Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

by Robert Graves

  3. This myth—the first chapter of which has a Greek parallel of Canaanite origin (see 38. 2)—became fixed in Hebrew tradition at a time when to be ‘a man of many wiles’, like the cruel and treacherous Odysseus, was still a noble trait. Indeed, Autolycus the Greek master-thief, Odysseus’s grandfather, can be identified with Jacob in the Laban context (see 46. a. b. and 1). Yet lies and thieving were strictly forbidden by the Law to God-fearing Jews of rabbinic days (Leviticus XIX. 11 reads: ‘Ye shall not steal, nor lie to one another!’), who thus faced a cruel dilemma. They held that the fate of the Universe hung on their ancestor Jacob’s righteousness, as the legitimate heir to God’s Promised Land. Should they suppress the Esau-Jacob myth, and thereby forfeit Isaac’s blessing? Or should they agree that refusal of food to a starving man, conspiracy to rob a brother, and deceit of a blind father are justifiable when a man plays for high enough stakes? Unable to accept either alternative, they recast the story: Jacob was bound, they explained, by obedience to his mother; hated the part she forced on him; took pains to evade downright lies. Since Esau married Hittite wives whose idolatry distressed Rebekah (see 42. a), they equated him with the Wicked Kingdom of Rome, whose officers and agents it was permissible to deceive, and made Jacob their exemplar of how to survive in a hostile world. Though unwilling to excuse his deceit on the ground that he lived before the Mosaic Law was promulgated—the Law, for them, preceded Creation—they could at least portray him as decoyed into sin by Rebekah, a woman who, from a prophetic sense of Israel’s future, had taken the curse on her own head.

  4. The late-first-century Jewish author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (XII. 16–17) characteristically argues that Esau, a profane fornicator who bartered his birthright for a ‘morsel of food’, was rejected when he afterwards tried to inherit the first-born’s blessing, because he could not repudiate this sale.

  42

  ESAU’S MARRIAGES

  (a) At the age of forty, Esau brought two Hittite wives to Hebron: Judith, daughter of Beeri—though some name her Aholibamah the Hivite—and Basemath, or Adah, daughter of Elon. Their idolatry vexed Isaac and Rebekah, to please whom he married a third, God-fearing wife: namely, Basemath, or Mahalath, daughter of his uncle Ishmael.317

  (b) Some say that Esau’s love for Isaac and Rebekah turned to hatred when they condoned Jacob’s theft. He thought: ‘I will marry a daughter of Ishmael, and make him insist on having the forced sale of my birthright annulled. When Isaac refuses this, Ishmael will kill him. As my father’s blood-avenger, I shall then kill Ishmael; and thus inherit the wealth of both.’ Yet to Ishmael he said no more than: ‘Abraham bequeathed all that he had to your younger brother Isaac, and sent you off to die in the wilderness. Now Isaac plans to treat me likewise. Take vengeance on your usurping brother, and so shall I on mine.’ Ishmael asked: ‘Why should I kill your father Isaac, when it is you whom he has wronged?’ Esau answered: ‘Cain murdered his brother Abel; but no son has hitherto committed parricide.’ God, however, reading Esau’s evil thoughts, said: ‘I shall make public what you planned in secret!’318

  (c) Ishmael died soon after Basemath’s betrothal; and Nebaioth, his eldest son, therefore gave her to Esau. Meanwhile, Ishmael had renamed Basemath ‘Mahalath’, as a means of distinguishing her from Esau’s Hittite wife of that name, and in hope that this marriage would make God forgive Esau’s wickedness. Here, indeed, was Esau’s opportunity to win God’s favour at last; but since he would not send away his other wives, they soon corrupted Mahalath. All her sons intermarried with idolatrous Horites and Seirites.319

  (d) The Edomite tribes were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz, grandsons of Adah by Eliphaz; Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah, grandsons of Basemath by Reuel; Amalek, son of Timna by Eliphaz; Jeush, Jalam and Korah, sons of Aholibamah by Esau.320

  ***

  1. The chroniclers of Genesis named Edom’s three ancestresses from hearsay. One of them had certainly been Basemath; but the other two were remembered as either Judith and Mahalath, or Adah and Aholibamah. Basemath may mean ‘perfumed’. Aholibamah means ‘my tent is exalted’; Adah, ‘assembly’. ‘Aholibamah the Hivite’ is probably a misreading of Horite.

