Chiasm Trivia
Sunday I heard a sermon on Jacob's dream and vow at Bethel in Gen 28. Fresh from reading Alter and Dorsey, I found myself wondering if there was any structure to Jacob's vow in verses 20-22. After a little bit of thinking, I came up with this:
A - "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear"
B - "so that I come again to my father's house in peace"
C - "then the LORD shall be my God"
B' - "and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house"
A' - "And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you"
To put it conceptually:
A - Request for Material Blessings
B - Request to return to Jacob's House
C - Covenant Promise
B' - Promise of establishment of God's House
A' - Promise to return of Material Blessings
If this is valid, then the vow itself would be calling focus to Jacob's promise to serve God, rather than the request for material blessing that sometimes people first tend to look at. But, I could be just stretching the text.
April 27, 2004 11:42 AMI notice that you did a paper on God's promise to Abraham and now are offering a very interesting interpretation of God's promise to Jacob. I liked your observation a lot. After I read your interpretation I checked with the classic Jewish commentator (or, I believe, exegete). He associates Jacob's statements to each of God's assurances in the previous few sentences.
Pondered by David Gerstman at April 29, 2004 11:38 PMThanks!
I've been wondering also what relationship Jacob's statements had with God's promises to him, Isaac, and Abraham. It's nice to know I'm not too far afield.
Pondered by maphet at May 1, 2004 10:25 AM