Jacob and the Divine Trickster: A Theology of Deception and YHWH's Fidelity to the Ancestral Promise in the Jacob Cycle

by John E. Anderson

The book of Genesis portrays the character Jacob as a brazen trickster who deceives members of his own family: his father Isaac, brother Esau, and uncle Laban. At the same time, Genesis depicts Jacob as YHWH's chosen, from whom the entire people Israel derive and for whom they are named. These two notices produce a latent tension in the text: Jacob is concurrently an unabashed trickster and YHWH's preference. How is one to address this tension?...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575062194
• ISBN13: 9781575062198
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"