Introduction
Story-cycles often display symmetry. We can distinguish two kinds of story-cycle in biblical narrative:
- story-cycles based around individuals
- story-cycles based around events
All that we mean by talking of a ‘story-cycle’ is that this is a way of grouping stories. The stories are independent stories that share something in common. For example, the stories that we have about Jacob are ‘independent’ in that they are from different stages in his life; but they go together in that they are about Jacob—they are a collection of stories told about Jacob.
Jacob
Take the case of Jacob. In one sense, the cycle of stories about Jacob begins with his birth and ends with his death. However, placing the various stories in a continuous sequence doesn’t produce an overall symmetry. It is only when Jacob moves centre-stage that we begin to see symmetries in the choice, arrangement and description of his history. It is only when Jacob moves centre-stage that we speak of a collection or cycle of Jacob stories.
Jacob is the son of Isaac, and the story of his birth is embedded in with the stories about Isaac. As such, it is a ‘barren birth’ story and follows a common biblical pattern. Immediately following the birth story, there is the story of Esau[1] selling his birthright, some twenty years on. We might choose to include both of these two stories in our cycle of Jacob stories, but we are still very much in the middle of Isaac’s history, as is shown by the following account of Isaac and Abimelech, king of Gerar. Moreover, when we look for a pattern in the stories about Jacob, we find that a definite pattern begins with the later story of Jacob’s deception of Isaac. For these reasons, we suggest the cycle of Jacob’s stories begins at this later point.[2]
The beginning of the story of Jacob starts in Genesis 27. We don’t know when the deception of Isaac occurred, because the narrative opens using a common starting phrase, ‘And it came to pass that when Isaac was old’ (v. 1). This phrase shifts our focus from the old generation to the new generation. Jacob and Esau are more than 40 (Gen 26:34), and Jacob moves to the centre-stage. In this way the narrator moves the story forward.
It is obvious that Jacob has moved centre-stage, because the next few chapters are dominated in one way or another by him. However, what we can miss in the excitement of the story is the symmetrical arrangement of the story elements. This symmetry marks out the beginning and end of the main story about Jacob, which concerns his conflict with Esau. It is not difficult to see why we have this symmetry—the denouement of the story is fixed by the way it began—Jacob deceived his father, and the consequences of that deception resulted in a particular kind of blessing and the wrath of Esau. So then, Esau’s anger and the terms of the blessing naturally fix the character of the story end – see Table I.
Table I: Jacob and Esau:
| Deception and Flight | Return and Dealings |
|---|---|
| Jacob the Lord | Esau the Lord |
|
Blessing (Gen 27:29,37)
|
Reversal of Blessing (Gen 32:4, 5, 18; 33:8, 13, 14(x2), 15)
|
| A People serve thee (Gen 27:29) | Jacob the servant (Gen 33:5, 14) |
| Nations bow down to thee (Gen 27:29) | Jacob bows down (Gen 32:3) |
| Thy mother’s sons bow down (Gen 27:29) | The mothers and children bow down (Gen 33:7) |
| Taken away thy blessing (Gen 27:35-36) |
Take…my blessing (Gen 33:11)
|
| Fear of Esau and flea from land | Fear of Esau but return to the land |
Within this story, episodes from Jacob’s life are narrated. Again, there are symmetrical patterns, see Table II.
Table II
| Hatred between Jacob and Esau | |
|---|---|
|
And Jacob went (Gen 28:10)
|
Jacob goes to Isaac (Gen 31:17-18) |
| Jacob’s Dream | Laban’s Dream (Gen 31:24) |
| Covenant with God of Bethel and stone pillar | Covenant with Laban and stone pillar (Gen 31:44-45) |
| And Jacob went on his journey Gen 29:1 | And Jacob went on his way (Gen 32:1) |
| Reconciliation between Jacob and Esau | |
This pattern is one where something happens on Jacob’s journey—his journey to Haran is in two steps, and his return home is in three steps—the extra step being taken up with his reconciliation with Esau. However, if we look at the story, not from the point of view of ‘what happens on the journey’, but from the perspective of its motifs, another pattern emerges.
Wages, sin (in the form of deception) and death[3] (or the fear of death) characterize these episodes from the life of Jacob; and in the middle of this maelstrom, children are born. The pattern has a resonating typology; see below, Table III.
Table III
| Isaac, Canaan, Padan-aram, wife, children, people (Gen 28:1-3) |
| Dream of God of Bethel—message (Gen 28:13, 19) |
| Deception over wages—Leah |
| Birth of Children |
| Deception over wages—cattle |
| Dream of God of Bethel—message (Gen 31:3, 11) |
| Isaac, Canaan, Padan-aram, wives, children, people (Gen 31:17-18; 32:7) |
The repetition of the same words in Gen 31:17-18 that we find in Gen 28:1-3 shows that Jacob’s departure from Haran closes a part of his life which the narrator sees as beginning with his intention to leave Beersheba. The chiastic pattern reinforces this reading.
When we put the patterns from Table II and Table III together, we would lose the sense of pattern in Jacob’s stories because of the lack of a ‘fit’. We would fail to see how there are two patterns intersecting. Alternatively, we may see one of the patterns and force details into the pattern we that we have identified. We need instead to be sensitive to the overlapping and intersecting character of such biblical literary patterns. There is no simple A-B-C-D-D’-C’-B’-A’ pattern in the Jacob Cycle.
One final pattern in this cycle—a simple one—might be noted (see Table IV). Jacob experiences an angelic theophany during the flight to Haran, and he experiences an angelic theophany on his return home. These two encounters are clearly linked and centred on the re-iteration of the Abrahamic promise to Jacob.
It is also worth observing that the blessing which Isaac bestows on Jacob when he is deceived, is minor compared to the blessing that he bestows when he sends Jacob away to Haran. The Abrahamic promise is passed on only when Jacob is sent away. This promise is then confirmed in a theophany on the way to Haran.
Table IV
| went (yalak) toward Haran (Gen 28:10) | went (yalak) on his way (Gen 32:1) |
|
met (paga) a certain place
|
met (paga) (Gen 32:1) |
| angels of God (Gen 28:12) | angels of God (Gen 32:1) |
| God of thy father Abraham, God of Isaac | God of my father Abraham, God of Isaac |
| multitude of seed | multitude of seed |
The Abrahamic promise relates to land, fruitfulness and children. When Jacob comes back from Haran, he has children and a multitude of people and goods. God asked Jacob to return home, but Jacob is clearly anxious about the old threat from Esau. This is why he experiences an angelic theophany. This theophany is an assurance that God is with him, and that he need not be afraid. Nevertheless, Jacob still prays to the God of Bethel invoking the terms of God’s promise to him.
Conclusion
There is a great deal of symmetry in the Bible. The structures of the stories are laid out in patterns that are a delight to the ear and the eye. We can discern symmetry in the way that episodes and scenes are described, and we can discover symmetry in the way that everything is arranged.
[1] It is worth noting that Esau and Jacob are equally balanced in this account, but the point of the story seems to be: Esau’s selling of his birthright.
[2] Some commentators (M. Fishbane, Text and Texture (New York: Schocken Books, 1979), 40-63) have taken the first story of the Jacob Cycle to be the birth story. As a result they impose an artificial pattern on the sequence of stories that pairs the birth of Jacob and Esau with the birth of Benjamin, and pairs Isaac’s sojourn in Gerar with the destruction of Shechem.
[3] Hence, Paul would echo Jacob’s story in the words, ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom 6:23).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One