Was Jacob superstitious?

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Paidion
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Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by Paidion » Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:24 pm

Before returning to his own country, Jacob asked his uncle Laban for his wages as follows:

Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. (Gen 30:32ESV)

Laban agreed, and then Jacob tried to increase his wages in the following way:

Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. Gen 30:37-39 ESV)

This method of producing striped, speckled, and spotted offspring seems like superstition. Yet, the author of Genesis, whether Moses or someone else, seems to have believed that when the flocks viewed peeled sticks while mating, they would produce striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. Then he records that this technique actually worked.

If the story is true, here are my questions:
1. What was the cause (if any) of the striped, speckled, and spotted offspring?
2. Was it only a coincidence that striped, speckled, and spotted offspring were produced?
3. Did God indulge Jacob's seemingly superstitious belief by causing the flocks to produce striped, speckled, and spotted offspring? That seem unlike God.
Paidion

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TK
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by TK » Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:57 pm

Haha Paidion you have hit on what I think is one of the weirdest passages in scripture.

It is not genetically possible for offspring appearance to be affected by something the parents look at. The only exception would be if for some reason only speckled and striped goats mated in front of the floating striped sticks. I have no idea why this might be.

I think your suggestion that God honored his superstition is the most likely.

The same thing seems to apply to the mandrakes of Leah and Rachel.

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steve
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by steve » Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:39 pm

I believe the sap in the sticks, released into the drinking water by stripping off the bark, was considered to be an aid to fertility. He did not put them into the water troughs in order to affect their color, but "so that they should conceive" (Gen.30:38, 41). It was a fertility measure. Jacob came from a long line of cattlemen (his father and grandfather had huge flocks of sheep), and would know the various herbal remedies practiced to enhance fertility. I have no reason to think this belief to be superstitious.

The Bible does not indicate that the striped rods affected the coloration of offspring (nor is there a suggestion that the sheep's "seeing" the rods was in any way a factor in the outcomes). Jacob put the rods in when the "stronger" specimens were mating (v.41), but not when the weaker ones did. Thus, he was clearly not manipulating the coloration, but the vitality of the offspring. Perhaps all shepherds of the day, if they were responsible and not lazy, did the same to increase the robustness of their flocks. There is no reason to believe he was trying to rig Laban's system against him. As the manager of both flocks (his and Laban's) he was doing what a responsible breeder would do to improve the flock over time.

Jacob seemed to be surprised that the offspring came out, in great numbers, to have the color traits beneficial to him. It required a prophetic dream (31:10-12) to inform him of the reasons for the remarkable increase in spotted and speckled offspring. In the dream (though not in reality) the breeding rams were visibly spotted and streaked. These rams, though not exhibiting these color patterns externally, apparently had these traits in their genes—a fact known only to God. God showed Jacob that the rams doing all the breeding were actually spotted breeders, though the trait was recessive and not visible externally. Thus, far from supporting superstition, the passage reveals that God understood genetic factors that would not be discovered by men until thousands of years afterward. The passage directly ties speckled offspring to specked parents—and to no other factor.

People in Jacob's day (and long earlier) knew that the color of parents had some relation to that of their offspring. They did not know (as God did) about genetics. They did not know that solid-colored animals can pass along color-patterned traits. I don't think Jacob had any conscious awareness that only spotted and speckled rams were impregnating the females, but the dream revealed that God had brought only those ram who could pass on those traits at breeding time.

Thus, the story does not record magic, but divine providence. Jacob did nothing to disadvantage Laban (he protests to Laban later that it was Laban, not he, who cheated the other). In fact, we are specifically told that Jacob did not mix his herd with Laban's, keeping them separate, so as not to compromise Laban's herd with the traits carried by Jacob's (30:40).

Yet, behind the scenes, God had selected the right rams, even among Laban's solid-colored flock, to bring about Jacob's prosperity. This occurred even though Laban changed the terms ten times (31:7-8), sometimes giving Jacob the spotted, sometimes the striped, etc. There is no suggestion that Jacob altered the stipe pattern on the rods every time the terms were changed. No matter what the new arrangement was, "God" (31:9, 16) arranged for the right rams to show up for the job.

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TK
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by TK » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:13 pm

Very interesting Steve.

I read some commentary that indicate the "rods" really meant "pens" and that Jacob made sure the speckled sheep went into a certain pen to mate.

Matthew Henry, being an old guy, was of the belief that something a parent saw while mating or pregnant could affect the appearance of the offspring. I guess other old time commentators felt the same way.

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Paidion
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by Paidion » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:24 pm

That's an interesting explanation, Steve. Do you have any evidence that animals consuming sap affects "the vitality of the offspring"?

Your explanation seems to work only if the Hebrew word "yacham" is translated as "should conceive" rather than "mated" or "bred". The word literally means "get hot", and so translators apply it figuratively either to mating or conceiving .

The RSV, ESV, HCSB, and NASB translators render it as "mated" or "bred," whereas the AV, NKJV, JPS, and YLT translators render the word as "conceive."

I see no suggestion that Jacob released the sap into the drinking water other than the fact that he placed the sticks into the drinking troughs, but the phrase in front of the flocks suggests that he wanted the flocks to view the sticks. He may have placed them in the watering troughs to make sure that they would see them when they drank.

Vs 38,39 ESV: He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

The only other place in the Old Testament in which the Hebrew word "yacham" is used is Psalm 51:5 where it is usually translated as "conceived" in the clause, "In sin did my mother conceive me." I checked this phrase in the Greek Septuagint. In English it would be:

For, lo, I was conceived (συνελημθην) in lawlessnesses , and in sins my mother εκισσησεν me.

Notice the Septuagint translators used a different Greek word in the second clause. I have searched, but am unable to find a meaning for "εκισσησεν." This is the only place it occurs in the Septuagint, and it is not found at all in the Greek New Testament.
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

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Paidion
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by Paidion » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:56 pm

I just looked up the passage in my "Jewish Study Bible" translated by experts in the Hebrew language. They rendered the word "yacham" as "mated" and "mating."
Paidion

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TheEditor
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Re: Was Jacob superstitious?

Post by TheEditor » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:15 pm

Hi Paidion,

Yes, this passage is strange. I have come to believe over the years that ancient men and women of faith often held erroneous notions. How could it be otherwise? Rachel apparently believed in the fertility properties of mandrakes, properties also believed by practicers of magic to have the same effects. Of course, these can also yield hallucinogenic effects, so maybe they just thought they were pregnant. ;) Either way I think there appears, to me at least, to be a mixture of folklore beliefs and ideas along with truth held by these people. This has made me reconsider exactly how much emphasis one can place on having all your academic ducks lined up just so, in order to be pleasing to God. Many people listed as men of faith certainly had their flat spots. Holding strange notions about sticks and plants seem to be the least of them.

Regards, Brenden.
[color=#0000FF][b]"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."[/b][/color]

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