Who was the mother of Jacob and Esau in the Bible?

Answer 1

A:

According to biblical tradition, Abraham was the first of the patriarchs, followed by his son Isaac and then the twins Jacob and Esau. The Book of Genesis says that Abraham was exactly 100 years old and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born. Isaac, in turn, was exactly 60 years old when Jacob and his twin brother Esau were born. A supposed fact is that Jacob lived to 147 years old, but this can be disputed when we look at the ages attributed to each of the patriarchs and see that these ages were derived from elegant formulas based on the number 17:

1. Abraham lived to 175 (5 X 5 X 7)

2. Isaac lived to 180 (6 X 6 X 5)

3. Jacob lived to 147 (7 X 7 X 3

· Each lifespan involves a perfect square (5, 6, then 7 in a numeric series),

· the third factor also forms a series (7, 5, 3)

· in each case the sum of the factors is 17.

Jacob and Esau are portrayed as bitter rivals who were constantly at loggerheads, with Jacob stealing Esau's birthright by subterfuge. Genesis 25:22-26 says that they fought even before their birth and Jacob held on to Esau's heel in an attempt to prevent him being born first, something that would have required intelligence, awareness of the outside world and manual dexterity far beyond the capabilities of ordinary mortals.

As they grew, Esau was a cunning hunter and a man of the field, while Jacob was a plain man who dwelt in tents. One day (Genesis 25:30-31), Esau came home hungry, hoping to eat, but Jacob only offered Jacob food if he sold his birthright. When their father, Isaac, was dying (Genesis 27), Jacob tricked him into giving him his blessing by wearing the skins of young goats on his hands.

The story of Jacob Wrestling all night with an opponent is consistent with the supernatural rivalry between Jacob and Esau, but creates problems for the modern monotheistic view. Theologians offer a variety of explanations, often based on Jacob's opponent being an angel, although the original Hebrew word means 'god'. Others wonder why the God we now understand would choose to wrestle with Jacob, and why he only managed to dislocate Jacob's leg.

In this story Jacob was left alone and wrestled with his opponent all night until the break of day, when the man said he must leave (Genesis 32:24ff). Even though his leg was dislocated, Jacob refused to let his opponent go unless he blessed Jacob. That the 'man' was a god is amply demonstrated - Jacob asked for his blessing, he had the prerogative of changing Jacob's name, Jacob's new name was Israel (generally assumed to mean 'wrestled with God') and Jacob called the place Peniel ('the face of God') because he had seen God face to face. If the man who wrestled with Jacob was a god, then Jacob was also a god in the very early tradition behind this passage, as demonstrated by the fact that he was such an even match for his opponent. And if the opponent was a god, he was also a sun god - daybreak signalled the end of the contest, he had to leave Jacob before the sun could rise, then the sun rose upon Jacob. This was the daily struggle in which the sun god defeats the moon god at dawn.

This tells us that Jacob was indeed the moon god in early times, but the story had evolved ambiguously by the time Genesis was first written down, to suit the story of Jacob as a human ancestor of the Israelites. There is a great deal of evidence that the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were originally incarnations of the moon god, but as religious beliefs evolved over the centuries they became regarded as Israel's human ancestors. His opponent was Esau, the sun god, but only in very early Hebrew tradition, because he too eventually came to be regarded as a mortal.

I believe that Genesis chapters 28 and 29 tell the story of Jacob's marriage to the ancient Hebrew goddess Asherah. He could not marry any of the mortals in the land, but was told to marry a cousin. Jacob's uncle Labon and his two cousins, Leah and Rachel, lived in the city of Haran, now known to be a chief site of the moon god, Sin. In Hebrew, the name 'Labon' means 'white' or 'bright', and is associated with 'Lebanah' - the moon. Rachel means 'ewe' and Leah means 'wild cow', although it can also mean 'weary'. Clearly, 'wild cow' is the more probable meaning here: Leah was described as 'tender eyed', or cow-eyed, and her sister's name was Ewe. And Weary seems such an improbable name for a daughter. Of course, Ewe and Wild Cow are also improbable names in the modern context, particularly as we think that Labon could not have predicted that Leah really would grow up to have at least one physical attribute of a cow. This begins to make sense when we learn that several ancient hymns to the Sumerian goddess Inanna describe her as a splendid wild cow. Moreover, in shepherd communities, Inanna was usually associated with a ewe. And, while her Sumerian name was Inanna, her Hebrew name was Asherah. Thus we have Asherah symbolised by the wild cow and the ewe, Leah and Rachel. We have already seen that Jacob was a god in early Hebrew mythology, so his marriages to a wild cow and a ewe were doublets of his marriage to the goddess of fertility, who was also Queen of the Night and the Morning Star: Asherah.

Answer 2

Isaac and Rebekah were Esau and Jacobs parents. Esau was born first, followed by Jacob who was gripping Esau's heel. Gen. 25:25-26.

Answer 3

Jacob and Esau were twin brothers, sons of Isaac.

Answer 4

Rebekah, Isaac's wife (Genesis chapter 25).

Answer 5

Isaac (father) and Rebecca (mother).

Answer 6

Rachael

Answer 7

Rachael