Much is said in Allegory. Individual Names are probably substituted for complete Clans or Tribes.
Abraham was not the first Jew, technically. Abraham is the "Father" of all Semites -- Arabs and Jews. Differentiation between Arab and Jew begins with the Sons of Issacc. This is where it gets funny. Jacob, the Jew, was the younger son, but he was a little cheat and liar and was able to steal the Birthright by deception. God Himself was offended and sent an Angel to kick Jacob's ass. Jacob's mother supported him in this because she saw herself more in Jacob than in her first son, who was mannly and honorable. She herself was probably a prostitute. When Abraham's family sent a Servent to find a Wife for Issacc, this one particular woman was the first to meet him as he came into town. What kind of woman is the first to toss herself in the path of a travelling stranger? Who participates in lies and deceptions?
The Jews take some great pride in being descended from this Cheat and Liar. This should give us some keen insight into their Psychology... why they enjoy being lawyers, bankers, business people... where screwing over people is okay because it is Just Business. Far from seeing Jacob as flawed, even evil, they see his clever deceptions and cheats as traits to be lived up to.
Hey, its their Bible. I'm not making this stuff up.
But is any of it true? Scholars have had trouble finding anything supposively from the Books of Moses, the early chapters of the Bible, that date prior to the Babylonnian Captivity. Indeed, some of the later Books of the Bible... taking up from after the Stay in Egypt... have a kind of discontinuity from the Books of Moses... suddenly the Jews are not careful about Priestly Rules and such that only a chapter before had been so all important. many Scholars therefore suppose that the Jews only became acquainted with the Legends and Stories of Abraham and Moses when they came to Babylon. It was a huge Cosmopolitan City, the Center of a broad Empire, in commerce with another Huge Empire, Persia. They were probably amazed and delighted with the Literature they found. So they stole some of it. They created a Legend for themselves.
Why they wrote themselves into being a Race of Scheming Liars and Cheats... Well, maybe they had some Bad Boy Thing going. Being Noble and Religious would have been too sissyfied for them, and so they thought being clever...
Oh, there are other Scholarly interpretations for the Jacob vs Esau dichotomy. You see, before the Babylonnian Capitivity there had been a Civil War between the Jews, between Israel and Judah. The War had gone undecided until Ninava, a Civilization from the North, came down and helped out by conquering Israel the way that Babylon had subsequently conquered Judah... the difference being that History tells us nothing of what might have happened to the captives of Israel. The Ten Lost Tribes.
There is some modern proof that the Jews were not really the Jews ... the legendary people from the Bible... that the Babylon Jews stole the book and applied it to themselves. If one goes to the Kashmir region of India, and looks at the Ancient Census Data, one finds that every 3rd boy was named Moses. One finds local place names from out of the Bible... places that are not named in the Near East where we would expect to find them.
so it is very likely that the Jews stole their Biblical Identity.
Since atheists claim they deal in facts, not fantasy, then please tell us the
real history of the Jews so you can speak from knowledge, not ignorance for once.
So you can start by telling us who was the first
real Jew and where did he come from since you claim that Adam, Eve and their descendants were fictional characters.
The bible gives us a lineage from Adam to Christ. So which people in that lineage were fictional characters and which ones were real people? Then explain where the real people came from? Since atheists live in a fantasy world where they make up their own history this should be
really entertaining. So let's see if you can discern fact from fiction.