Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/221

 The Unity of

the Jacob Story

203

that Jacob called the place Mahanaim, i. e., "the two camps", because he was met there by angels, and when he tell

saw them he

said,

"This

is

God's camp".

It

is

clear that

these angels did not merely meet Jacob, but that something

must have transpired on the occasion, and that there must have been not one, but two camps. In other words, there must have been a considerable legend of Jacob at Mahanaim, and of what befell him when he was met by the angels, or whatever these may have been in the original legend, to which the compilers of the Jacob cycle of stories merely refer, but which imfortunately, for some imknown reason, they do not preserve in full. A moment's consideration suggests also that the stories of Jacob securing his brother's birthright by selfish cunning, and of his obtaining, likewise by cunning and deceit, the blessing of his father, which was intended for his older brother, were originally parallel versions of one and the same incident. There is actually little or no difference in practical effect between the birthright and the blessing. Both were intended for the older son, and both secured for the recipient the same advantages, lordship over the other brother and an undue portion of the bounties of the earth. It is clear,

therefore, that, as has been stated, these vari-

ous Jacob traditions and legends arose independently of each other,

at

different

times and places,

and as the result of Israel, and that the

varying forces and conditions in ancient present Jacob cycle

is

the product of a process of literary^

compilation and editing, rather than of creative authorship.

We

have already learned that the creation-flood and the cycles of stories were also the products of similar processes, and that in both the compilers did their work in accordance with set plan and purpose, in order to give con-

Abraham

crete expression

to

Avhat they conceived to be

principles of Judaism.

fundamental

Inasmuch as the Jacob cycle

product of a similar process of compilation,

it

is

is

the

to be in-