Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023233, Wed, 8 Aug 2012 18:51:40 -0400

Subject
Re: Sibling incest/Isaac, Jacob and Rebekkah
Date
Body
Carolyn writes: "Rebekkah is no relation to Isaac. Jacob's servant chooses
her as a mate for Isaac because of her generosity to him and others at the
well, Beershevah, the seventh well. Not veil - well. Jacob does however
send his servant back to his, Jacob's, ancestral homeland to choose the
bride, so only in that sense is she related to the family. I believe many arabs
and non-arab muslims still do this to this day."

But, forgive my pointing it out, Carolyn is doubly mistaken. (See 1 and 2
below.)

In Genesis 24.15, "Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the
wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder."

(1.) Since Isaac is the son of Abraham and Sarah, Bethuel and Isaac are
first cousins. Rebekah is therefore indeed related to Isaac. She is his first
cousin once removed.

(2.) Moreover, it can hardly be Jacob (Isaac and Rebekah's future son) who
sends his servant to choose the bride who will marry his father Isaac (and
become Jacob's own mother). It is Isaac's father Abraham who does this.

The cousin-marrying continues when, in Genesis 28.2, Isaac tells his son
Jacob to journey "to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take a
wife there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother."
Laban's daughters Leah and Rachel are thus Jacob's first cousins, and through
Laban's trickery Jacob marries first Leah and then Rachel, his beloved.

Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
For Existential Psychotherapy and Inner Circle Seminars see:
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/)



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