  2. Genesis XXXVI. 10–14 lists the sons of Esau matrilineally, as Genesis XXXV. 23–26 has listed the sons of Jacob. Jacob’s sons had four ancestresses: Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah (see 45. a–c). Perhaps because Esau’s sons had only three such, the chronicler has added another—Timna, sister of Lotan (Lot)—to point a parallel. The earlier confederacies seem to have corresponded with the twelve signs of the Zodiac (see 43. d).

  3. Edom’s genealogical tree closely matches that of Israel, as the following tables show:

  THE SONS OF ISRAEL

  Leah

  Rachel

  Bilhah

  Zilpah

  Reuben

  (Joseph)

  Dan

  Gad

  Simeon

  Ephraim

  Naphtali

  Asher

  Levi

  Manasseh

  Judah

  Benjamin

  Issachar

  Zebulon

  THE SONS OF EDOM

  Adah

  Basemath

  Timna

  Aholibamah

  (Eliphaz)

  (Reuel)

  (Eliphaz)

  Jeush

  Teman

  Nahath

  Amalek

  Jalam

  Omar

  Zerah

  Korah

  Zepho

  Shammah

  Gatam

  Mizzah

  Kenaz

  4. Six of these Edomite tribal names, namely Kenaz, Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Jeush and Korah, occur also as proper names in the Israelite tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi—proof of the close relations between Edom and Judaea. Moreover, Judith, ‘Praise of God’, is the feminine form of Judah; and ‘Aholibamah’, in its associated form ‘Aholibah’, is the symbolic name given to Judah by Ezekiel (XXIII) when he condemns idolatrous practices at Jerusalem. The tribe of Judah was early expanded by addition of the Edomite Kenizzites (Numbers XXXII. 12 and Judges I. 13) and Kenites (Judges I. 16), who included the Calebites and lived in Amalek’s territory (1 Samuel XV. 6).

  5. The ‘sons of Eliphaz’, according to Genesis XXXVI. 10–12, were grandsons of Esau and his wife Adah, but are subsequently described as ‘sons of Adah’ (verse 16). The grandsons of Basemath are also described as her sons in verses 13 and 17, and in verse 19 as ‘sons of Esau’. Similarly, in Genesis XLVIII. 5–6, Jacob’s grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh become his ‘sons’, thus eliminating the tribe of their father Joseph; but Ephraim seems to have won its position by absorbing the matriarchal tribe of Dinah (see 49. 3). The priestly tribe of Levi, which was allotted no tribal territory, corresponded with the ambiguous, and therefore holy, thirteenth tribe. These thirteen tribes were symbolized by the almond rods stored in the Sanctuary at Moses’ orders, of which Aaron’s alone put forth buds: thereby designating Levi as God’s choice for the priesthood (Numbers XVII. 16–24). Almonds symbolized holy wisdom, and the Seven-branched Candlestick, or Menorah, was carved with almond leaves (Exodus XXV. 31).

  6. Genesis emphasizes the continual struggle of these patriarchal Hebrews against their matrilineal neighbours (see 36. 1). Since Esau compromised between the two systems, midrashic commentators felt at liberty to place the worst possible construction on his marriage into Ishmael’s patriarchal clan.

  43

  JACOB AT BETHEL

  (a) Rebekah called Jacob and said: ‘Esau plans to kill you, and Ishmael will then avenge your death. But why should I lose two sons in one day? Take refuge with my brother Laban at Padan-Aram, and when Esau’s anger has abated I will send you word.’ To Isaac she said: ‘These Hittite wives of Esau make me weary of life! If Jacob, too, were to marry an idolatress, the shame would kill me.’ Isaac thereupon warned Jacob: ‘My son, do not take a Canaanite wife! Instead, go to Padan-Aram and choo
se one of your uncle Laban’s twin-daughters.’ And he prophesied again:

  ‘O may God favour you,

  And multiply your race

  To a concourse of tribes!

