The Names and Their Meaning (§ 1).
Jacob's Youth (§ 2).
His Life in Haran (§ 3).
His Later Life (§ 4).
Characteristics of the Sources (§ 5).
Jacob's Character (§ 6).
Historicity of the Narratives (§ 7).
Jacob's youth was one untiring effort to secure for himself the birthright which belonged to his twin-brother Esau. This struggle had even a prenatal origin (Gen. xxv. 22-23). In contrast with the coarse and violent Esau, Jacob was quiet and peaceable (Gen. xxv. 27), but shrewd, and able to use cleverly the weaknesses of his more sensuous brother (verse 29). In this he was aided by his mother, while the hunter found favor in the eyes of his father. Isaac; deceived by his wife, unwittingly bestowed the blessings of birthright upon Jacob (Gen. xxvii.; see ISAAC), who in consequence was forced to abandon for a time the land of promise, and transferred his abode to Haran, the native land of his mother. In the course of his wanderings Jacob came to Bethel, where Yahweh appeared to him in a dream.
The second period of Jacob's life was passed with his kindred in Haran, where he founded his house. He asked of Laban as a reward for seven years' labor the hand of his beautiful daughter, Rachel; but her sister Leah was substituted by the mercenary father, and Jacob was forced to serve seven years longer to gain his beloved Rachel. The latter, however, was unfruitful, while Leah brought him four sons: Reuben , Simeon, Levi, and Judah. As a result of a substitution of slaves for their mistresses, Jacob's family was further increased by four sons, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. These were followed by two sons of Leah, Issachar and Zebulun. At last Rachel bore her husband's favorite son, Joseph. As God's blessing seemed to be attached to Jacob's person, Laban was loath to lose his services; to his own disadvantage, however, for although the recompense which Jacob required might seem small, it always turned out to be unexpectedly large, and though Laban frequently changed the conditions (Gen. xxxi. 7), the advantage was always with Jacob. The tense relations between them hastened Jacob's secret departure with his wives and goods. Laban pursued and overtook him at the mount of Gilead, but, although embittered by the loss of his household gods, which Rachel had carried off without husband's knowledge, he was forced to settle the strife amicably. The name Gilead (explained as Gal'edh, "hill of witness," Gen. xxxi. 48) was from this time a reminder of the treaty thus concluded.
A third phase of Jacob's history began with his reentrance into the promised land and his settlement in the heart of the country. But first an understanding with Esau was necessary, and then to take possession of the disputed heritage, for which a severe struggle was required. Jacob succeeded by the help of spiritual powers (Gen. xxxii. 24 sqq.). After such a victory no human being could do him harm. The dreaded Esau received him kindly and retired again to the desert land of the Edomites,
The three sources, J, E, and P, appear in the part of Genesis which contains the Jacob narratives, to which P contributed the least. J and E do not always easily separate, since they followed practically the same traditions; but in J the cunning of Jacob seems the motive of action, while in E miraculous interpositions and appearances in dreams are more common. In JE the hatred of Esau because of his exclusion from his father's blessing is given as the cause of Jacob's emigration to Haran; in P the reason assigned is dissatisfaction on the part of his parents with the Hittite marriages of Esau (xxvii. 46-xxviii. 9). The two blessings, xxvii. 27 sqq. (JE) and xxviii. 3 (P), are independent, as are the accounts of Esau's departure to Seir, xxxvi. 6-7 (P) and xxxii. 3 sqq. (JE), and of the time of the change of name, xxxii. 28 (J) and xxxv. 10 (P). These divergences show that independent traditions were transmitted which are followed by the different sources. The chronology of Jacob's life, derived mostly from P, offers some difficulties. Thus, if from the 130 years of xlvii. 9 (Jacob's age when presented to Pharaoh) be deducted the seven fruitful and two unfruitful years, the thirty years of Joseph when the fruitful years began (xli. 46) and the fourteen years passed by Jacob in Haran before Joseph's birth, it would appear that when he left his father's house he was about seventy-seven years of age, though chaps. xxviii. sqq. evidently regard him as a young man. The three elements of the patriarchal blessing in xlviii.-xlix. combine supplementary details: xlvii. 3-6 is assigned to P, xlviii. 15-16, 20-22 to E, and xlix. to J. The post-Mosaic authorship assigned to xlix. (time of Samson by Bleek and Ewald, time of David by Knobel, much later than this by Stade) does not take account of the way in which the Levites are treated.
