Jacob and Isaac
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In the first books of the bible, Genesis and Exodus, Jacob and Isaac are two of the important figures. Isaac is the bridge between Abraham, his father, and Jacob, his son. Isaac is not given the attention the other two are accorded. He rather appears as the intended victim of Abraham, who believes he must sacrifice his son to satisfy God, or as the father of Isaac and so as the man who is tricked by his younger son into giving away the elder son's birthright. Jacob is the third of the patriarchs whose story is told in Genesis. He is also called Israel and is thus regarded as the founder of the people. This is made apparent as well by the fact that the founding fathers of the twelve tribes are called the sons of Jacob. Yet, Jacob achieves his status through trickery and deceit and by the betrayal of his brother. Many of the stories in the early books of the bible involve family issues and questions of succession, with a distortion of the process of succession being a sin. The origin of the tension is in fact not always clear--why Cain's offering is scorned is not clear, nor is the sin of Ham--but many later stories carry through the sin of Cain in some way, as is seen in the story of Esau and Jacob. What is clear is that tensions in the family group lead to the dispersion of the family members, and each son becomes the leader of another faction and another tribe. These tensions developed because the traditional family relationships are distorted, ignored, or chall
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been his.
In Gen 25:19-34 and 27:1-37, the beginning of the story of Jacob and Esau is told. In the first section, the genealogy is given to link Abraham to Isaac and Isaac to the twins, Esau (the eldest) and Jacob. The two sons were an answer to a prayer, for Isaac's wife had been barren. The children were named according to the circumstances of their births--Esau was named Esau because he was red when born, and jacob was so named because he emerged holding onto his brother's heel. This is because the name Jacob is a play on words in Hebrew meaning "take by the heel" as well as "supplants," and the irony is that Jacob does indeed seek to supplant his brother by taking his birthright.
The two grow up, and Esau becomes a hunter, while Jacob has a more quiet nature and remains in his tent. The father favors Esau, while the mother favors Jacob. Esau commits an offense when he sells his birthright to his brother for something to eat after a hard day of hunting, just as Jacob commits an offense by insisting that this should be the price. The birthright under discussion refers to the rights of the eldest son to lead the family and to have a double share of the inheritance. God gives Moses a series of laws in addition to t
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Approximate Word count = 1214
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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