  May Abraham’s blessing

  Rest on you and your sons:

  To inherit this land

  That was Abraham’s gift!’321

  (b) Jacob and Esau were sixty-three years old at the time. Some say that Rebekah, while complaining of Esau’s wives, did not mention them by name, but blew her nose in a bitter rage and flung the snot from her fingers to the ground. Also, that when Jacob fled, Esau sent out his son Eliphaz with orders to kill and despoil him. Eliphaz, a famous archer, led ten of his maternal uncles in pursuit and overtook Jacob at Shechem. Jacob pleaded: ‘Take all that I have, only spare my life—and God will reckon your plunder as a righteous deed.’ Eliphaz accordingly stripped him naked and brought the spoils home; but this show of mercy enraged Esau.322

  (c) Fearing pursuit by Esau himself, Jacob turned aside from the road to Shechem, and neared Luz at sunset. Because of his nakedness he did not enter the city gates; and for want of a saddle-bag used a stone as his pillow. That night he dreamed of a ladder, its foot set on earth, its top touching Heaven, and angels going up and down the rungs. A voice said: ‘I, the God of your father Isaac, and of his father Abraham, award this land to you and your children! Numerous as grains of dust, they shall spread to all four quarters of Earth, and bestow a blessing wherever they go. I will protect you, both now and on your return journey, never forsaking My chosen son.’

  Jacob awoke, and cried in terror: ‘God is surely here, and I did not know! This place of dread must be His house, and the gateway to Heaven!’ Next morning, he rose early, set up the stone as a pillar and anointed it with oil, vowing: ‘If God indeed protects me on my journey—giving me bread to eat and garments to wear—and fetches me safely home, I will serve no other God, and pay Him tithes of all my riches! This pillar shall be His abode.’ Thereafter the place was called Bethel, or ‘The House of God’.323

  (d) Some say that Luz stood below the shoulder of Mount Moriah, on the summit of which Jacob was granted his vision. Also, that his pillow had been the twelve separate stones of an altar raised by Adam, and rebuilt by Abraham; but that, as Jacob chose one of them, they all cried out together in rivalry: ‘Lay your righteous head upon me!’, and were miraculously united. God said: ‘This is a sign that the twelve pious sons whom I give you shall form a single nation! Are there not twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve hours in the day, twelve hours in the night, and twelve months in the year? So, surely, there shall also be twelve tribes in Israel!’324

  (e) Others say that when God first created angels, they cried: ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity!’; and that, when Adam was created, they asked: ‘Lord, is this the man for whom we should give praise?’ God answered: ‘No, this one is a thief; he will eat forbidden fruit.’ When Noah was born, they asked again: ‘Is this he?’ God answered: ‘No, this one is a drunkard.’ When Abraham was born, they asked once more: ‘Is this he?’, but God answered: ‘No, this one is a proselyte, not circumcised in infancy.’ When Isaac was born, they asked: ‘Is this he?’ God answered: ‘No, this one loves an elder son who hates Me.’ But when Jacob was born, and they once more asked the question, God cried: ‘This is he indeed! His name shall be changed from Jacob to Israel, and all his sons shall praise him!’

  Jacob was chosen as a model for the man-faced angel of God’s chariot, which Ezekiel saw in a vision; and his mild and hairless visage is also imprinted on the Moon.325

  (f) Others say that the angels of Jacob’s dream were princely guardians of four oppressive nations. The Prince of Babylon ascended seventy rungs and then came down; that of Media ascended fifty-two rungs and then came down; that of Greece ascended one hundred and eighty rungs and then came down; but the Prince of Edom went higher and higher, out of Jacob’s sight. He cried in dismay: ‘Will this one never descend?’ God comforted him, saying: ‘Fear not, my servant Jacob! Even if he should reach the topmost rung and seat himself at My side, I would yet cast him down again. Come, Jacob, mount the ladder yourself! For you at least will never be called upon to descend.’ Jacob, however, was timid, and thus doomed Israel to subjection by the four kingdoms of this world.326

  (g) When Jacob anointed his pillar with oil which had dripped from Heaven, God trod it so deep into the earth that it is now called the Foundation Stone: namely, the world’s navel, upon which stands Solomon’s Temple.327

  ***

  1. Bethel, which had been a Canaanite shrine long before the Hebrew patriarchal age, lies ten miles north of Jerusalem and about a mile east of Luz. Its name is preserved by the Arab village of Betin. Archaeological evidence shows almost continuous settlement of this area from the twenty-first century B.C. until the first century A.D. The holiness of Bethel was confirmed by the myth of Abraham’s having sacrificed, both on his way to Egypt (see 26. a) and on his return, at a place between Bethel and Ai (see 27. a). In the semi-historic days of the Judges, God’s Tent of Assembly containing the Ark was kept there (Judges XX. 18, 26–27; XXI. 2–4). Bethel’s religious importance remained supreme until the reign of Saul (1 Samuel X. 3 and XIII. 4) and, though declining somewhat after Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem, revived when Rehoboam and Jeroboam divided his empire between them and the Northern Kingdom chose Bethel as its central sanctuary (1 Kings XII. 29–33).

