Hebrew Myths (30 page)

(
a
) Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years. His sons Isaac and Ishmael laid him to rest beside his wife Sarah, in the Cave of Machpelah.
³⁰⁷

(
b
) He had chosen this place of burial because, when the three angels visited him at Mamre, and he ran to slaughter a calf, it fled into the cave’s dark recesses. Following close behind, Abraham came upon Adam and Eve lying side by side, as though asleep; candles burned above them, and a sweet fragrance filled the air.
³⁰⁸

(
c
) Not long before Abraham’s death, Isaac and Ishmael celebrated the Feast of First Fruits with him at Hebron, offering sacrifices on the altar he had built there. Rebekah baked cakes from newly harvested corn, and Jacob took them to Abraham who, as he ate, gave God thanks for his happy lot. He also blessed Jacob, with a warning never to marry a Canaanite woman and, at the same time, bequeathed him the house near Damascus still known as ‘Abraham’s Home’. Afterwards he lay down, clasping Jacob close and printing seven kisses on his brow; then used two of Jacob’s fingers to close his own eyes, drew a coverlet over them, stretched out straight, and died peacefully. Jacob slept in Abraham’s bosom until, waking some hours later, he found it cold as ice. He reported the death to Isaac, Rebekah and Ishmael, who all wept aloud and presently buried Abraham in the cave, mourning him forty days. God had shortened Abraham’s span by five years, so that he might die unaware of Esau’s evil deeds.
³⁰⁹

(
d
) Some, however, say that Abraham fought death no less vigorously than did Moses afterwards; for when Michael came to fetch his soul, he boldly insisted upon first seeing the whole world. God therefore commanded Michael to let Abraham ride across the heavens in a chariot drawn by cherubim, and thus fulfil his wish; yet Abraham was still reluctant to die.

Then God summoned the Angel of Death, saying: ‘Come, Death, you cruel one, hide your fierceness, veil your foulness and, disguised in youth and glory, go down and fetch My friend Abraham to Me!’

Abraham received Death hospitably but, doubting that this handsome
youth could be Death, asked him to reveal his true aspect. This Death did. Abraham fainted in horror, and whispered, when he came to his senses: ‘I charge you in God’s name to renew your disguise!’ Death obeyed, saying deceitfully: ‘Come, friend, clasp my hand and let lusty life and strength flow back to you!’ He took Abraham’s proffered fingers and through them drew out his soul; which Michael wrapped in a divinely woven kerchief and conveyed to Heaven.
³¹⁰

***

1
. The myth of Abraham’s fight against Death is also told about Moses and, in a different form, about Sisyphus King of Corinth. Sisyphus twice cheats Death, whom Zeus has sent in anger to take his soul. First he asks to be shown how the infernal handcuffs work, and then quickly locks them on Death’s wrists. Next he orders his wife not to bury him and, when ferried across the Styx, persuades Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, that his presence there is irregular and that he must return for three days to arrange a decent funeral—after which he absents himself until Hermes (Michael’s counterpart) drags him back by force. Sisyphus was a representative of the Hittite Storm-god Teshub, and the myth may be Hittite too, though altered to suit the ethics of
Genesis
—where God is not angry with Abraham; Abraham opposes, but does not deceive, Death; and his soul is taken to Paradise, not to the punishment grounds of Tartarus.

2
. The sharing of Abraham’s death-bed emphasizes Jacob’s fundamental piety—which his deeds often belie—and explains the Aramaic phrase ‘to rest in Abraham’s bosom’ used, among others, by Jesus in the parable of Dives and Lazarus (
Luke
XVI. 22).

3
. ‘Abraham’s Home’ is mentioned by Josephus as still shown near Damascus.

(
a
) One day, while Jacob was stewing red lentils outside his hut, Esau returned from a desert hunt, worn to skin and bone.

‘Give me some of that red food, Brother,’ he pleaded. ‘I am starving!’

Jacob answered: ‘Eat, Red One; but on condition that you sell me your birthright.’

‘Not to sell would likewise lose me my birthright,’ groaned Esau, ‘because I should soon die of hunger.’

