METAPHYSICAL BIBLE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Fall semester 1975 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture given on October 17, 1975
Topic: 38
Gen. 25:29, pp. 146-147 of transcript.
Topic 37: Esau becomes the symbol for what we call body consciousness or physical consciousness while Jacob stands for at first consciousness of mentality ... mind and body cause are so closely related and interdependent that it is at a certain stage of an individual's development that it is very difficult to tell where the working of one leaves off and that of the other begins
Topic 38: There is an imbalance in power, in authority, in control; all strictly on the side of the intellect, the mentality. Isaac's fondness for Esau and Rebekah's favoring of Jacob ... always has said to me that the female favors the mind and the mind favors the body.
Topic 39: but the time is coming when the mind of man will attain sufficient light and understanding to realize there is absolutely no need to tyrannize and mistreat the body consciousness ... when Jacob will change to Israel, will begin the reconciliation between mind, mental consciousness and body consciousness, and then the fear of death will be removed and the reconciled body and mind consciousness will be developed into the healing consciousness.
Esau Sells His Birthright
In Chapter 25 we're told about the birthright which Jacob convinces Esau to surrender to him for a "mess of pottage". In this story, a lot of things we read about the conniving among this family are disturbing if you would take this literally as character behaviorism; there is something a little bit unethical about some of it, but when it is understood metaphysically you see that the symbolism is of something that is quite inevitable.
It's not saying that it ought to be this way, it says this is the way it has been. This is what has happened. Don't think about people doing things to each other so much as simply the writer's way of analyzing processes which have occurred already, so it's too late to blame them. Once a thing has occurred, what good is it to go around pinpointing blame? It's just a matter of understanding and working toward a better repetition of the same thing.
Now the birthright which Jacob convinces Esau to turn over to him simply refers to when the power of self-awareness, when the directive seat, which was at first possessed by body-consciousness, Esau, but is taken over eventually by mentality-consciousness. Jacob, the power of self-awareness in us now is predominately in your intellect, but evidently at one time, all of your self awareness was concentrated in your physical, your just physical organism.
But that changed and it is now in the intellect. In the majority of mankind, the mental has supplanted the purely physical in development and expression of self-awareness. For instance, the tip of my finger is aware of being the tip of my finger. You would say, my intellect is aware of the tip of my finger because I know I have one, not like the tip of the finger would say, I know I am the tip of a finger because I am one. Now you say, there is a tip of a finger because I have one and I know I have it - not I am the tip of my finger. Well, we kind of wore that out.
Now, because of this, because the seat of awareness, of self-awareness has shifted now entirely to the intellect, there is a sort of imbalance, a state of imbalance exists between the body and the intellect in most persons. Now it is a situation which shall eventually be rectified but in most persons it is not. There is an imbalance in power, in authority, in control; all strictly on the side of the intellect, the mentality. Chapter 27 describes Isaac's fondness for Esau and Rebekah's favoring of Jacob. This is rather interesting. It says to me, as long as I've been aware of this, it always has said to me that the female favors the mind and the mind favors the body.
See? Now, transferring this to a literal level, and I've looked around and thought a lot about this, and I'm not criticizing, I'm just suggesting a possible analogy here, I've sort of found that women seek for their mate, a mind, women so often love a man for his mind. Now, most men love the body of their woman, not that they don't love their mind, but I'm saying favor, that which attracts first. All through the tradition of our culture, our human culture what is always described as the bride's greatest virtue? Her beauty. The bride is being praised for her beauty, the thing the groom is quickest to brag about is the beauty of his bride, that's traditional. When a bride boasts of her groom, what is the thing she will usually boast about first? His handsomeness. How noble he is, how smart he is, how dependable he is, what a good father he will make, and that's not because of his beauty, it's because of his mind. The female seems to be attracted and more impressed by mind qualities while the male seems to be more attracted and impressed by the body qualities, the physical qualities, but since we are all male and female, the whole thing works out just fine in the long run.
Right now it's a matter of biological attraction and favoritism, but it's all based on a very ancient metaphysical pattern, which is fascinating, and it in no way degrades anything or anybody. Why are girls constantly better-looking than men? Because of this fact. Why do most men have better minds, not better minds, but bolder minds, in a sense. They are more aggressive than women, as a rule, and because of that the married institution is still working out, and it will for a long, long time.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on February 23, 2015.
