and the survival, guaranteed by God, of the people of Israel. In other words, the book was written for the purpose of explaining the fundamental truths about the Israelites to themselves, as well as for the purpose of providing documentation of why the people of Israel are to consider themselves the people of God. Boadt says the written record "was viewed much as we would understand propaganda for a good cause."
The story of Jacob is central to this explanation and documentation. That is because Jacob's multiple descendants stand for the whole of Israel as an idea of a coherent culture and people on one hand, and of a special people in relation to God and the universe on the other. The transformation of the man Jacob into the patriarch Israel is symbolic of God's promise to Abraham of a land and of the Israelites as God's chosen people. God promises to give Abraham and his descendants "the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God." The condition placed on this gift is very important: that the people of Abraham acknowledge God as their God. This promise is to be fulfilled beginning with Jacob, Isaac's son. Boadt points out that it is announced again in Exodus 3.7-10 and Deuteronomy 34.1-3.
Jacob is the patriarch whose first generation of descendants establishes what could be called a pure line of Hebrews. Abraham's progeny include both Isaac's line and Ishmael's line, which can be interpreted as both Jew and Gentile. Isaac, too, as brother of Ishmael, is directly connected to a Gentile line in a way that obscures the development of the people of whom Abraham is the patriarch. Yes, Jacob and Esau are twins, and the Lord tells Rebekah that "two nations are in your womb." Also, there is some evidence of disarray in Isaac's household because Jacob and Esau are twins and because Jacob makes a project of obscuring the father-son relationship by swindling Esau out ...