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Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch
From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a meditation on the complex life of the father of the Twelve Tribes and how the ancient writers and storytellers shaped his identity
A powerful hero of the Bible, Jacob is also one of its most complex figures. Bible stories recounting his life often expose his deception, lies, and greed—then, puzzlingly, attempt to justify them. In this book, eminent biblical scholar Yair Zakovitch presents a complete view of the patriarch, first examining Jacob and his life story as presented in the Bible, then also reconstructing the stories that the Bible writers suppressed—tales that were well-known, perhaps, but incompatible with the image of Jacob they wanted to promote. Through a work of extraordinary “literary archaeology,” Zakovitch explores the recesses of literary history, reaching back even to the stage of oral storytelling, to identify sources of Jacob's story that preceded the work of the Genesis writers.
The biblical writers were skilled mosaic-makers, Zakovitch shows, and their achievement was to reshape diverse pre-biblical representations of Jacob in support of their emerging new religion and identity. As the author follows Jacob in his wanderings and revelations, his successes, disgraces, and disappointments, he also considers the religious and political environment in which the Bible was written, offering a powerful explication of early Judaism.
A powerful hero of the Bible, Jacob is also one of its most complex figures. Bible stories recounting his life often expose his deception, lies, and greed—then, puzzlingly, attempt to justify them. In this book, eminent biblical scholar Yair Zakovitch presents a complete view of the patriarch, first examining Jacob and his life story as presented in the Bible, then also reconstructing the stories that the Bible writers suppressed—tales that were well-known, perhaps, but incompatible with the image of Jacob they wanted to promote. Through a work of extraordinary “literary archaeology,” Zakovitch explores the recesses of literary history, reaching back even to the stage of oral storytelling, to identify sources of Jacob's story that preceded the work of the Genesis writers.
The biblical writers were skilled mosaic-makers, Zakovitch shows, and their achievement was to reshape diverse pre-biblical representations of Jacob in support of their emerging new religion and identity. As the author follows Jacob in his wanderings and revelations, his successes, disgraces, and disappointments, he also considers the religious and political environment in which the Bible was written, offering a powerful explication of early Judaism.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 2012
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105 people want to read
About the author
Yair Zakovitch
27 books3 followersYair Zakovitch is Emeritus Father Takeji Otsuki Professor of Bible, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Professor of Jewish Peoplehood, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. He is author of numerous commentaries and monographs on the Hebrew Bible, and co-author (with Avigdor Shinan) of two Israeli bestsellers. He lives in Israel.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 2, 2021
Excellent.
I sought this book out because, during an exchange semester in Israel, I attended a course on Bible analysis by Yair Zakovitch. This rough-looking sabra with a mischievous twinkle in his eye is a mesmerising lecturer: afable, humorous and an endless source of insights. I hold him almost entirely responsible for my fascination with deconstructing Biblical stories.
This book belongs to the Jewish Lives series, a collection of Jewish biographies ranging from Moses to Groucho Marx. Tasked with the challenge of writing the biography of a mythical figure, made more difficult by the fact that his only source is another biography, Zakovitch employs his signature technique: literary archaeology.
As applied to the Bible, it goes beyond a simple application of the documentary hypothesis to the story of Jacob. Noting that the Torah is a patchwork of several different texts, stitched together and edited for political and religious purposes, he combs the sparse verses to detect echoes of the older oral traditions that the original texts drew on when they were put to paper, and then uses these echoes to make some truly Holmesian deductions about the political motivations that dictated the final form of the story.
One such deduction that stood out to me was that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel each had their own distinct patriarch: the story of Abraham was a tradition from the southern kingdom of Judah, and the story of Jacob, of the northern kingdom of Israel. Their contents were then intermingled and connected via the much less fleshed-out story of Isaac to create a genealogy that united both kingdoms under a single mythical mantle.
As interesting as it would be to see Zakovitch reconstruct the original Abraham myth, this book is about Jacob, and so we get glimpses of how, instead of the easily manipulated can’t-catch-a-break Jacob we know from the Torah, the original northern patriarch was more of a cunning trickster that swindled and outsmarted people left and right.
In short, what Zakovitch does is paint a triple portrait: he shows who Jacob originally was, who the priestly editors wanted him to be, and who they ultimately turned him into.
The book also does a great deal of literary analysis, pointing out the many episodes in the patriarch’s life that mirror one another to great poetic effect. For instance, how the part about Jacob being tricked into bedding Leah instead of Rachel mirrors Jacob’s tricking his father into blessing him instead of Esau (both stories feature switcheroos and sightlessness).
