Page 231 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
210
210 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
On each of these counts, Laban is making a huge mishmash, unable to relate

in an adequate fashion to any possibly identifying quality of his very existence,
ultimately resulting in a display of a total loss of identity.

’
15.2 Mixing Laban s Parents
Laban is the brother of Rebecca , the wife of Isaac . Both Laban and Rebecca are

children of Bethuel (the father) (for example, Gen. 24:15, 28:5). Their common
grandmother is Milcah, and their common grandfather is Nachor , the brother

of Abraham and Haran (Gen. 11:26). Both Betuel and Nachor, son and father,

were idol worshippers—as can be seen, for example, by the story of how Rachel,
daughter of Laban, is stealing Laban’s idols (Gen. 31:19, 30). This important
point will be addressed shortly. The mother of Laban is mentioned nowhere,
probably because for a person whose identity has been surrendered, no reference
to the mother is material. As it turns out, the identity of the father is equally of no
significance. So Laban mixes together the father and the grandfather, feeling that

it is of “no consequence.” Not only is the identity of his parents unimportant; his
parents themselves are not important.
Consider this:

• Abraham sends his chief servant, “the eldest servant of his house,” to
Aram-Naharayim, the city of Nachor , to take a wife for his son, Isaac . The

slave first meets Rebecca as she is out to draw water from the well (Gen.

24:15). When Rebecca runs back to break the news to her “mother’s
home” (Gen. 24:28), the brother, Laban , takes control (not Rebecca’s
father, Bethuel). So Laban invites the servant to his home, though one
naturally expects the servant, on a mission on behalf of Abraham, to
be a guest of Rebecca’s parents. Not so. Now, the narrator in Genesis
details how the servant tells his story, regarding the purpose of his visit,
to Rebecca’s father and asks for permission to be granted for this prear-
ranged marriage (Gen. 24:34–49). Who would one expect to respond
to this request? The father? Not exactly. As the Bible tells the story, once
the servant concludes his “statement,” the reply starts with: “And Laban
and Bethuel answered” (Gen. 24:50). First Laban, the son, is mentioned
then the father, very unexpectedly. More bizarre is the qualifying word
for “answered,” which comes, in the Hebrew original, in the singular
3
2
(va-yan) and not, as one might expect, in the plural (va-yanu). In other
words, though two people answered, the Bible makes it abundantly clear
that the “answered” was conveyed by one person only. Obviously, Laban