Esau and Jacob

The Fraternal Relationship in the Light of God's Plan of Salvation

Abstract

The blessing and challenge of fraternal relationships are described in a paradigmaticway already in the first pages of the Holy Scriptures. Among the most significant isthe fraternal relationship between Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1–16), Ishmael andIsaac (Genesis 21), Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25; 27; 32—33), and Joseph and hisbrothers (Genesis 37—50). In these, sometimes very complex and difficult fraternalrelationships, one might ask how one is to find the path towards reconciliation, coexistenceand thus to build an authentic relationship in order to avoid a completebreakdown of the relationship and the destruction of the “other” and the “differentone”, as was the case in the Cain and Abel relationship (Genesis 4:1–16). How isone to recognize God’s presence and His pedagogy in fraternal relationships, whichare permeated by both light and shadows? This paper attempts to answer these questionsby analyzing the relationship between Esau and Jacob in a communicativeperspective which focuses on the pragmatic power and role of the text. Thus, thebrotherly relationship is a place of encounter with one’s personal limits and weaknesses.Knowledge of personal limitations can bring either a blessing or a curse, thatis, life or death to a person. However, the fraternal relationship is at the same timea privileged place where God reveals His face and fulfills his salvific plan of love. Inthe accounts of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, the brotherly relationship is shownboth as a place of encounter with the “other” and the “different one” and as a placeof conflict. Paradoxically, the dramatic struggle between the brothers, caused by jealousy,the desire to possess and gain power over the other, also becomes a place ofencounter with the truth about oneself. The meeting between Esau and Jacob, whichtakes place after twenty years of flight and fear of fraternal revenge, describes the fraternalrelationship as the primary place for dialogue and reconciliation. Only in thetruth about oneself, in accepting one’s diversity and the diversity of others, can onefully realize oneself as a person created in the image of God. In building authenticfraternal relationships, it is therefore necessary to look at oneself and the other withthe gaze of God, a gaze that unites and recognizes a brother in the other, and enableshim to grow and develop in his uniqueness and diversity, which will make the fraternalrelationship a place of revelation of the God of love and of life and also a placeof mutual growth and maturation in togetherness and love, truth and authenticity,belonging and responsibility.