Bible scholars have many different views on the same subject. We've used a collection of sources, cited at the end of Teaching the Bible. Enjoy using these and other resources to discover new and sometimes differing views of Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob. Most of what we know about this family is found in Gen. 24 - 27.

Bible time-lines typically show the patriarchs who stand out in Bible history, but what about the matriarchs? In this edition of BibleWise we will look at two of the women who made a difference in the fulfillment of God's promises. Last month, for instance, we spent more time looking at Abraham than Sarah. Yet, Sarah deserves her place in history. Rebekah is often referred to as the woman who should appear in the patriarch listing of Abraham, Rebekah, Jacob and Joseph. Rebekah is a remarkable woman. Let's start Bible Characters with ladies first.

Bible instructor and author of That Ye May Teach the Children, Joan Koelle Snipes, was asked to share some thoughts about Sarah and Rebekah. The description of Sarah is by Ms. Snipes. The article that follows Sarah is about Rebekah from the book Women in Scripture.

Sarah
Who was Sarah? What do we know of her?

• Sarah was the wife of Abraham, ten years his junior. They were married in Ur of the Chaldees. Genesis 11:29-31; 17:17
  
  
• Sarah was "a fair woman to look upon." Genesis 12:11
  
  
• God's promise to Abraham was, in part, "I will make of thee a great nation." Sarah was keenly aware of this promise but was barren. This prompted her to give her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham as a secondary wife. Hagar bore a son whom Abraham named Ishmael. This son, however, was not the child of the promise.
  
  
• At the age of 90, Sarah gave birth to a son named Isaac. After years of being childless, Sarah "laughed within herself" at the thought of having a child so late in life. Genesis 18:11-15
  
  
• When Sarah sees Ishmael, the son of Hagar, "sporting" with Isaac, she urges Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Although Abraham is reluctant to do this, Sarah's wish prevails.¹
  
  
• Sarah was the first of a number of biblical women healed of barrenness. Compare her story, for example, with that of Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Genesis 18:2, 9-14; Luke 1:5-8, 11-13, 18-22, 24, 25, 57-80
  
  
• Sarah dies in Hebron at the age of 127. She is remembered in the prophecies of Isaiah as the ancestress of her people. Isaiah 51:2
  
  
• Sarah is also mentioned in the honor roll of the faithful in Hebrews 11. "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."
  
  
• "Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of
  Machpelah." This was in the land of Canaan. Over the cave of Machpelah today, there is a Moslem mosque. Genesis 23:19²
  
  Joan Koelle Snipes

Ms. Snipes recommended we use the entry about "Rebekah" in Women in Scripture by Carol Meyer.

Rebekah
"Rebekah in the Hebrew Bible
           (Gen 24-27;28:5; 29:12; 35:8;49:31)

The second (after Sarah) of the matriarchal figures in the ancestral stories of Genesis, Rebekah is one of the most prominent women-in terms of her active role and her control of events-in the Hebrew Bible. The beautifully constructed narratives in Genesis 24-27 describe how she becomes Isaac's wife, gives birth to twin sons after initial barrenness, and finally obtains the primary place in the lineage for her younger son, Jacob, who is destined to become ancestor of all Israel.

The story of the wooing of Rebekah unfolds in Genesis 24, the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis. A spouse of Isaac is to be obtained from his Uncle Nahor's family; the ensuing cousin marriage, with Rebekah and Isaac both members of the same kinship group, serves to emphasize the importance of their lineage. Abraham dispatches a trusted but unnamed servant to Mesopotamia, the land of his birth and where some of his family still resides, to find a wife for his son. Rebekah secures her role as wife-elect for Isaac by befriending the servant and his ten camels in the famous well scene, which has been called a type-scene-a narrative episode with certain expected motifs that appear at the critical juncture in the life of a hero. Indeed, the account of Rebekah at the well is the premier biblical example of such a scene. It ostensibly draws attention to Isaac, but, in his absence, reveals the beauty and especially the virtues of his wife-to-be.

After the well incident, Rebekah brings the servant home, enters into the marriage arrangement, and sets off to meet her future husband. She seems to have some input into the marriage negotiations, or at least into the decision about her departure from her homeland and birth family. Once she arrives in the promised land, she enters Isaac's home (called "his mother Sarah's tent," 24:67). There she is "loved" (24:67) by her husband, the first woman in the Hebrew Bible for whom marital love is proclaimed.

After twenty years of marriage, when Rebekah fails to become pregnant, Isaac prays to God, who grants the prayer that she may conceive. Another type-scene, that of the barren wife, thus enters the Rebekah story, calling attention to the special role of the children ultimately born to her. A divine oracle is addressed to her when she is pregnant, making her the only matriarch to receive a direct message from God (although Abraham's slave wife Hagar also receives an oracle). YHWH proclaims that "two nations" are in her womb and will contend with each other (25:23). This oracle foreshadows the tensions that will characterize the relationship between her sons, Jacob and Esau, as figures in the Genesis narrative and as eponymous ancestors of Israel and Edom.