These are just a couple of anecdotes, but the book is stuffed with them. Despite its short length it took me a long while to read because there’s so much information to process. If you’re also turned on by this sort of thing, you’re in for a blast.
I sought this book out because, during an exchange semester in Israel, I attended a course on Bible analysis by Yair Zakovitch. This rough-looking sabra with a mischievous twinkle in his eye is a mesmerising lecturer: afable, humorous and an endless source of insights. I hold him almost entirely responsible for my fascination with deconstructing Biblical stories.
This book belongs to the Jewish Lives series, a collection of Jewish biographies ranging from Moses to Groucho Marx. Tasked with the challenge of writing the biography of a mythical figure, made more difficult by the fact that his only source is another biography, Zakovitch employs his signature technique: literary archaeology.
As applied to the Bible, it goes beyond a simple application of the documentary hypothesis to the story of Jacob. Noting that the Torah is a patchwork of several different texts, stitched together and edited for political and religious purposes, he combs the sparse verses to detect echoes of the older oral traditions that the original texts drew on when they were put to paper, and then uses these echoes to make some truly Holmesian deductions about the political motivations that dictated the final form of the story.
One such deduction that stood out to me was that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel each had their own distinct patriarch: the story of Abraham was a tradition from the southern kingdom of Judah, and the story of Jacob, of the northern kingdom of Israel. Their contents were then intermingled and connected via the much less fleshed-out story of Isaac to create a genealogy that united both kingdoms under a single mythical mantle.
As interesting as it would be to see Zakovitch reconstruct the original Abraham myth, this book is about Jacob, and so we get glimpses of how, instead of the easily manipulated can’t-catch-a-break Jacob we know from the Torah, the original northern patriarch was more of a cunning trickster that swindled and outsmarted people left and right.
In short, what Zakovitch does is paint a triple portrait: he shows who Jacob originally was, who the priestly editors wanted him to be, and who they ultimately turned him into.
The book also does a great deal of literary analysis, pointing out the many episodes in the patriarch’s life that mirror one another to great poetic effect. For instance, how the part about Jacob being tricked into bedding Leah instead of Rachel mirrors Jacob’s tricking his father into blessing him instead of Esau (both stories feature switcheroos and sightlessness).
These are just a couple of anecdotes, but the book is stuffed with them. Despite its short length it took me a long while to read because there’s so much information to process. If you’re also turned on by this sort of thing, you’re in for a blast.
April 1, 2022
"Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch," appeared several years ago, and has been issued anew in the Yale University Press series: Jewish Lives. I noticed an advertisement for it on Facebook, and sent away for the first four books in the series. "Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch", by Yair Zakovitch is the first book in the series. The author is the emeritus Father Take Otsuki professor of Bible at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He wrote this book in Hebrew, and it has been translated by Valerie Zakovitch.
In the past I have read a number of histories, poetry, non-fiction and novels by Jewish writers -- books that I have always enjoyed. This is the first time that I have read a biblical commentary by a Jewish scholar. The book does not disappoint. Being a Hebrew-speaker, Zakovitch presents the many dances of the working in the Biblical texts surrounding the life and figure of Jacob, son of Isaac, in the book of Genesis. "Writing a biography in the usual sense is not possible… One who aims to record the life of a biblical figure -- namely one of the earliest of the Bible's characters who is mentioned nowhere outside it -- is practically limited to a single source, the story that is recorded within the Bible's pages. Is such a biography even possible? The wise writer is forced to scrutinize the Bible's verses under a microscope…" (pp. 7-8).
Zakovitch concedes that it is not really possible to write a biography of Jacob the Patriarch in the modern sense of the word. What he does is examine texts and artfully notes nuances and doubles in the telling of the stories, carefully lifting layers in the telling of the stories of Jacob as an archaeologist would carefully remove layers of earth and rubble to uncover ancient artifacts. How much of the narrative in Genesis is about one man, Jacob, and how much is a reflection, critique or apologia for the nation the Jacob would sire? Professor Zakovitch is a careful archeologist and a brilliant scholar. At the end of the book I was very happy to have let him lead me on a journey of discovery of the ancient and pivotal figure that is Jacob son of Isaac/Israel who "contends with humans and God."
My hope is to read this book again, and I highly recommend it to those who want a deeper appreciation of the Bible and of the Faith of both Israel and Christianity.
