The Bible In Paintings: ESAU'S BIRTHRIGHT, JACOB'S BLESSING

[Hebrews 11:6]

The Bible In Paintings 2
Engravings•Facades•Frescoes•Illuminations•Miniatures•Mosaics•Photographs•Reliefs•Sculptures•Tapestries•Windows

G E N E S I S
CHAPTER 25:27-34

Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!”

Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 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.

New International Version ©1984, Abrdgd, EMPHASES Added

1
JAN VICTORS
"Esau and the Mess of Pottage"

2
HENDRICK TER BRUGGHEN
"Esau Selling His Birthright"

3
HENDRICK TER BRUGGHEN
"Esau Sells His Birthright"

4
MICHEL CORNEILLE the Elder
"Esau and Jacob"

5
A.N. MIRONOV
"Esau and Jacob"

6
MARIANO SALVADOR MAELLA
"Esaú Vende Su Primogenitura a Jacob"

7
GIOACCHINO ASSERETO
"Esau Sells His Birthright"

8
GIOACCHINO ASSERETO
"Jacob Offers a Dish of Lentels to Esau for the Birthright"

9
MATTHIAS STOM
"Esau Sells His Birthright to Jacob"

10
MATTHIAS STOM
"Esau and Jacob"

11
GERARD HOET
"Esau Sells His Birthright for Pottage of Lentils"

12
JAMES TISSOT
"The Mess of Pottage"

13
NICOLAS TOURNIER
"Esau Selling his Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils"

14
EVERHARD RENSIG
"Esau Gives up his Birthright"

15
GIUSEPPE BEZZUOLI
"Esau Sells His Birthright to Jacob"

CHAPTER 27

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, “Go out to hunt some wild game for me, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son and put them on her younger son Jacob. He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.”

Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.” So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him.

After Isaac finished blessing him, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”

Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”

Esau said, “Jacob has deceived me these two times: HE TOOK MY BIRTHRIGHT, AND NOW HE’S TAKEN MY BLESSING!” 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.”

When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she said to Jacob, “Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.”

New International Version ©1984, Abrdgd, EMPHASES Added

16
MATTHIAS STOM
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

17
GIOACCHINO ASSERETO
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

18
GIOACCHINO ASSERETO
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

19
BARTOLOMEO ALTOMONTE
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

20
JAN SANDERS VAN HEMESSEN
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

21
GERRIT WILLEMSZ HORST
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

22
Detail
Source

23
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

24
ABRAHAM VAN DIJCK
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

25
NICOLAS-GUY BRENET
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

26
HAN VAN MEEGEREN
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

27
JANUARIUS ZICK
"Isaac Blesses Jacob"

28
JOACHIM BEUCKELAER
"Isacco Benedice il Figlio Giacobbe"

29
LUCA GIORDANO
"Isaac Blesses Jacob"

30
PROSPERO FONTANA
"Isaak und Jakob"

31
JOHANNES PIETER DE FREY
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

32
GUSTAVE DORÉ
"Isaac Blesses Jacob"

→ a n d... f i n a l l y ←

33
GOVERT FLINCK
"Isaac Blesses Jacob"

34
GOVERT FLINCK
"Isaac Blessing Jacob"

[Hebrews 11:6]

R E S O U R C E S
Read GENESIS 25 in full
Hear MAX McLEAN reading it
Hear a DRAMATIZATION of it
Read J-F-B's COMMENTARY
BIBLE TIMELINE

Click for 28 prior episodes in THIS series:
The Bible In Paintings 2
Click for 434 links in the FIRST series:
The Bible In Paintings 1


HOW GOD PROMPTED
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[Hebrews 11:6]

I N H E R I T I N G
ABRAHAM EXPELS HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
GOD TESTS ABRAHAM
ABRAHAM FINDS ISAAC A WIFE!

J A C O B
ESAU'S BIRTHRIGHT, JACOB'S BLESSING
JACOB'S STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
JACOB FLEES FROM LABAN
JACOB WRESTLES WITH GOD
JACOB RECONCILES WITH ESAU

[etabeta]

Love the rich colors and execution in #1 by Victor. Influenced by Rembrandt, his style is crisper and more theatrical than the other master. He specialized in biblical scenes.
#14...be still my heart..
#17 by Assereto. I am focusing on Jacob’s eyes. Looking at his mother, knowing he is deceiving his father, questioning eyes, remorseful eyes. Rebekah silences him. Important chapter, great art.

[gloryblaze]

Not a dud in the bunch.

Re: #28. I noticed that the doggy didn’t understand the command, “Don’t look directly at the camera!”

[telescope115]

It’s curious to me that, in many of the artworks, the artists would dress their subjects in contemporary dress rather than clothing of the time of the event they are depicting. I’m NO art expert, lol, but I’ve noticed it with a lot of artists.

[etabeta]

I think that being historically accurate was not the goal of these artists, making a visual impact was far more important. Easier to do when stories are made to seem like they come into your world than it is to transport you into theirs generally.

[Hebrews 11:6]

That #14 fenster does indeed stand out. Aside from Tiffany's, I don't recall a better one.

Important chapter

Abraham's covenant thus skips Esau and lands on Jacob. It is his story that we now follow.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Modern cinema directors famously are leery of working with children and animals. Perhaps this is where it started....

[null and void]

Love the rich colors and execution in #1

Speaking of colors...

Some translations have Esau asking for some of the red stuff (the lentil stew) my understanding is that the name Esau means red, as he was a florid faced redhead.

The famished red man was asking for red stuff to replenish his very being...

[Hebrews 11:6]

It has been difficult for me, in selecting which images to post, to accept the truth which etabeta declares--but I am adapting.

Still, the other day when collecting pictures showing Pharaoh's daughter and her aides finding baby Moses while they were bathing in the Nile, I had no compunctions about rejecting several where they were wearing billowing silk ballgowns. My rationale is that the Spirit's charge to me is not presenting art about the Bible, but rather the Bible illustrated--it is about the Word, not the art. Billowing silk ballgowns at water's edge would distract viewers from the story.

[Hebrews 11:6]

I believe you are correct. Redheads continued in that family—a millennium later, David apparently was a ginger.

[left that other site]

Good Morning, Dan! :-)

[Hebrews 11:6]

So, you put on your sandals and strolled over here. Although Bahstan in February isn't really sandal time.

Anyway, pleased to see you, Mary-Lou!

[left that other site]

Although Bahstan in February isn't really sandal time.

So true. I have been wearing steel-toed work boots chipping away at mountains of solid ice in order to free my car, because I am using an AXE.

It took all morning, but my car is finally free.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Wish we had pix of that!

[delchiante]

#30 . Can’t help it.
I am seeing more Kathy Griffin than Jacob

[telescope115]

That would certainly be a distraction!
I wasn’t critical of your choices, it’s just kind of funny that the artists would’ve chosen to “dress” their subjects according to their own contemporary fashions, especially when they must’ve known it was historically inaccurate.🙂

[Hebrews 11:6]

Now that you mention it....

[Hebrews 11:6]

It's "funny peculiar" rather than "funny amusing".

Aside from attempting to make the images culturally familiar, as etabeta mentioned, I'm told that often the patron paying for the painting imposed demands.

[delchiante]

My apologies..

:)