So now we've come out to the campus,
after spending some time in the studio working on a text.
And what I want to do now is to reflect upon what we did and
to go from there to the larger perspective of how it all came together.
We look at Genesis 26 and Genesis 26 is the story of Isaac and Rebecca, and
how Isaac as a patriarch perhaps the progenitor of a clan.
Then comes to possess territories deep in the south and maybe that's where Issac,
the original Issac, narratives or the Issac clan was situated.
What we saw was that within that narrative,
you can find various portions and
passages and verses that link it to the larger narrative of the Book of Genesis.
So you have an older story, then you have some aspects,
supplements, that have been inserted into that story.
That then create this trajectory that really reaches
throughout the whole history of Israel.
At least the early part of Israel's history with Abraham,
the father of Isaac and then to Esau and to Jacob,
the sons of Isaac who will become the later representatives of Israel and
Israel's neighbors, Esau being [INAUDIBLE].
So one thing that I wanted to discuss before we go on is to show how some
of the theories that have developed around this text.
According to one of the sources that we've called P in the last segment,
where we discussed it, there we see how the marriages
of Esau to Hittite women cause a concern for Rebeca.
And in the next chapter or the chapter thereafter ask Isaac to send Jacob away so
that Jacob does not commit the same errors that Esau does when choosing a wife.
And that is the P source, the priestly source, and
it's a pretty good argument that the P source is a late post-exilic source
because it has the issue of the identity of Israel in relation to others.
Mixed marriage and marriages with others outside the Jewish
people become a huge issue after the defeat of Judah.
And when Judah is now faced with a situation where it has to do something to
be Judahite.
And one of those things that one does is marriage.
Marrying within the clan, within the nation so
that one can continue a community that is really defined by a common ethos,
and common culture and so forth.
We won't get into all those issues of intermarriage, but
that is a strong indication that the priestly source,
at least one of the threads that connects the older Isaac story to the history of
Israel is a very late layer, a very late thread that connects it.
So, in addition to that P source, the priestly source,
there is another source that scholars talk about, and that's the Jsource.
And that J source is the part of chapter 25 that tells about the birth of Jacob and
Esau, Isaac and Rebeca's sons.
And then it continues in chapter 27 and a little bit in 28,
about how Jacob picking up on chapter 25 how he then stole the birthright of Esau.
Then actually goes through with the deal with the help of his mother Rebeca, and
then Jacob has to then go off and run off to another land because he fears Esau.
So what we have is an older source that's been incorporated into a larger narrative
according to the theory that J has done this.
And then P comes along and
gives a new reason why Jacob has to leave, it's because of mixed marriages, not
because Jacob the patriarch of Israel was a trickster, as in the older narrative.
One of the problems with the J theory is that you have within
it a contradiction, so when you read chapter 25 and you do this on your own,
and we'll discuss it in the forum.
When you read chapter 25, followed by 26, and then 27,
28 26 we saw the older part of it really has nothing to do with Jacob and Esau.
Isaac and Rebeca seemed to be alone they don't need children.
So how is it that the theory works that J has this in
the same series of narratives that chapter 25 and 27, 28 are.