Jacob's character is best illustrated by his double
name. He is called Jacob because of his dexterity
and cunning, which always give him the advantage
over the physically stronger Esau and over the
shrewd Laban. On account of his weakness and
his subordinate position Jacob accommodates himself
to the will of the stronger, yet always succeeds
in attaining his end by courage and
tenacity. However much dissimulation
there was in his conduct, Jacob did
not employ it for sordid gain. As
Israel he strives for the blessing of God because
he has recognized therein the highest good. He
devotes his whole energy to obtaining the blessings
of the covenant (Hos. xii. 4-5). It is true that
Jacob's character does not show the comparative
straightforwardness of Abraham, and therefore he
can not be regarded as a model for all time. He is
not an ideal, even according to the standard of
Israelitic ethics, but a man whose sinful nature
struggles against his better self; but he was purified
by the suffering which made his life a sadder one
than that of his forefathers
Whether, and in what sense, Jacob is historical
may be a subject of debate. The simplicity and the
unconventional sincerity of these recitals
speak in favor of genuine tradition
rather than of heroic poetry.
Some of the alleged facts would surely
never have been invented in later times,
as, for example, the contemporaneous marriage with
two sisters (cf. 76
earlier period of the kingdom of Israel, after the
subjugation of Edom. For Bernstein the patriarch
Jacob and his history were invented after the separation
of the kingdom in order to glorify Bethel;
and Seinecke even sees in the despondency of the
returning Jacob a reflex of the fear of the exiles
on their return from Babylon, and in the treatment
of the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi
the reproof of the Samaritans by Ezra. Apart
from such fancies, it would never be possible to
transform the natural and characteristic figures of
an Abraham or a Jacob into national experiences
or the disappointments of a tribe. Mere invention
being out of the question, the alternative is to
assume that the stories deal with real persons.
Names such as Jacob-el and Isra-el, which include
the name of a divinity, should be regarded, like
the name of Abraham, as originally individual
rather than ethnic. In this way Kittel, Klostermann,
and Ewald have looked upon the bearers of
these names as chiefs who stood at the head of
nomadic tribes. In the traditions of that far-away
time only a few prominent personalities stand out,
while the tribe which accompanied them in their
wanderings appears only in details of the narrative.
The historical standard used in reference to later
periods may not be applied to primitive traditions;
but, just as little should their essentially historical
character be denied as being, in the main, faithful
pictures of the time of the first residence of the
fathers in the land of promise.
BIBLIOGRAPHY; J. A. Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, i. 942-943, Königsberg, 1711; C. von Lengerke, Kenaan, pp. 290 sqq., ib. 1844; L. Diestel, Der Segen Jakobs, Brunswick, 1853; H. Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, i. 412 sqq., 489 sqq., Hanover, 1864, Eng, transl., i. 341-362, London, 1883· K. Kohler, Der Segen Jakobs, Berlin, 1867; A. N. Obbard, The Prophecy of Jacob, Cambridge, 1867: A. Bernstein, Ursprung der Sagen von . . . Jakob, Berlin, 1871; J. Hamburger, Real-Encyklopädie des Judenthums, i. 543 sqq, Neustrelitz, 1874; A. Köhler, Biblische Geschichte Altes Testamentes, i. 136 sqq., Erlangen, 1875; L. Seinecke, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, i. 40 sqq., Göttingen, 1876; J. Popper, Ursprung des Monotheismus, pp. 346 sqq., Berlin, 1879; C. von Orelli, O. T. Prophecy, Edinburgh, 1885; R. Kittel, Geschichte der Hebräer, i. 122 sqq., Gotha, 1892 Eng. transl., London, 1895; W. Staerk, Studien zur Religions- und Sprachge-schichte des A. T., i. 77-83, ii. 1-13 Berlin 1899; C. A. Briggs, Messianic Prophecy, New York, 1902; DB, ii. 526-535; EB, ii. 2306-12; JE, vii, 19-24, and in general the works on the history of Israel as given under AHAB.
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