Abstract
A careful evaluation of well-documented historical data, along with ancient and modern theological writings, reveals the matriarch Rebekah as one of the most important and controversial individuals of the biblical narrative. Her exceptional beauty, hospitality, morality, faithfulness and sacrificial love were highly admired and praised as iconic by ancient historians, philosophers, the Hebrew community, the Church Fathers and numerous other scholars; yet, some theologians and clerics of the past few 100 years have depicted Rebekah in a negative light. This article intends to highlight this contradiction for the contemporary community of believers by providing an insightful description of the ancient hermeneutics of Rebekah’s story. It further aims to encourage biblical scholars to methodologically re-evaluate Rebekah’s life, investigating possible reasons as to why the positive image of Rebekah has been overturned in recent years, and thereby determine the cause of such a conceptual paradigm shift in interpreting this key biblical narrative.
Highlights
From Second Temple Judaism to the mid-16th century, the historians and philosophers of the Jewish and Christian communities, as well as the authors of non-biblical, secular and religious literature, portrayed the matriarch Rebekah positively
According to the biblical narrative, Rebekah was personally selected by God as the suitable wife for the patriarch Isaac and the mother of the chosen people, preserving the Messianic line, and bringing blessings upon every human tribe (Gn 3:15; 12:1–3)
The Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature points out that ‘on the matter of the deception of Isaac by Jacob when coached by Rebekah, biblical commentators from early times through the 16th century tended to sanction Rebekah’s conduct’ (Jeffrey et al 1992)
Summary
From Second Temple Judaism to the mid-16th century, the historians and philosophers of the Jewish and Christian communities, as well as the authors of non-biblical, secular and religious literature, portrayed the matriarch Rebekah positively. According to the biblical narrative, Rebekah was personally selected by God as the suitable wife for the patriarch Isaac and the mother of the chosen people, preserving the Messianic line, and bringing blessings upon every human tribe (Gn 3:15; 12:1–3).
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