Tag: Esau

#68. Do Esau and his descendants live with the Horites in Mount Seir OR did they dispossess them and destroy them? (Gen 36:6-8, 20-21 vs Deut 2:12)

The Bible employs 2 different land-settlement models when speaking about the conquest of the promised land and its environs: a co-habitation or displacement model and a butcher’em and burn’em up model, man, woman, children, and livestock! You’ll be happy to know that both are narrative constructs, each one composed by different authors. Both Genesis 36:1-30 and Deuteronomy 2:12 preserve 2 settlement stories about the land of Edom or Seir as it is often referred to. The PriestlyRead More

#67. Who were Esau’s wives: Judith and Basemath OR Adah, Aholibamah, and Basemath? (Gen 26:34 vs Gen 36:2-3)

Back to looking at some of the discrepancies in the book of Genesis’ genealogical lists (see also #7, #8-9, #20-21, #23). Genesis 26:34 states that Esau’s wives were: 1) Judith daughter of the Hittite Beeri, and 2) Basemath, daughter of the Hittite Elon. Genesis 36:2-3 lists: 1) Adah, daughter of the Hittite Elon, 2) Aholibamah, daughter of the Hivite Zibeon, and 3) Basemath, but here daughter of Ishmael. Both of these passages areRead More

#60. Does Esau settle in Seir before or after Jacob’s return? (Gen 32:4, 33:14, 33:16 vs Gen 36:6-8)

This is yet another example of a contradiction that occurs within the narrative chronology of the combined JEP storyline (the text as we now have it) when the later Priestly text, with its own narrative and theological details and agendas, was cut and pasted into the JE narrative (see also #32, #42, #45). All of the Pentateuch’s textual traditions (J, E, P, D) connect the eponymous father of Edom, that is Esau, with the region of Seir. GenesisRead More

#59. Does Jacob split up his camp in order to save half of them from a vengeful Esau OR in order to placate Esau with an offering of livestock? (Gen 32:7-12 vs Gen 32:14-22)

The reconciliation story between Jacob and Esau is also variously told in Genesis 32, as we saw with the Jacob and Laban story (#55-56). In one version (J) Jacob’s return to the land of Canaan is presented under the ominous fear and threat that Esau will dispense his revenge and strike him (see #48-49 for the story). Compounded by the account of his messenger claiming that Esau is approaching him withRead More