[Jacob-list] Primitive and history

[Jacobflock at aol.com]

I have found the article in the Encyclopedia Judaica (Biology, pp  
1024-1028) to be of interest in telling the story of Jacob from the Hebrew  text.  
One point the Rabbis and J Feliks (article writers) makes is  that the 
Christian Bible story in English doesn't present the story as it should  be 
understood.  According to the European Christian interpretation of  the story, the 
rods that Jacob peeled for white stripes "set over against the  flocks" 
(Jacob's flock) led to the birth of "spotted" sheep.   This is not a proper 
understanding of the Hebrew story.  
 
Jacob says to Laban, "I will pass through your flock, remove every speckled 
 and spotted one, and every dark one among the sheep, and the spotted and  
speckled among the goats; and of such will be my hire."  The population of  
sheep, 75% are white wooled, 25% brown spotted wool and about 75% of the  
goats are black, 25% of the goats have white or brown spots.  White sheep  and 
black goats are "monochrome", spotted sheep and goats are "spotted".   
Jacob suggested that Laban separate from the monochrome sheep all the spotted  
ones and take them for himself and he, Jacob, would tend only the monochrome  
ones.  As his pay, ("and of such shall be my hire") he would keep all the  
spotted born of the monochrome sheep and goats.
 
Laban likes the idea, assuming the monochrome sheep would not produce many  
if any spotted sheep and Laban takes the spotted sheep and sends them off 
with  his sons into the next county.  Jacob, the grifter and con man, who 
just  took high school sheep tending for six years, remembers ... phenotype and 
 genotype are different  ...  they were all monochrome but they were  1/3 
homozygotes and 2/3 heterozygotes for spots. Jacob had to breed the  
heterozygotes among themselves.
 
Then the dream. "Lift up your eyes and see all the he-goats which leap upon 
 the flock are streaked, speckled and grizzled".  The heterozygotes had  
excessive potency (hybrid vigor heterosis); the "spotted" carriers conceived  
earlier than the homozygotes.  The "stronger" are the mekusharot, the  
"feebler" the atufim. Jacob laid the peeled rods before the mekusharot that  they 
might conceive, but not when the flock were atufim, i.e, not before those  
that would conceive later.  The atufim were Labans.
 
The peeled rods?  Jacob conned Laban by using the "superstitious" ag  
technique of the time ... breeding done in a certain environment or  under 
certain signs resulted in god/bad offspring.
 
The next story ... Rachel gets the mandrakes for fertility and a son.   
Whoops, Leah has the child.  Those superstitions don't seem to  work, Yaweh has 
a plan that will work.
 
I asked a Kurdish friend about the peeled stakes; some shepherds still use  
them today.
 
Fred Horak 
 
 
 
In a message dated 11/9/2009 4:04:32 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
nlgrose at yadtel.net writes:

"God's Secretaries" * did a pretty  good job with the Hebrew Bible, 
actually. Most of the problems  with the King James Version came because they had a 
less accurate  copy of the Greek New Testament to work with. Here is the 
verse in  question in the Hebrew Bible in English ( 
_http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et0130.htm_ (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et0130.htm)  ).  I'll 
let Jews translate their own  scripture.


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