A modern look at the ancient hermeneutics of the Biblical Esau and Jacob

Abstract

This article stresses that some contemporary biblical commentators consider the Patriarch Jacob as an opportunist who “supplanted his brother Esau by asking him to sell the birthright” (Rosenblatt, & Horwitz, 1995, p. 240). Nonetheless, Henry M. Morris voices that the biblical text does not establish such a connection (Morris, 1976, p. 417). Derek Kidner also emphasizes the fact that “the context does not comment ‘so Jacob supplanted his brother,’ but ‘so Esau despised his birthright;’ and Hebrews 12 shares its standpoint, presenting flippant Esau as the antithesis of the pilgrims of Hebrew 11” (Kidner, 2008, p.152). Likewise, R. Kent Hughes affirms that “the closing line of the episode gives us the divine commentary because it does not say, ‘Thus Jacob took advantage of his brother, and Esau despised his birthright,’ but only that ‘Esau despised [disowned] his birthright.’ Esau’s own sin sealed his fate” (Hughes, 2004, p. 337). Therefore, the goal of this research paper is to encourage all the readers of the biblical text for the more balanced and careful hermeneutical approach by suppressing all modern emotional judgments in the case of such an ancient narrative, which stems from strange cultural conditions and a different moral atmosphere. (Rad, 1972, p. 267). For the integrity of this investigation, the research represented how through the history, Hebrew and Christian communities generally interpreted this biblical passage and, in particular, viewed the life of Esau and Jacob.