The elaborate and complex character of the narrative points to the union of various streams of tradition, and under the circumstances it is not easy to determine the centre to which Jacob belongs. That, like Israel, he is not an indi vidual, but represents some clan, or rather is the eponymous ancestor of some clan, is thought to be certain, and the prominence of Bethel in the Jacob-Esau cycle points to this place as at one time at least the home of the tribe. The rivalry between Jacob and Esau is also easy to under stand. It reflects the hostility between Hebrews and Edomites (see Esau: EDOM , which marks the relation between those two groups. conscious throughout their history of the close genealogical ties that bound them together. Jnst as in the case of Ishmael (q.v.) features are found which place him in a more favorable light than Isaac. so in the Jacob-Esau cycle there is at bottom a series of traditions which originated in the Esau groups, and which Jewish tradition had to re shape so as to remove all features unfavorable to Jacob. The attempt, however. did not suc ceed altogether; and accordingly Jacob appears actually in the light of a deceiver, and. what is more, is obliged to flee from Esau. This flight, if it means anything, points to the discomfiture at some time of the Jacob elan driven from its district by the more powerful Esau. An alliance is entered upon between Jacob and a distinct Aramaean clan, Laban. The marriages of Jacob into four groups and the birth of numerous chil dren indicate the gradual growth and extension of the Jacob clan until it feels itself powerful enough to cut loose from Laban and return to its former haunts.
But the old popular traditions have been' made to serve the historical pragmatism. It was deemed necessary to connect the twelve sec tions of the Hebrew confederacy with patriarchal history, and hence the extension of the Jacob clan is depicted as though the confederates all sprang from him, whereas, as a matter of tact, the Hebrew confederacy represents the combination of heterogeneous elements having less in com mon than many of the groups have with others who did not join the confederation or were never incorporated into it. The adjustment of tribal traditions to the later religious and historical theory did not proceed without encountering hindrances. To secure the number twelve and make it work right on all occasions was espe cially difficult, and the narrators arc not at all consistent in their method of obtaining this num ber. It is this attempted adjustment of popular
stories, legends, and myths to later theory that accounts for the identification of Jacob with Israel, the eponymous ancestor of the Ilene Israel; and in this process of elaboration and transformation of old stories it is also important to note the alternating traces of northern and southern Hebrew writers, It was the northern kingdom, formed of ten tribes, that represented the real Israel; and the identification of Jacob with Israel and the favoritism shown by Jacob to Joseph (the father of Ephraim and Manas seh) represent, the work of northern writers, who thus turn out to have had the larger share in the process of reshaping traditions. Rightly inter preted, the story of Jacob thus becomes the key to the history of Jewish tradition. In its details it not only conceals a large amount of valuable material for the earlier traditions of many of the clans forming the Hebrew confederation, but also enables us to trace the gradual progress of the transformation of the material and its adap tation to the purpose of writers imbued with strong likes and dislikes. who viewed the past from a very subjective point of view. To this point of view there must be added, in the ease of the compiler of the Yahwistie and Elohistie histories. and to a still greater degree in the case of the priestly narrator, a religions theory which is the outcome of an uncompromising, confidence in Yahweh as the established guide of His peo ple and the zealous and exelnsive devotion to His service. This theory is, in brief, that Yah weh established his covenant with the patri archs, and that the history of the people back to its beginnings is an illustration and proof of this covenant. In sonic respects Jacob is a more important prop to this theory than even Abra ham: certainly more important than If-lane. In deed, it would seem that the story of Jacob thus worked out represents by itself a complete illus tration of the theory, and that Abraham and Isaac are tacked on to it as appendices or links by means of which the theory can be joined to another originally independent series of tradi tions. again reshaped. elaborated, and made to take a definite direction.