wilderness, and the land still existed by that name in the time of the Roman Empire, in the Latin/Greek phonetic form of Idumea.
Esau's family lived peacefully with the people of Seir, gradually gaining ascendance. The descendents of Edom (Esau) who led in that era are listed in Genesis 36.
Hebrews and Jews
Incidentally, the question of Jacob and Esau does not involve Judaism. The term Judaism refers to a particular religious expression, which developed about 1300 years later. The descendants of Jacob were called Israel (children of Israel), which was another name of Jacob.
The descendants of Abraham were not called Jews, and the term Hebrew was originally the word for "wanderer," or "nomad." Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt (descendants of Jacob as well as, apparently, other slaves who joined them).
The term Judaism more specifically refers to the forms of religious observance that developed after the return from the Babylonian captivity to restore Jerusalem, in the 5th century BC. You can read about the new regulations and worship approaches, as well as the exclusivism of race that developed at that time in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The Origin of the Jews
The term Jew and Judaism came from the tribe of Judah and region of Judea, where Jerusalem was located. During the divided kingdom, the southern area/tribes of Judah and Benjamin came to be called Judah. This also included Simeon, south of Judah to the Negev.
But we see in the book of Judges indications that the tribe of Simeon was absorbed into Judah in early years. The nine other tribes are mentioned in the areas that seceded from the joint kingdom after Solomon's death.
After the northern tribes were dispersed into oblivion by Assyria, the remaining people continued to be known as Judah and the area as Judea. The Assyrian name of the province was Yehuda. This continued to be the name under the Medo-Persian, who took over the neo-Babylonian Empire, which had overthrown the Assyrian Empire, and ultimately taken Judeans into exile.
The Form of the Name
Note that the J in Western European languages comes from the letter in Latin which represented the Y sound. Yehuda/Judea continued to be the name after the restoration in about 485 BC. The people were called Judean or Yudan under the Romans.
The Greek form was the equivalent in their alphabet, phonetically Yudeos (spelled Yudaios). Through changes in letter forms and sound over the centuries, the word form became the modern English word Jew. The religion of this people, from the Greek Yudaismos, came to have the English form Judaism.
OBJ
First written 16 November 2000 on an Internet discussion group
Expanded and finalized 24 November 2004
Orville Boyd Jenkins, Ed.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © Orville Boyd
Jenkins 2004
Permission granted for free
download and transmission for personal or educational use. Other rights
reserved.
| Email: orville@jenkins.nu |
|
|
|
file: Esau.txt