The Barren Woman and the Younger Son in Genesis
We need to summarize a large amount of material including the next several generations: Isaac and Rebekah and their children, Esau and Jacob, and Jacob and his 4 wives, 12 sons and 1 daughter. We note that the two themes repeat in the Genesis narratives: the barren woman (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel), and the younger son's superseding his older brother(s) (Isaac, Jacob, Judah/Joseph, Perez, Ephraim). There are two main reasons for the presence of these themes. The first is literary: They are the extraordinary in life, and it is the atypical in life___not the quotidian___that drives literature. The second is theological: In line with what we have already studied, the barren woman and the younger son represent the lowly and thus serve once more as Israel's self definition. That is, this is Israel's portion in life and only by divine intervention does Israel prosper as God takes the barren woman and makes her fruitful (the seed) and elevates the younger son to prominence over his older brothers (In this case, Israel will be elevated above the other nations of the earth.)
I. We need to look at the family tree during the next several generations, summarizing material from the 2nd half of the book of Genesis.
A. As we saw , Isaac marries Rebekah (chapter 24). They then have two sons, the twins Esau and Jacob (chapter 25).
B. Jacob marries Leah and Rachel (chapter 29), plus he has 2 handmaiden wives, Bilhah and Zilpah (chapter 30). Through these 4 wives he has 12 sons as well as 1 daughter
C. These 12 sons are portrayed in Genesis and Exodus as the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel.
II. The Barren Woman
A. In the case of Sarah, this theme dominated the Abraham story throughout (introduced in 11:30, then discussed fully in chapters 16-21).
B. In the case of Rebekah, the theme repeats, but it is in the form of a simple statement (see 25:21).
C. In the case of Rachel, we have more info again (see 30:1-2, 30:22-24).
D. Also, to complete the picture, note that this theme occurs in two other places in the Bible: in Judges 13, with the unnamed mother of Samson, and again, in 1 Samuel 1, with Hannah, the mother of Samuel.
E. The episodes with Bilhah (handmaiden of Rachel) and Zilpha (hand maiden of Leah) reflects the customs attested in the Nuzi tablets, that is it was common tradition.
F. In each case the three barren woman episodes in Genesis there is a different active partner: God in the first account of Sarah), Isaac the husband in the second account of Rebekah. and Rachel in the third account. This reflects Israel's religious understanding.
III. A second motif repeats throughout the book of Genesis, one which has not been mentioned to this point. That is, the motif of the younger brother.
A. Isaac supersedes Ishmael as the chief heir of Abraham as stated explicitly by God in chapter 17, then carried out in action in chapter 21.
B. In the next generation, Jacob supersedes Esau (because even with twins there must still be a firstborn, which was Esau, see 25:25). This is described in two stories (1) the sale of the birthright in 25:27-34, and the deception of Isaac found in chapter 27, by which Jacob not Esau gained the blessing.
C. In the succeeding generation, although Joseph is not the absolute youngest of Jacob's sons (he ranks number 11 in birth order with Benjamin the actual youngest, it is Joseph who rises to the top superseding his 10 older brothers as his father's favorite (chapter 37). Moreover, we get an extended story about Joseph (chapters 37-50), with no other son getting nearly as much attention in the narrative.
D. It is also worth noting that the other son of Jacob who rises to the top is Judah. Note that he was the youngest of the four sons that Leah bore at the outset (see 29:32-35). Although we cannot call Judah a "youngest son" per se, he is the youngest to some extent.
E. Finally, the sons of these tribal fathers, Joseph and Judah, provide additional instances in Genesis where the younger son supersedes the older brother.
1. Ephraim supersedes Manasseh in chapter 48.
2. Perez supersedes Zerah (at birth!) at the end of chapter 38.
F. Note further that this motif occurs once elsewhere in the book of Genesis, indeed, with the first two sons on record____for we read in Genesis 4 how God favors Abel (the younger) over Cain, the older. In addition we read of one more instance of this theme in the book of Exodus: Moses is the younger brother of Aaron, yet the former outranks the latter.
IV. The reasons for these twofold motifs that dominate the book of Genesis are twofold___
A. The first is literary___these motifs represent the abnormal life.
1. In the ordinary course of life, women have children and oldest sons inherit from their father (the technical term for this is primogeniture).
2. But such quotidian material does not make for great literature since storytelling is based on the extraordinary life.
3. Thus, the two motifs, the barren woman and the younger son carry the story forward generation after generation.
4. In fact, this form of writing was very popular in the ancient NE given that this form of writing appears in ancient Ugartic literature from the 14th century B.C.
B. The second reason is theological.
1. As we have already seen, women in the Bible are often used to represent Israel, based on the portrayal of the lowly or even the unfaithful as in the case of the book of Hosea.
2. The same is true of the younger son, who is represented as lowly and once again is a shadow of Israel.
3. Only through God's intervention in these individuals' lives, sometimes by direct means, though more often than not through indirect means, do the lowly prosper and rise to the top.
V. Note the lack of an Isaac cycle in the book of Genesis, even if no definitive explanation is forthcoming.
A. In chapter 22 (the Aqedah) Isaac appears as a secondary character as the son of Abraham.
B. In chapter 24 the servant plays an active role and Isaac is barely seen in the narrative.
C. In chapters 25 and 27, Isaac appears as the father of Jacob and Esau, who hold center stage (along with Rebekah). In fact, Isaac is portrayed as old, blind and inactive.
D. There are stories, about Isaac in chapter 26, but these are merely parallels to episodes in the Abraham cycle, for example Isaac attempts to pass Rebekah off as his wife on a visit to Abimelech, king of Gerar.
E. The result is that we see no stories about Isaac in Genesis of the type we possess concerning Abraham, Jacob and Joseph.
VI. The ages of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis constitute a number game.
A. Note the following:
1. Abraham: 175 =7x5 squared; that is, 7x25
2. Isaac: 180=5x6 squared; that is, 5x36
3. Jacob: 147=3x7 squared; that is, 3x49
B. Another number game is present with 318 in genesis 14:14. Abraham takes 318 men with him when he goes to battle): the number 318 is the sum of the 12 prime numbers between 7 and 7 to the second power, or 49..
C. This just shows God's hand in Israel's history.
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