  2. The Ladder myth, establishing Bethel as the ‘Gate of Heaven’ revealed by God to the founder of Israel, authorizing the anointment of a famous local massebah, or sacred pillar, and sanctifying the payment of tithes (see 27. 5), dates from the days of the Judges. But the version identifying Bethel with Mount Moriah, and Jacob’s stone-pillow with the rocky summit on which Solomon built his Temple, must post-date King Josiah’s destruction or desecration (628 B.C.) of all the ‘high places’ sacred to the Canaanite goddesses Anath and Asherah, and his reformation of Temple worship at Jerusalem. Only then could the scene of Jacob’s vision be arbitrarily transferred to Jerusalem from the well-known shrine of Bethel.

  3. God’s blessing is unconditional, but Jacob feels impelled to promise Him thank-offerings: namely, honoured residence in the pillar and a tithe of all riches won by divine favour. His plea for food, clothes and a safe journey underlies the midrashic story of how Eliphaz robbed him.

  4. The rungs up which the guardian angels climbed represent years of their nations’ rule over Israel: namely, seventy years of Babylonian exile—from the fall of the First Temple (586 B.C.) to the completion of the Second (516 B.C. or, more precisely, 515 B.C.); the subsequent fifty-two (in fact, fifty-eight) years of dependence on the Medes, which closed with Ezra’s leading back his group of exiles in the reign of Cyrus (457 B.C.); and one hundred and eighty years of Hellenistic rule—from the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great (333 B.C.) to the re-establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom by the Maccabees (153 B.C.). Edom’s unbroken ascent (see 40. 4 and 41. 3) shows that this particular midrash dates from the period of Roman control over Palestine, which began with Pompey’s capture of Jerusalem in 63 B.C. and continued until the Persian invasion of 614–629 A.D.

  5. The Greek word baetylos signified a cone-shaped pillar, periodically anointed with oil, wine or blood, in which a god resided, and which was often said to have fallen from heaven—like the thunder-stone sacred to the God Terminus at Rome, or the Palladium of Troy. Since the Greeks personified ‘Baetylus’ as a son of the Sky-god Uranus and the Earth-mother Gaea; and since, according to Sanchuniathon, El (identified by Philo of Byblus with Cronus) had the same nativity, baetylos is likely to be a borrowing from the Phoenician or Hebrew Beth-El, meaning ‘the House of the God El’. Hesychius also records that the stone substituted for the infant Zeus, which Uranus swallowed and afterwards disgorged, was shown at Delphi and called ‘Baetylus’; priests oiled it every day and, according to Pausanias, covered it with raw wool on solemn occasions.
Photius, the ninth-century Byzantine scholar, mentions several ‘baetyls’ on Mount Lebanon, about which marvellous tales were told. The word could be applied to female deities also: thus in the Temple accounts from the late-fifth-century B.C. Jewish colony at Elephantine, a goddess is named ‘Anath-baetyl’.

  6. That the twelve patriarchs were pious men flatly contradicts Genesis. All except Reuben and the infant Benjamin conspired to murder their brother Joseph, then sold him into slavery and gave out that he had been killed by a wild beast. Reuben cuckolded Jacob, and earned his dying curse (Genesis XXXV. 22 and XLIX. 4—see 50. a). Levi and Simeon were similarly cursed for their treacherous massacre at Shechem (Genesis XXXIV. 25–31; XLIX. 5–7—see 49. d); and Benjamin was promised a successful life wholly devoted to pillage (Genesis XLIX. 27—see 60. e). Yet the apocryphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs presents every one of them as a fountain of piety and wisdom. Jesus quotes the Testament of Joseph (XVIII. 2) in Matthew V. 44; and the Testament of Levi (XIII. 5) in Matthew VI. 19.

  44

  JACOB’S MARRIAGES

  (a) Continuing his journey to Padan-Aram, Jacob saw three flocks lying around a well near the city. The shepherds whom he questioned, answered that they knew Laban son of Nahor—‘And look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep!’