Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/230

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The Book of Genesis

212

But

his

to

glad surprise his brother meets him, not in

He,

anger, but in peace.

too,

has prospered, and he, too,

So Jacob returned in peace to his house, and Ood was with him and fulfilled His But it was no more the old, deceitful Jacob, but a

seeks only reconciliation. father's

word.

Israel, "the

new, purified

Such

Champion

the Jacob story

is

in

of God".

form.

]:)resent

its

It

is

no

longer a mere collection or cycle of stories, but the skillful hands of the compilers have welded it together into one

view of the marked drapowerful

single story, or, possibly better, in

matic, and at times even tragic, note, one single,

drama.

In

fact,

it

might well be arranged

for

dramatic

presentation thus

Prelude

Act

— The

Scene

I,

pre-natal struggles of the brothers.

1—The

Scene 2

Act Act fication

II

— The

— —Jacob's

birthright.

father's blessing.

Jacob's vision of

III

during the

God

at Bethel.

and the beginning of fourteen years with Laban.

family,

first

his

puri-

— —

Act IV Jacob and Laban. Act V The night of wrestling and the morning thereafter.

This scheme shows the unmistakable, form and character of the Jacob story.

unified,

dramatic

It is inconceivable, as has been said, that these compilers should have done their work aimlessly, or moved only by inner compulsion to satisfy an artistic and dramatic impulse.

creation-flood and the Abraham cycles have shown that they were actuated by deep religious })urpose and conviction, and that dramatic effects were merely incidental products of

The

The Joseph story will artistic genius. even more conclusively. And did the Moses story come within the province of this work, it would add convincing and irrefutable proof thereto. The compilers of the

their

unmistakable

prove

this