Although primogeniture is commonly assumed to have prevailed throughout the world and firstborns are regarded as most likely to achieve success, many of the most prominent figures in biblical literature are younger offspring, including Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, and Solomon. Adducing evidence from a wide range of disciplines, this study demonstrates that ancient Israelite fathers were free to choose their primary heirs. Rather than being either
legally mandated or a protest against the prevailing norm, the Bible's propensity for younger offspring conforms to a widespread folk motif, evoking innocence, vulnerability, and destiny. Within the biblical context, this theme heightens God's role in supporting ostensibly unlikely heroes. Drawing on the
resources of law, anthropology, folklore, and linguistics, Greenspahn shows how these tales serve as complex parables of the relationship of God to his chosen people, also reflecting Israel's own discomfort and confusion about the contradiction between its theology of election and the reality of political weakness.
- ISBN10 0195082532
- ISBN13 9780195082531
- Publish Date 19 May 1994 (first published 1 January 1994)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 204
- Language English