by JAMES TISSOT
“Jacob”
Posted on 07/04/2020 10:08:50 PM PDT by Hebrews 11:6
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son… hunt some wild game for me. 4 Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob…9 Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. 10 Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”
12 “…I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”
15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 17 Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father.”
“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
28 May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides.
GENESIS 28
1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
1
But it is not only oil-on-canvas that can so help us; I refer to the astonishing video series The Chosen, which strolls through the four Gospels at the most leisurely pace. The eight episodes of Season 1 are finished, and the second of a planned seven seasons is coming soon. I say "leisurely" because after an entire year Jesus still has only seven of the apostles (although He's preparing to call up Thomas from the minor leagues--but Thomas is skeptical, of course). Anticipating a canvas of fifty-plus hours instead of a movie's paltry two hours, The Chosen turns the characters (including Jesus!) into three-dimensional humans and brings the Gospels alive--you have never seen anything even remotely like it! Here is the Official Trailer.
In the depictions I've seen, ladders are ladders and angels are angels. Yet,
A ladder (the Hebrew word "sulam") is a musical scale, and angels (malakim) are messengers, and messengers carry messages (e.g. notes). Furthermore, angels are famous for playing harps; it's just how long-standing interpretations make for the common associations and portrayals.
Then there is the anomaly noted in some commentaries why these angels first ascend, and then descend. In any case, they are usually shown running back and forth into the heavens, the stars. Notes (messages) carried up and down the ladder (musical scale), one rung at a time, every other rung:
An arpeggio (Italian: [ar'pedd?o]) is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in a rising or descending order. An arpeggio may also span more than one octave.
The word arpeggio comes from the Italian word arpeggiare, which means to play on a harp.
Even though the notes of an arpeggio are not played or sung all together at the same time, listeners hear the sequence of notes as forming a chord
>>>
Arpeggios can rise or fall for more than one octave. Students of musical instruments and singers learn how to play and sing scales and arpeggios. Arpeggiated chords are often used in harp and piano music. An arpeggiated chord may be written with a wavy vertical line in front of the chord.
It spreads from the lowest to highest note. Occasionally, composers specify that the musicians play them from top to bottom by adding an arrow pointing down.
Music and singing are often described in spiritual terms, as sounds and voices being lifted up into the heavens, to God. These voices go up but also down, because they are heard on earth as well as on high.
by JOSÉ DE RIBERO
“Jacob’s Dream”
The Impossible Dream - Andy Williams
The artwork in this thread begins with Esav selling his birthright. It matches the lyrics and the painting above, because the impossible dream is for the two brothers to reunite in love. It's Joseph the Dreamer who could pull it off, because look what he cooked up while in Egypt. The one painting here without a literal ladder is this one, by a painter whose name means "Joseph of the river". This is particularly interesting because when I first saw it, the cloud behind Jacob looked like the Milky Way to me, which is the river of stars (light) in the sky.
psalm (n.)
Old English psealm, salm, partly from Old French psaume, saume, partly from Church Latin psalmus, from Greek psalmos "song sung to a harp," originally "performance on stringed instrument; a plucking of the harp" (compare psaltes "harper"), from psallein "play on a stringed instrument, pull, twitch" (see feel (v.)).
Used in Septuagint for Hebrew mizmor "song," especially the sort sung by David to the harp.
Thanks again for these inspirational art postings, and thanks for listening.
Don't know about you, but in the Jacob's Ladder section I was stunned at both the variety of artistic responses and, relatedly, the fervid imagination shown. I mean, really: angels crawling up and down the church exterior? Hilarious! Even as I wrote that my mind went to anticipating our imaginings in heaven. So much ahead of us!
There’s a lot to be said in the totality and variety of the artistic visions that the Biblical narratives inspire.
These are interpretations, but not in any theological sense. It’s not really artistic license, which tends to mean an intentional change of the original story.
Here the original stories don’t have a whole lot of detail, so it’s left up to the artist to think on them, and consider the options.
How much of that was the plan all along? Esav was a fuzzy red man from birth, so if he’s depicted with black hair that’s kind of bogus. But there are many options involving red hair, a ruddy complexion and/or hot-headed personality, etc., without violating the text.
So let’s see who comes up with what. :)
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