Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/478



Analysis.—The section consists of a complete Elohistic narrative ($11f. 17-22$), with a Yahwistic insertion ($13-16$). For E, cf. ; $12. 17. 20$;, $18. 22$; the dream, $12$; the tithe, $22$; and the retrospective references in 31$13$ 35$3. 7$. For J, $13 (bis). 16$; $13$, and the resemblances to 12$3. 7$ 13$15f.$ 18$18$ 22$15ff.$ 26$24$ 32$13$. To J belong, further, $10$, and (if genuine) $21b$, though the latter is more probably interpolated. $19a$ breaks the connexion of $18$ and $20$, and may be taken from J; $19b$ is an explanatory gloss. (So nearly all recent critics.) Kuenen (Ond. i. 145, 247) considers $13-16$ a redactional addition to E, similar to 22$14-18$, etc., on the ground that J attributes the inauguration of the worship at Bethel to Abraham (12$8$), and nowhere alludes to the theophany here recorded (so Meyer, INS, 236$3$). But (to say nothing of $19a$) the parallelism of $16$ and $17$ appears to prove a real amalgamation of primary sources (Di.). Gu. regards $14$ as secondary, on account of its stereotyped phraseology. '''10-12 (E). Jacob's dream.—11. he lighted upon the place] i.e., the 'holy place' of Bethel (see 12$6$), whose sanctity was revealed by what followed.—he took [at haphazard] one of the stones of the place] which proved itself to be the abode of a deity by inspiring the dream which came to Jacob that night.—12.' a ladder''] or 'stair' (the word only here). The origin of the idea is difficult to account for (see on v.$17$). Its permanent religious significance is expressed with profound insight and truth in Jn. 1$51$.—angels of God] So (in pl.) only in E (cf. 32$2$) in the Hex. As always in OT, the angels are represented as wingless beings (cf. En. lxi. 1). In v.$11$ the rendering 'a certain place' would be grammatically correct (G-K. § 126 r); but it destroys the point of the sentence, which is that night overtook the patriarch just at the sacred spot (see Ex. 3$5$). The idea expressed by the primitive form of the legend is that the inherent sanctity of the place, and in particular of the stone, was unknown till it was discovered by Jacob's dream. It is very probable, as Ho. suggests, that this points to an ancient custom of incubation at Bethel, in which dream-oracles were sought by sleeping with the head in contact with the sacred stone (see Sta. GVI, i. 475 f.).

'''13-16 (J). The promise.'''

In place of the vision of the ladder, which in E constitutes the whole revelation, J records a personal appearance of Yahwe, and an articulate communication to the patriarch. That it was a nocturnal theophany (as in 26$24$) appears from $16a[Greek: alpha]$, as well as the word in $13$. The promise is partly addressed to Jacob's special circumstances ($13. 15$), partly a re-

11. ] Acc. of place (lit. 'at his head-place'), as 1 Sa. 19$13. 16$ 26$7. 11. 16$, 1 Ki. 19$6$.—12. ] The usual vivid formula in relating a