Reason 14 - Isaac and Jacob Marry Aramaean Wives – Aram later Israel’s Enemy
Isaac and Jacob marry Aramaean wives – the “mothers” of Israel despite the fact that Aram was later an enemy
Chief Rabbi Dr JH Hertz in Pentateuch & Haftorahs (Second Edition) says on page 396:
The record of Genesis that Isaac and Jacob married Aramaean wives must be based on fact, and could not have arisen, as some Bible critics maintain, in the days of the Monarchy. For throughout the days of the monarchy, Aram was the hereditary enemy of Israel, and was guilty of the most hideous barbarities in its continued attempts to annihilate Israel. It is clear that here too the tradition that the ‘Mothers’ of the Israelite people were Aramaean women was an inconvenient one – and cannot therefore be an invention of later legend (Cornill, Jirku). |