In the next episode in the Rebekah story, Isaac passes her off as his sister. This narrative, similar in many ways to two such accounts about Sarah, at first seems to contribute little to the role or character of Rebekah. However, it does differentiate her in a significant way from Sarah; in one of the two wife-sister episodes in which she figures, Sarah seems to have had sexual relations with Pharaoh (Gen 12:13-14,19) to ensure the safety of her husband and their household. Rebekah's marital fidelity, in contrast, is never compromised (Gen 26:7-11). Her relationship with her husband is consistently monogamous, unlike that of Sarah, who not only has extramarital sex, but also provides her husband with the slave wife Hagar, and of Rachel and Leah, who are co-wives and also provide slave wives to Jacob.

The final scene in which Rebekah appears is another well-known biblical episode: Isaac blesses Jacob rather than Esau, the first to emerge from the womb and thus the expected recipient of the paternal blessing. This designation of Jacob as heir to the ancestral lineage, which will mean his becoming progenitor of all Israel, is orchestrated by Rebekah. Through clever manipulation, whereby Isaac is deceived, she achieves her purpose and controls the family destiny."

"For one thing, Rebekah is far more dynamic and proactive than Isaac, for whom no independent episode is reported. The very fact that the verb to go is used of Rebekah seven times (a number used in the Bible for emphasis) in the courtship narrative of chap. 24 highlights her active character. In addition, Rebekah's behavior in Genesis 24 is depicted by a series of action verbs-she runs, draws water, fills jars, and rides a camel-that contribute to a sense of her individuality and vitality, in contrast to Isaac's passivity. Also noteworthy is the way the language used in reference to Rebekah's journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan, and in anticipation of her role as progenitor of countless offspring, echoes that found in the Abraham narratives (compare Gen 24:4, 38, 60 with Gen 12:1 and 22:17). Furthermore, Rebekah is said to have had a nurse (Gen 35:8), a highly unusual circumstance in the Hebrew Bible and one that thus signifies her unusual stature.

Finally, the long courtship account of Genesis 24, which is considered by many to be a self-contained novella, can perhaps be called a woman's story. Rebekah's dynamic presence in that episode may indicate its origin in women's storytelling, as do certain other features. The term "mother's household," for example, appears in 24:28. That phrase is found only four times in the Hebrew Bible, all in texts that reveal women's lives and agency. It signifies the important role of the senior woman in a family household, at least when considered from a female perspective, as does the use of the phrase "his mother Sarah's tent" for Isaac's home.

Because of the centrality of Rebekah, in contrast to Isaac, the ancestral sequence might more accurately be called Abraham, Rebekah, and Jacob. Indeed, when Rebekah's favored son, Jacob is sent to Mesopotamia to secure a spouse, he identifies himself to his future bride (and cousin) Rachel not as the son of Isaac, but rather as "Rebekah's son" (Gen 29:12); his paternal ancestry is eclipsed by Rebekah's lineage. This incident may signify a reality of maternal dominance, at least in the case of Rebekah, that is too powerful for the andocentric interests of biblical narrative to obscure."
Carol Meyers

"Rebekah", from WOMEN IN SCRIPTURE, edited by Carol Meyers. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Bible Characters?

• Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac.
  
  
• "Put your hand under my thigh" (Gen 24:2,9) was significant in that it sealed the oath. The servant is swearing an oath by "placing his hand under the genitals, a vehicle of life."³ [makes you grateful for a handshake today!] The pledge was a solemn one, for it carried with it a curse or ban if not followed. "Since sons are said to issue from their father's thigh, an oath that involved touching this vital part might entail the threat of sterility for the offender or the extinction of his offspring." This is Abraham's last request.⁴ Some scholars say he died before the servant returned with Rebekah.⁵
  
  
• The servant prayed for a sign to distinguish the bride for Isaac. (Gen 24:12-14) What a good example Abraham had set for his family and servants: we pray to solve problems!
  
  
• Rebekah is given the freedom to choose whether to marry Isaac.
  
  
• Rebekah's general character is modest, kindly, generous, and pious.⁶
  
  
• Laban displays traits we see in his later life. He isn't convinced by the demand of kinship nor the will of God, but rather by the sight of the costly jewels on his sister's arm.⁷
  
  
• Isaac lived a semi-nomadic life in Canaan.⁸
  
  
• Isaac relied on his father to select a bride for him when he was 40 years old.
  
  
• Isaac and Rebekah maintained a monogamous relationship.
  
