Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 25:25, Different Lexemes & No Puns?
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 10:41:09 -0400
Read, James C wrote:
Hebrew1: Edom had red hair and ate some red stew and lived in a place called
red.
Hebrew2: No! Stop! You're killing me! My sides are splitting. Oh you really are a
funny guy.
I don't think this kind of caricature of Chris' post is helpful.
The punning evident in the Gen passage (and, for that matter, in the
summary of Hebrew1 above) is not meant in the spirit of a Henny Youngman
type of vaudville act. Rather, it expresses the humor of mockery and
poetic justice.
Put another way:
The more Esau's lust for things red (wild game, lentils, flesh) ruled
him, the more alienated he became from the blessing of the Lord, in
effect banishing himself to the difficult life of the red mountains.
The poetic tie-in mocks the enslavement of Esau by the lusts of his
own red flesh. The funny thing is that while Jacob, Rebecca, ultimately
even Israel and we can see Esau's problem so clearly, Esau does not
recognize his own raging red lust and its pathetic result.
Shalom,
Bryan
--
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Chruch
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13026
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