{Smooth Priests and Hairy Prophets}[17th December 1989]

 [Redbook6:361-363][19891217:1422]{Smooth Priests and Hairy Prophets}[17th December 1989]

19891217.1422

[The entry is preceded by a copy of Genesis 25:12-34 & 26:34-28:9 from the New Jerusalem Bible, reproduced below]

*

[Text extracted from ms diagram reproduced above:]

			C
			|
			Saints
				Priests?
	G~	–	+	–	M~
Hairy men – Esau		The				Jacob – Smooth men
		Prophets
			|
			A~

In a way, this extract sumarises all my difficulties with the Church and the Priesthood.

*(ref [[Redbook6:255-257][19890913:0927f]{Biblical Circles (3)]}[13th September 1989](&/or f?),] 255)

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[Chater 25: 12-34]

The descendants of Ishmael

These are the descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave-girl. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by name and line: Ishmael's first-born was Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, according to their settlements and encampments, twelve chiefs of as many tribes.

The number of years Ishmael lived was one hundred and thirty-seven. When he breathed his last and died, he was gathered to his people.

He lived in the territory stretching from Havilah-by-Shur just outside Egypt on the way to Assyria, and he held his own against all his kinsmen.

III: THE STORY OF ISAAC AND JACOB

The birth of Esau and Jacob

This is the story of Isaac son of Abraham.

Abraham fathered Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramaean. Isaac prayed to Yahweh on behalf of his wife, for she was barren. Yahweh heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. But the children inside her struggled so much that she said, 'If this is the way of it, why go on living?' So she went to consult Yahweh, and Yahweh said to her:

There are two nations in your womb,

your issue will be two rival peoples.

One nation will have the mastery of the other,

and the elder will serve the younger.

When the time came for her confinement, there were indeed twins in her womb. The first to be born was red, altogether like a hairy cloak; so they named him Esau. Then his brother was born, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old at the time of their birth. When the boys grew up Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the open country. Jacob on the other hand was a quiet man, staying at home among the tents. Isaac preferred Esau, for he had a taste for wild game; but Rebekah preferred Jacob.

Esau gives up his birthright

Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau returned from the countryside exhausted. Esau said to Jacob, 'Give me a mouthful of that red stuff there; I am exhausted' – hence the name given to him, Edom. Jacob said, 'First, give me your birthright in exchange.' Esau said, 'Here I am, at death's door; what use is a birthright to me?' Then Jacob said, 'First give me your oath'; he gave him his oath and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave him some bread and lentil stew; he ate, drank, got up and went away. That was all Esau cared about his birthright.

….

[Chapter 26: 34-35]

The Hittite wives of Esau

When Esau was forty years old he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. These were a bitter disappointment to Isaac and Rebekah.

[Chapter] 27

When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he summoned his elder son Esau. 'Son!' he said, and Esau replied, 'Here I am.' He then said, 'Look, I am old and do not know when I may die. Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go out into the country and hunt me some game. Make me the kind of appetising dish I like and bring it to me to eat and I shall give you my special blessing before I die.'

Rebekah was listening while Isaac was talking to his son Esau. So when Esau went into the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, 'I have just heard your father saying to your brother Esau, "Bring me some game and make an appetising dish for me to eat and then I shall bless you in Yahweh's presence before I die." Now, son, listen to me and do as I tell you. Go to the flock and bring me back two good kids, so that I can make the kind of special dish your father likes. Then take it to your father for him to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.'

Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, 'Look, my brother Esau is hairy, while I am smooth-skinned. If my father happens to touch me, he will see I am cheating him, and I shall bring a curse down on myself instead of a blessing.' But his mother replied, 'On me be the curse, my son! Just listen to me; go and fetch me the kids.' So he went to fetch them and brought them to his mother, and she made the kind of special dish his father liked. Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes, which she had at home, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them, covering his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the kids. She then handed the special dish and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

He went to his father and said, 'Father!' 'Yes?' he replied. 'Which of my sons are you?' Jacob said to his father, 'I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the game I have brought and then give me your soul's blessing.' Isaac said to his son, 'Son, how did you succeed so quickly?' He replied, 'Because Yahweh your God made things go well for me.' Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come closer, son, so that I can feel you and be sure whether you really are my son Esau or not.' Jacob went closer to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, 'The voice is Jacob's voice but the arms are the arms of Esau!' He did not recognise him since his arms were hairy like his brother Esau's, and so he blessed him. He said, 'Are you really my son Esau?' And he replied, 'I am.' Isaac said, 'Serve it to me, so that I can eat my son's game and give you my special blessing.' He served it to him and he ate; he offered him wine, and he drank. His father Isaac said to him, 'Come closer, and kiss me, son.' He went closer and kissed his father, who sniffed the smell of his clothes. Then he blessed him, saying:

Ah, the smell of my son

is like the smell of a fertile field

which Yahweh has blessed.

May God give you

dew from heaven,

and the richness of the earth,

abundance of grain and wine!

Let peoples serve you

and nations bow low before you!

Be master of your brothers;

let your mother's other sons bow low before you!

Accursed be whoever curses you

and blessed be whoever blesses you!

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and just as Jacob was leaving his father Isaac, his brother Esau returned from hunting. He too made an appetising dish and brought it to his father, 'Father, please eat some of your son's game and then give me your special blessing.' His father Isaac asked, 'Who are you?' 'I am your first-born son, Esau,' he replied. At this Isaac was seized with a violent trembling and said, 'Who was it, then, that went hunting and brought me the game? I finished eating it just before you came; I blessed him, and now blessed he will remain!' On hearing his father's words, Esau cried out loudly and bitterly and said to his father, 'Father, bless me too!' But he replied, 'Your brother came by fraud and took your blessing.' Esau said, 'His name should be Jacob right enough, for he has now supplanted me twice. First he took my birthright, and look, now he has gone and taken my blessing! But', he added, 'have you not kept a blessing for me?' Isaac replied to Esau, 'I have already made him your master; I have given him all his brothers as servants, I have given him grain and wine to sustain him. So what can I do for you, son?' Esau said to his father, 'Can you bless only once, father? Father, bless me too.' Isaac remained silent, and Esau began to weep aloud. Then his father Isaac spoke again and said:

'Far from the richness of the earth

and the dew of heaven above,

your home will be.

By your sword you will live,

and your brother will you serve.

But when you win your freedom, you will shake his yoke off your neck.'

Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, 'The time to mourn for my father will soon be here. Then I shall kill my brother Jacob.' When the words of Esau, her elder son, were repeated to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, 'Look, your brother Esau means to take revenge and kill you. Now, son, listen to me; go at once and take refuge with my brother Laban in Haran. Stay with him a while, until your brother's fury cools, until your brother's anger is diverted from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I shall send someone to bring you back. I do not want to lose you both on one day!'

Isaac sends Jacob to Laban

Rebekah said to Isaac, 'The Hittite women sicken me to death. If Jacob were to marry a Hittite woman like these, one of the local women, what would there be left in life for me?'

[Chapter] 28

So Isaac summoned Jacob and blessed him; and he gave him this order: 'You are not to marry any of the Canaanite women. Go off to Paddan-Aram, the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and there choose a wife for yourself from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. May El Shaddai bless you; may he make you fruitful and make you multiply so that you become a group of nations. May he grant you the blessing of Abraham, you and your descendants after you, so that one day you may own the country where you are now living as a stranger -- which God gave to Abraham.' Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and Jacob went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramaean and brother of Rebekah the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Another marriage of Esau

When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-Aram to choose a wife there, and that in blessing him he had given him this order: 'You are not to choose a wife from the Canaanite women,' and that, in obedience to his father and mother, Jacob had gone to Paddan-Aram, Esau then realised how much his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women. So Esau went to Ishmael and chose for a wife, in addition to the wives he had, Mahalath daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

(– from the New Jerusalem Bible, from a later, on-line edition than that used in the ms, but using the headings from the earlier, printed edition as in the ms, omitting the verse numbers, cross-references,and footnote references)

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