Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/222

 The Book of Genesis

204 f erred

that

effort,

but

it,

is

too,

is

not the result of random, unsystematic

animated by a

definite

purpose and one central

theme.

One important

fact

must be noted

Jacob cycle of stories differs

either the creation-flood cycle or the

Abraham

at

This

the outset.

very essential respect from

in a

Abraham

In the

cycle.

cycle the various stories are but loosely connected.

Almost any one, with the possible exception of the stories of the call of Abraham and of the sacribce of Isaac, might have been omitted unity of the

having

without

Abraham

story as

seriously

being conscious that anything was lacking. ample,

impaired

the

whole, and without our

a

Thus, for ex-

the stories referring to Lot might have been re-

all

jected by the compilers, and while

it

is

true that thereby the

Abraham would have been lost, and the story would thereby be much poorer spiritually, nevertheless the Abraham cycle as a whole would have preaccounts of several

trials of

sented a perfectly complete and well-rounded story.

To

a

somewhat

flood cycle also.

predecessor

is

less

A

degree this

slight

is

true of the creation-

dependence of one story upon

manifest there.

Thus

the story of the

its

Tower

of Babel w^ould be almost meaningless except as the sequel, as

were, of the story of the flood.

it

here,

and throughout

Each

of thought rather than of incident. a unit of narration,

which can be told by

the impression of completeness. flood cycle

is

Yet the dependence dependence

this creation-flood cycle, is a

The

story itself

is

in

itself

and convey

unity of the creation-

purely a unity of the Jewish thought and doc-

which animate and correlate all these stories. But the Jacolj cycle is different. While the unity of

trine

thought

is

not immediately apparent, the unity of narration

becomes manifest

at

once.

Hardly

lacob story could be told by ligible.

up

to

One

itself

a single incident of the

and be perfectly

intel-

event flows out of another, and in turn leads

something

else.

For example,

to

tell

the

story

of