In the past I have read a number of histories, poetry, non-fiction and novels by Jewish writers -- books that I have always enjoyed. This is the first time that I have read a biblical commentary by a Jewish scholar. The book does not disappoint. Being a Hebrew-speaker, Zakovitch presents the many dances of the working in the Biblical texts surrounding the life and figure of Jacob, son of Isaac, in the book of Genesis. "Writing a biography in the usual sense is not possible… One who aims to record the life of a biblical figure -- namely one of the earliest of the Bible's characters who is mentioned nowhere outside it -- is practically limited to a single source, the story that is recorded within the Bible's pages. Is such a biography even possible? The wise writer is forced to scrutinize the Bible's verses under a microscope…" (pp. 7-8).
Zakovitch concedes that it is not really possible to write a biography of Jacob the Patriarch in the modern sense of the word. What he does is examine texts and artfully notes nuances and doubles in the telling of the stories, carefully lifting layers in the telling of the stories of Jacob as an archaeologist would carefully remove layers of earth and rubble to uncover ancient artifacts. How much of the narrative in Genesis is about one man, Jacob, and how much is a reflection, critique or apologia for the nation the Jacob would sire? Professor Zakovitch is a careful archeologist and a brilliant scholar. At the end of the book I was very happy to have let him lead me on a journey of discovery of the ancient and pivotal figure that is Jacob son of Isaac/Israel who "contends with humans and God."
My hope is to read this book again, and I highly recommend it to those who want a deeper appreciation of the Bible and of the Faith of both Israel and Christianity.
February 7, 2024
Jacob's journey is difficult and has it's breathless takes of human kinds ability to be "not good". Zakovitch does an excellent job in describing why he believes that Jacob is a patriarch and a prophet, but I do believe he falls short of the target simply because all manners of Scripture point to Jesus.
There is no disrespect over this book because I believe it gave great parallels to other passages in Scripture. Zakovitch had some great thoughts over the life of Jacob and it's importance to the Jewish Culture and lives thereof.
There is no disrespect over this book because I believe it gave great parallels to other passages in Scripture. Zakovitch had some great thoughts over the life of Jacob and it's importance to the Jewish Culture and lives thereof.
May 18, 2018
This book is a wonderful in depth look into the story of Jacob. while many will say that there are leaps in assertions throughout it's pages o would hold that we as English readers separated from the culture that birthed this work make no assumptions in a literary style that wants it's readers to notice what is not said
December 23, 2023
This was another fantastic piece of scholarship by Zakovitch. His eye for the literary dynamics of Biblical Narrative are so impressive. The Jacob story is a fascinating one on any number of grounds, and Zakovitch brings out all of its complexities and intricacies with engaging prose.
High recommendation to anyone interested in Hebrew Bible scholarship.
High recommendation to anyone interested in Hebrew Bible scholarship.
September 26, 2023
Brilliant!
December 8, 2013
If you have a high tolerance for heresy, this is a really interesting book. I'm not fully qualified to disagree with the premises, although the literary scholar in me is a bit appalled at the jumps made from the contents of the texts to the circumstances of their authorship. Literary archeology is interesting, but I'm not sure how behind it I'm willing to get.
Having said that, the way that Zakovitch fits the sociocultural elements of the ancient world together with the text and examines how different biblical stories relate to and draw on one another is very cool and it was worth reading for that.
I just wish it had...a point, perhaps? I mean, much of the point was "look at what I can do!", which is not a bad scholarly endeavor. But, as the Little Mermaid says, "I want more." Zakovitch writes a biography of a ficitonal(ized) character and I expect literary analysis to go somewhere. Where exactly is this supposed to be headed?
Having said that, the way that Zakovitch fits the sociocultural elements of the ancient world together with the text and examines how different biblical stories relate to and draw on one another is very cool and it was worth reading for that.
I just wish it had...a point, perhaps? I mean, much of the point was "look at what I can do!", which is not a bad scholarly endeavor. But, as the Little Mermaid says, "I want more." Zakovitch writes a biography of a ficitonal(ized) character and I expect literary analysis to go somewhere. Where exactly is this supposed to be headed?
June 30, 2019
Enjoyed reading a couple of chapters each Shabbat for a few weeks. I read in the excellent English translation by Valerie Zakovitch (cause I'm lazy). As always with Zakovitch's sensitive frankness and love of the subject, the story of Jacob comes alive.
May 16, 2013
Good. Full of some very helpful stuff.
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January 29, 2014Useful translations and etymologies. Attempts to reconstruct previous versions of the Genesis text. Also considers midrashic commentary and prophetic references to the stories.
January 19, 2016
Interesting insight into a fascinating biblical character. Good scholarship. Longer than it needed to be.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews