It is almost inconceivable that Jacob begins condemning his first three sons in the
blessing at his death bed. Many scholars have long endeavored to solve the problem from
the social and political circumstance in the late period of redaction. It is a more
reasonable attempt to find the solution in the stream of the story in Genesis, the repeated
blessing stories in Genesis. As is widely known, Genesis is the book of blessing.
Blessing is the base of the inter-relationship in the Old Testament. The Old
Testament emphasizes God as the final source or agent of blessing and curse. On the
other hand, the Old Testament illustrates the belief that the spoken words themselves have
the active power to produce the desired effect without any external agent as well.
The blessing stories in Genesis ordinarily contain curse together. Yet, the excluded
sons are not the cursed sons. The curse contains the hope of the blessing at the same time.
Genesis emphasizes that the Godâs promise for Abraham continues in the line of blessing
of the descendants of Abraham without ceasing. However, when God chooses one to
succeed the blessing to the next generation, it does not automatically mean a rejection or
curse of the other sons. A similar paradigm repeatedly appears in the blessings of Genesis. One son inherits
the promise and all the brothers share the benefits. Joseph inherits the fatherâs blessing
and the other brothers will participate in the blessing together. They are blessed as a unit.
The Jacobâs curse on the first three sons plays an important role: the instrument of
discipline and precaution, various courses for ultimate blessing, and the role of arbitrator
of the potential rivalry and conflict among brothers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10042011-115441 |
| Date | 04 October 2011 |
| Creators | Jung, Kwangbong |
| Contributors | Prof SD Snyman |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10042011-115441/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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