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Baseball Primer Newsblog — The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand Monday, January 09, 2012Stein: Judaism on Steroids
cHiEf iMpaCt oFfiCEr JE
Posted: January 09, 2012 at 06:56 PM | 14 comment(s)
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1. Walt Davis Posted: January 09, 2012 at 08:37 PM (#4032708)* by Episcopalian standards
This is not, in my opinion, a mere nitpick; their father, Isaac, was the inheritor of the personal covenant that was established between his father (Abraham) and Yahweh himself. The stolen blessing made Jacob the inheritor thereof, rather than Esau (for whom Isaac explicitly intended it). Thus having finagled his way into a personal covenant with the creator of the universe (who either didn't mind the cheating or else was unwilling or unable to penalize it), Jacob became the father of all of the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact, Jacob was later renamed Israel, and the nation was thereafter named after him.
Esau, meanwhile, went on to become the father of the Edomites, who were essentially a vassal state of Israel, and treated by them (and by Yahweh) with contempt.
The BBWAA -- more moral and/or more powerful than the creator of the universe!
Seriously, have you ever read the thing? "More moral than Yahweh" is damning with faint praise.
Please, it was all fake. Jacob beat God in Genesis, but God would get his revenge in a "serpent on a pole" match in Leviticus.
(Ironically, that was how Moses McMahon got his start as a promoter. The whole Cain v. Abel thing was wrestling's first swerve.)
To get metaphorical about it, the idea was that Jacob represented civilized man, who used his wits to make this way through the world, and Esau represented uncivilized man (hairiness, lack of intelligence), from whom the future of mankind had to be literally taken. Storytelling/allegories have clearly changed A LOT in the last 2500 or so years - a lot of what goes on in the bible is awfully roundabout and confusing by today's standards - our fables and allegories today are nice and neat and simple.
Seriously, have you ever read the thing? "More moral than Yahweh" is damning with faint praise.
One thing is for certain, the world of the old testament was the wild wild west. You got away with whatever you could, however you could. There are several different versions of god over time, and while Adonai (who at some point becomes Yahweh who then eventually becomes just "God") may proclaim himself the one true god, he certainly isn't the only power present in the early days - there are the various Baals, gods of other peoples, demons, etc., and Yahweh is in competition with all of them.
Isn't it obvious God wass a drunk until he converted to Mormonism?
Except that, earlier in the narrative, Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob.
The birthright belonged to Jacob by sale. Jacob needed to resort to trickery to keep Esau from taking back that which was no longer rightfully his.
At least, according to the book which you cited.
DB
There's an argument that, in antiquity, Christianity's earliest appeal was that it was Judaism lite. The strict monotheism was perfectly in line with elite thinking about the universe, the notion of salvation after death was growing in appeal, and the clear moral code matched to philosophical thinking about the mastery of emotions, considered the basis of the moral life. The problem was, to become a Jew, you have to stop eating pork, shift your entire table fellowship to a new social group, and cut off a piece of your dingle. Into this void steps Paul - he preached to the Gentiles that they could enter into covenant with God through Jesus Christ, rather than through the following of the whole law (they still have to follow most of it - "so then the law is holy, the commandment is holy, just, and good". He doesn't say the law is bad, just that for the Gentiles, it is unnecessary.
So these Greeks and Romans who have been listening to Jewish teachers, considering Judaism, suddenly have an option to join a community which offers most of the benefits of Judaism, but without most of the really difficult stuff. Judaism lite.
First of all, that was done under extreme duress; Jacob withheld food from his fainting brother, who felt on the verge of death, unless his brother promised him his birthright.
Second, Esau clearly considered his "birthright" to be the mundane possessions of his father, his (by custom) as first-born. Selling them would not prevent his father in any way from blessing Esau (who in fact did intend to bless Esau, birthright or not). As Esau says, in Genesis 27:36, immediately after Jacob's deception becomes clear to him and his father: "Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing."
From a theological and historical standpoint, though, it might indeed have been Judaism Lite.
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