  
• Even when Rebekah was barren, Isaac stayed with her and prayed for her. (Gen 25:21) She then conceived twins.
  
  
• Rebekah talks with God about the conflict in her body. (Gen. 25:22-24) God tells her the younger son shall rule the elder son.
  
  
• Esau was born first, followed by Jacob.
  
  
• Esau was red and hairy.
  
  
• Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field.⁹
  
  
• Jacob followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and was a semi-nomadic shepherd.



• Esau lacked spiritual depth. He was a man of the moment.
  
  
• Esau impetuously bargained away his birthright for a bowl of pottage.¹⁰
  
  
• Pottage was a soup or stew made with vegetables and sometimes with meat.¹¹
  
  
• The birthright included the primary headship of the family, that is, rights as the eldest son, a double portion of the inheritance, priestly rights, and, in Abraham's family, heir to the covenant privileges.¹²
  
  
• Isaac chose to avoid conflict with the Canaanites over the wells Abraham had dug. God told him not to be afraid.¹³ (Gen 26:15-24) This appears to be a turning point in Isaac's life. Up to this point he passively accepted what happened in his life; being used as the potential object of sacrifice; waiting for the selection of a bride; walking away from the strife over the first two wells; being heartsick over Esau's foreign wives. God tells him not to be afraid. Not to be afraid to make decisions? Not to be afraid of what others might think? Not to be afraid to live?
  
  
• Isaac assumed a quiet role of maintaining Abraham's work rather than pursuing heroic paths of adventure, discovery, and leadership.¹⁴
  
  
• Isaac contributed to the growth of Hebrew thought by maintaining a relationship with one God.¹⁵
  
  
• Isaac was a man of peace, who praised God when peace prevailed. (Gen 26:19-32)¹⁶
  
  
• Esau was indifferent to his parents' wishes when he married not one but two Hittite women. (Gen 26:34)
  
  
• Esau was 40 years old when he first married. He later married four more foreign wives.
  
  
• Esau's offspring were called the Edomites. ¹⁷
  
  
• Jacob and Esau were approximately 60 years old when Jacob stole Esau's blessing.
  
  
• Isaac was 120 years old and blind when he asked Esau to prepare the meal of venison for the blessing.
  
  
• Isaac thought he was ready to die, yet he lived another sixty years after blessing Jacob.
  
  
• The blessing of Isaac certainly appears unalterable. "Acts of blessing in the OT rest on accepted conventions. If the blessing could not be revoked by Isaac, it was because no convention was available for its revocation. If there is such a convention, Isaac chooses not to make use of it. Esau, in asking for another blessing, appears to believe that no such convention exists."¹⁸
  
  
• "One basic reason cited by Isaac for not retracting the blessing involves the consumption of a meal. (Gen 27:33) The meal was an integral part of a conventional blessing ritual, without which it would not have been valid."¹⁹
  
  
• It was unnecessary for Jacob and his mother to conspire to steal the blessing. God had spoken to Rebekah when she was pregnant, and predicted that Esau would serve Jacob. (Gen. 25:23) Their trickery and deceit obtained something God would have provided freely had they behaved morally.²⁰ A great lesson in yielding all to God!
  
  
• The great deception produces suffering: "Isaac suffers for his preference for Esau, which was not determined by the will of God but by his weak affection: Esau suffers for despising the blessing of the firstborn:" Rebekah suffers in never seeing Jacob again: Jacob suffered a strain of hardship and deception at the hand of Laban.²¹

--GAL

Sources
1 Carol Meyers, ed.; Toni Craven; Ross Shepard Kraemer. Women in
Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible,
The Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament. New
York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000., pp. 150-151.
2 Edith Deen. All of the Women of the Bible. New York: Harper &
Row. 1955, p. 16.
3 The New Interpreter's Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, Vol 1, pl 510.
4 E.A. Speiser. The Anchor Bible - Genesis. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964, p. 178.
5 The Abingdon Bible Commentary. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1929, p. 235.
6 Ibid. p. 235.
7 Ibid. p. 235.
8 Lawrence O. Richards. Richards Complete Bible Dictionary. Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, 2002, p. 522.
9 The Interpreter's Dictionary of theBible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1963, p. 127.
10 Ibid. p. 127.
11 Richards, p. 806.
12 J.R. Dummelow, ed. A Commentary on the Holy Bible. New York: Macmillan Co., 1908, p. 32.
13 Richards, p. 522.
14 Thomas L. Leishman. The Continuity of the Bible - The Patriarchs. Boston: CSPS, 1968, p. 19
15 Ibid. p. 19.
16 Richards, p. 523.
17 Ibid, p. 345.
18 NIB, pp. 538-539.
19 Ibid, p. 539.
20 Richards, p. 538.
21 Dummelow, p. 33.