Texts · 16 · Isaac and Rebekah
Where were Jacob and Esau?
In Genesis 26, Isaac's grown sons never appear, not to help dig wells or visit their parents. Had they shown up, they'd have blown his cover.
Missing characters reveal a story's origins.
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The absence suggests the story was originally independent and only later stitched into a family saga. Without the additions, Isaac isn't Abraham's son or Jacob's father, just a wealthy sheikh in the borderlands.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 259–260
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