part0067

The Myth: And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom [i.e., “red”]. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. (Gen. 25:29–34)

And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, …that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son…And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son…And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them…And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:…And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me… And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him. (Gen. 27:1–41)

Genesis tells two stories about how Jacob got the birthright from his older brother and neither casts Jacob in a very good light. When Jacob and Esau were in the womb, God told their mother that the elder would serve the younger, meaning that somehow the person entitled to the birthright would lose it. Why? If God wanted Jacob to be the principle heir, why didn’t he just arrange for Jacob to be born first? And why should God consign his hope that Jacob would succeed to a plan of outright dishonesty?

In the first incident, Esau returned from the hunt near death and faint with hunger. He sought help from his brother who had a bowl of lentils. Jacob, instead of sharing the food with his brother, as any humane family member would do, took advantage of the situation and offered to sell the food to Esau in exchange for the birthright. Is this Jacob the role model for a God who supposedly gave a commandment not to covet another’s property?

Jacob’s purchase of the birthright, despicable an act as it was, could at least be defended on pure contract principles. The second incident cannot be so described. Jacob committed acts of theft and false witness.

In the second incident, Isaac, old and blind, wanted to pass on the blessing to Esau, his favorite son and rightful heir. In preparation, he sent him out to bring back some venison and promised to bless him when he returned.

Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, overheard the conversation and instructed Jacob to kill a goat so she can prepare the meal for Isaac and have Jacob pretend to be his brother. Jacob worried that his skin would be too smooth and Isaac would know the truth, that he would be cursed rather than blessed. (He does not worry about doing wrong, only about being caught.) Rebekah told him that she would absorb the curse, and that Jacob should cover his hands with goatskins and wear Esau’s clothing.

The ruse worked. Jacob lied to Isaac and cheated Esau out of his inheritance. It’s not entirely clear, though, how the birthright and the blessing were different. Jacob had already purchased the birthright with the bowl of lentils. What did the blessing add to the package that he didn’t already have?

The account of how Jacob got the inheritance bears a remarkable similarity to an incident in a twelfth century B.C. Egyptian text known as The Contendings of Horus and Set . The story tells of a lawsuit between the gods Horus the Child and Set over the right to succeed Osiris as king of Egypt. The council of gods served as judges. The document brings together several tales that record older myths.

At one point in the contest, Isis, mother of Horus the Child, had convinced everybody but Re, chief deity of the gods, that her son Horus should be the king. Set became angry and declared he would not follow any decision by a tribunal that included Isis. Re directed the gods to reassemble at a place called the “Isle in the Middle” and told the ferryman not to let Isis or anyone who looks like her come across.

The goddess disguised herself as an old hag and told the ferryman that she had a bowl of porridge for the hungry young man who had been tending cattle. Her costume fooled the ferryman and he took her across to the island. When she landed, she saw Set and transformed herself into a beautiful woman.

Set, his lust aroused, approached her. When he came to her she told him a tale of woe. Her husband, she said, had been a cattleman by whom she had a son. The husband died and the son tended the cattle, but a stranger came into the stable and threatened to beat up the child, take the cattle, and evict the child. Isis concluded by asking Set for his protection.

“Is it while the son of the male is still living,” replied Set, “that the cattle are to be given to the stranger?” These words by Set indicated that the rule of law should be that the son has a stronger claim to a father’s property than does a stranger. What he didn’t realize as he said these words, was that he was also describing the legal conflict between himself and Horus the Child for the right to rule Egypt. Horus the Child was son of Osiris, the prior king, and the title was a form of property that should go to his heir, his son, not a rival. Set was acting like the bully in the story told by Isis.

Immediately after these words escaped Set’s lips, Isis transformed herself into a bird and called out that Set’s own words did him in. When Re heard what Set said, he declared that Horus must become king. But Set was not a gracious loser and refused to abide by the declaration. More tests, tricks, and deceptions were yet to come.

This Egyptian tale sets forth essentially the same story as the Bible. The head of the clan favored the older claimant, the mother favored her son; the older son traveled away from the home before the blessing was to be given; the mother found out about the plan to bestow the blessing; the mother arranged for a bowl of food to be carried to one of the rivals by a person in disguise; one of the rivals was tricked into saying words that awarded the blessing to the younger son; one of the rivals was determined to kill the younger son.