Before restoring Esau’s strength with bread and lentil stew, Jacob made him confirm the sale by an oath; and when he had gone off again, laughed, saying: ‘My brother despises his birthright!’
³¹¹

(
b
) Some excuse Jacob’s apparent lack not only of brotherly love but even of common humanity. He knew, they say, that Esau had just ambushed King Nimrod—who was still alive at the age of two hundred and fifteen years—and murdered him; each having been jealous of the other’s fame as a hunter. It was a long pursuit of Esau by Nimrod’s vengeful companions that reduced him to such straits. Jacob, indeed, bought Esau’s birthright with God’s approval, because until the Tent of Assembly had been raised in the Wilderness centuries later, only the first-born of each family might offer sacrifices, and Jacob now cried: ‘Shall this evil-doer, standing before God’s altar, be blessed by Him?’ Moreover, Esau readily agreed to sell the birth right, lest he should be struck dead at the altar for having derided the Resurrection of the Dead.

Others say that Esau also exacted a large sum in gold from Jacob, because his birthright gave him a double share in the inheritance of Canaan; and that he would have afterwards repudiated the sale had Jacob not made him swear by the fear of his father Isaac, whom he loved dearly; and had not Michael and Gabriel witnessed his signature to the contract.
³¹²

(
c
) Esau showed Isaac exemplary love: bringing venison every day, and never entering the tent except in festal dress. He was therefore rewarded when Joshua entered Canaan and God forbade the
Children of Israel to attack their Edomite cousins, saying: ‘I must acknowledge the honour that he paid his father!’ Esau, indeed, enjoyed great prosperity so long as he lived.
³¹³

***

1
. Esau’s desire for red lentils emphasizes the redness of his hair (see 38.
2
). That he was Edom, ‘the Red One’, or at least Edom’s father, is repeatedly stated in
Genesis.
He was also Seir, ‘the Shaggy One’ (see 38.
2
) and, in later books (
Numbers
XXIV. 18; 2
Chronicles
XXV. 11 read in conjunction with 2
Kings
XIV. 7) ‘Seir’ and ‘Edom’ were interchangeable terms (see 38.
2
). Yet the Sons of Seir are elsewhere identified with the Horites: ‘These are the Sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land…’ (
Genesis
XXXVI. 20) and: ‘These are the Horite chieftains in the land of Seir…’ (
Genesis
V. 30). The chronicler of
Deuteronomy
II. 12 therefore explains that the Horites once lived in Seir, but that the Children of Esau drove them out and occupied their land.

2
. The Horites, or Hurrians, whose language was neither Sumerian, nor Semitic, nor Indo-European, appeared on the northern frontier of Akkad towards the end of the third millennium
B.C.
Their settlements were in Northern Syria and Eastern Anatolia; and though no archaeological evidence of their establishment in Idumaea has yet come to light, the testimony of
Genesis
need not be doubted—unless ‘Horites’ means ‘Hori’, or Troglodites (compare
Job
XXX. 6), who ranked as the sons of Keturah (see 35.
b
). The Seirites, non-Semitic Bronze Age agriculturists, inhabited these parts from about 2000
B.C.
, and their name occurs on an obelisk raised seven hundred years later by Rameses II of Egypt. However, Semitic-speaking tribes already held the area, and ‘Edom’ is mentioned for the first time on a papyrus list made for Seti II about 1215
B.C.
These Edomites, who partly assimilated both the Seirites and the Horites, prospered until their conquest by King David about 994
B.C.

3
. Esau’s bartered birthright mythically justifies the Edomites’ subsequent conquest by their junior kinsmen, the Israelites (
Numbers
XX. 14) who spoke the same language but had not previously dared to attack them. David took the precaution of garrisoning Edom (2
Samuel
VIII. 14; 1
Kings
XI. 15–16), which acknowledged Israelite overlordship until the reign of the Judaean King Jehoram (about 850
B.C
). The Edomites then made a successful revolt (2
Kings
VIII. 20 ff and 2
Chronicles
XXI. 8 ff) and, apart from
a brief reconquest by Amaziah (2
Kings
XIV. 7) two centuries later, kept their independence for the next seven hundred years.

4
. When eventually Herod the Edomite, by his murder of Aristobulus the Hasmonean heir, and a marriage forced on the Hasmonean Princess Mariamne, had become King of the Jews, and Augustus had confirmed his title, the myth of Esau’s birthright called for expansion with charges of murder and rape. Esau’s demand for gold in addition to lentils may have been appended as a reminder of the crushing taxes which Herod demanded from his subjects. Esau’s one virtue, that of filial piety, was held to have been rewarded by prosperity in this world, though all Edomites would inevitably suffer torments in the world beyond (see 11.
g
). When forcibly converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans, the Edomites were given the Mosaic Law—but not the Prophets; hence Esau scoffs at the resurrection of the dead (see 38. 5). Yet even under Esau’s new tyranny, Israel at least retained the first-born’s priestly right of ordering Temple worship at Jerusalem and interpreting Law in the Pharisaic Supreme Court.

5
. The midrashic identification of Rome with Edom must not be read as myth—not, in fact, as a claim that Aeneas or Romulus was descended from Edom—but merely as a security measure for disguising political complaint. Pharisaic quietists regarded Herodian tyranny under Roman patronage as detestable, yet predetermined by a historic event which, if Israel wished to assure God’s providence, she must accept as His will. The later Herodians, continuing as Roman puppets until the rebellion of 68
A.D.
, were courted by the Sadducee priesthood, and flattered by such renegade Pharisees as Paul of Tarsus (
Acts
XXV. 13–XXVI. 32), and Josephus—who proudly reports his long intimate correspondence with Agrippa II, and his friendship with the Emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

6
. Nevertheless, a main implication of the
Genesis
account is that momentary greed overcame Esau: he would not really have died if the lentils had been denied him. Jacob therefore decided that a nomad hunter who lived from hand to mouth was unworthy to inherit the Promised Land. It is true that peoples who lead a settled agricultural life, not exhausting themselves by wild forays into the desert, have more time for meditation and religious duties. But the midrashic commentators miss this point: perhaps because, in the earlier quarrel between two brothers similarly placed, Abel, a nomad, is the hero, and Cain, a settled farmer, the villain (see 16. 1); and because Edom practised agriculture while Israel was still wandering in the Wilderness.

(
a
) Isaac grew old and blind. Having reached his one hundred and twenty-third year, he felt that death was close and called Esau into the tent. ‘My son,’ he said, ‘take your bow and fetch venison from the wilderness. Prepare it in the manner that best pleases me; afterwards I will give you my blessing and die.’

Rebekah, who overheard Isaac’s words, summoned Jacob as soon as Esau was out of sight. ‘Your father means to bestow a blessing on Esau. This must not be, since you are now his first-born! Go to the flock, bring me two likely kids for a savoury stew of the sort your father loves; he will mistake it for venison.’ Jacob objected: ‘But Esau’s skin is hairy, and mine smooth! What if our father Isaac should touch it and discover the deceit? Would he not then curse rather than bless me?’ Rebekah reassured him: ‘The curse be on my head! Away now, fetch the kids!’

Jacob obeyed. Rebekah prepared a stew, and dressed Jacob in Esau’s garments, afterwards fastening the newly-flayed kids’ skins on his hands and neck. He entered Isaac’s tent with the platter of venison; and these words passed between them:

‘Father, here I am.’

‘Who are you, my son?’

‘Do you not recognize your first-born? Pray taste my venison, Father, and bless me!’

‘How did you find it so quickly, my son?’

‘Because God favoured me.’

‘Come closer! I wish to assure myself that you are Esau.’

Isaac ran his fingers over him, saying: ‘There is no mistaking Esau’s hands, but your voice sounds like Jacob’s. Are you truly my son Esau?’

‘I am he.’

‘Then hand me the platter, so that I may eat and bless you from a full heart.’

Jacob gave him the platter, and with it a cup of wine. When Isaac had well eaten and drunken, he said: ‘Come here, my son, and kiss
me!’ As Jacob bent down, Isaac caught the fragrance of his garments, and prophesied:

No sooner had Isaac concluded his prophecy, than Esau returned from a successful chase. He made a savoury stew, brought it to his father and said: ‘Pray, Father, taste my venison and bless me!’ Isaac asked: ‘Who may you be?’ Esau answered: ‘Do you not know your first-born son Esau?’ Isaac, trembling for dismay, said: ‘Someone has already brought me a great platter of venison which I ate, and in joy of which I blessed him—and, indeed, he shall be blessed! It must have been your brother Jacob, who deceived me and stole your blessing!’