The Forsaken First-Born: A Study of a Recurrent Motif in the Patriarchal Narratives (Biblia.com)

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This provocative book combines literary and historical methods to examine the phenomenon of the forsaken firstborn in Genesis. The dignity of the firstborn sons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph—Ishmael, Esau, Reuben and Manasseh—is disregarded in the narrative and the rights inherent in their status are taken from them and conferred on a younger brother. One might easily compare this with the...

of postexilic conditions when Israel had become keenly aware of the organization of the world around. This second section relates the age, death and burial of Abraham in the usual style of P (cf. 35:28–29). Isaac is now joined by Ishmael at the burial of their father, exactly as Esau and Jacob will come together to bury their father Isaac. Here again, Ishmael is an equal of Isaac. The author has completely lost sight of (or ignores) ch. 21,1 in which Ishmael’s expulsion is intended to

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