An Inverted Type-Scene?

Abstract

The sister-wife episodes in Genesis (Gen 12:10–20; 20:1–18; 26:1–13) are well documented in biblical scholarship. Occasionally, an equivalent story in the Jacob cycle (Gen 25–35) is proffered. This essay investigates the tenability of such a proposal. The primary contribution is setting parameters around the proposed germane fourth story, through integrative exegetical methodologies, to properly assess the smattering of resonant motifs common between Gen 29–31 and the standard type-scene. By bracketing the texts anterior and posterior to the sister-wife stories, a common preface and postface emerge: a wife-at-the-well type-scene and the form-critical element of covenant-making, respectively. With this exegetical framing in place, the numerous motifs in the Jacob cycle—typically crafted via inversion—shared with the other sister-wife stories is cogent enough to conclude that there is a viable case of an inverted sister-wife type-scene in Gen 29–31. Furthermore, a hypothetical rationale for its literary inversion is elaborated. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2021/v34n3a3

Keywords

• Jacob
• sister-wife
• type-scene
• inversion
• Laban
• methodology