ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 19th of December
Saint Jacob, Patriarch, is commemorated on December 19 and October 6.
In the year of the world 2168 (1836 BC), when the patriarch Isaac was 60 years old, his wife Rebekah bore him twins: Esau, who is also known as Edom, from whom the Edomites or Idumeans descended. He was nicknamed Edom (which means red) because of his reddish color and the equally reddish lentil porridge (mentioned in Genesis 25:30), and Jacob, who was later also called Israel, who is the immediate progenitor of the Israelite people. Even in the womb, the two brothers fought with each other, and when Rebekah inquired of the Lord about this, she received the answer that there were actually two peoples in her womb, and that the older would serve the younger (Genesis 25:22, 23). At the birth itself, Jacob held Esau's heel (Hebrew: akeb), which is why he was named Jacob, meaning heel-holder, while the older son was given the name Esau because he was hairy. (Verse 25) As they grew up, Esau became a hunter, and Isaac loved him because he ate of his livestock; but Rebekah loved Jacob, because he was a quiet person who spent his time at home in the tents. (Verses 27, 28)
Since Esau was born immediately before his brother Jacob, he was considered the firstborn, and therefore also had the right of primogeniture, which consisted in the primacy of judicial and priestly power, as well as in a double inheritance. This right, however, Esau sold, as St Paul reprimands (Heb. 12:16, 17), to his brother Jacob for a lentil porridge (25:29-34), and this may also be one reason why the latter was less reluctant when his mother persuaded him to introduce himself as Esau to his blind father and thus obtain from him the blessing of the birthright (Gen. 27:1-40). Esau, who had already caused his parents much annoyance because of his association with Hittite women (26:34-35), received less from his father, but later, like Jacob, acquired much through his own efforts. However, he was no longer considered the head of the family clan, a privilege that had passed to Jacob by God's decree. Esau was so enraged by this loss of the birthright, which he had largely caused himself, that he hated his brother Jacob, called him a "treacherous man," and intended to kill him. When Rebekah learned of this, she advised Jacob to flee to her brother Laban in Haran in Mesopotamia. (27:42 ff.) Since Isaac also demanded that he go to his uncle Laban and take one of his daughters as his wife, Jacob, at the age of 77, travelled from Beersheba to Haran. (28:1 ff.)
On the way there, near the city of Luza, he saw in a dream a ladder standing on the ground, its top touching heaven. Angels of God ascended and descended, and above stood the Lord God, who repeated to Jacob the promise already given to Abraham and Isaac, that He would bless him and through him (i.e., through his numerous descendants), all the nations of the earth, etc. Thereupon, Jacob built an altar there and named the place Bethel (i.e., House of God), which name the city of Luza also received, etc. (verses 11–22). When Jacob was already close to Haran, he met a daughter of Laban named Rachel at a well. He revealed himself to her as his cousin. She then led him to her father, who welcomed him with joy and, after a month, asked him what wages he desired for his services as shepherd of his flocks. Jacob replied that he would serve him for seven years in exchange for his younger daughter Rachel. When these were over, Laban gave him his elder daughter, Liah, using the excuse, in response to Jacob's complaint, that it was not customary in his place to marry the younger daughter before the older. However, after eight days, he also gave him Rachel as his wife, on the condition that he serve him for another seven years. (29:1-30) When these 14 years were over, Jacob wanted to return to his homeland; but Laban begged him to stay, and as his reward, a relatively small portion of the herds was set aside for him at his request. Laban tried to deceive him, but Jacob outwitted him, so that a large herd fell to him. (30:25 ff.)
Because he now realized that Laban was no longer well-disposed towards him, and especially because God had commanded him to return to his homeland, he secretly set out on his return journey six years later, taking with him his wives, children, servants, maids, and flocks. Laban pursued him, but eventually made peace with him in Galaad, and so they parted as friends. (31:1 ff.) As Jacob approached his homeland, he was seized with a great fear of his brother Esau, who menacingly advanced towards him with 400 men. Jacob prayed fervently to the God of Abraham and Isaac, and the following night the Lord appeared to him in the form of an unknown man who wrestled with him until dawn and allowed himself to be subdued by him, as a sign that he had nothing to fear from Esau or from human hostility in general. Before the Lord blessed him and departed, He gave him the nickname Israel, meaning Warrior of God, because he had wrestled with God. Jacob, however, called the place Phanuel, meaning Face of God, because he had seen God face to face. From then on, however, he limped because the Lord had touched the tendon of his hip during the fight, and it quickly withered. (32:1 ff.) Soon after, his brother Esau arrived, to whom Jacob had already sent gifts, and received him very kindly, so that they parted amicably.
Jacob first went to Socoth, then to "Salem, the city of the Shechemites, which is in the land of Canaan." He lived for a time near this city, "built an altar there and called on the name of the mighty God of Israel." (33:1 ff.) After his sons had caused him great pain because of their cruelty to the Shechemites (34:1 ff.), he moved on at God's command to Bethel, where he had previously seen the ladder to heaven and where he now built an altar to the Lord, as he had previously promised (28:22). Here God appeared to him again, confirmed his name Israel, and repeated to him the promise that He would give this land to him and his descendants, etc. From there he moved on again and came "in the springtime to the land that leads to Ephrathah." Here, Rachel bore him her second son, but died as a result of the difficult birth. She had previously named this son "Benoni," meaning "son of my sorrow," because of the pain she had endured during childbirth, while Jacob called him Benjamin, meaning "son of my right hand." Rachel, however, "was buried by the road that leads to Ephrathah, which is Bethlehem." Jacob then "came to his father Isaac at Mambre, to the city of Arbee, which is Hebron, where Abraham also lived." Not long afterward, Isaac died and was buried by his sons Esau and Jacob. (35:1 ff.)
Jacob's sons were twelve, in order of their birth: First, Liah bore him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; then Bala, Rachel's maid, Dan, and Nephtali; then Zephah, Liah's maid, Gad, and Asher; then Liah bore Issachar and Zebulun, and also a daughter named Dinah; and finally Rachel bore Joseph.
These eleven sons were born to him in Mesopotamia, Rachel bore Benjamin, the twelfth (see above) in the land of Canaan. These sons certainly caused their father much sorrow; the greatest, however, was the loss of his beloved son Joseph, whom his brothers, out of envy, had sold to Madianite merchants, while telling their father that a wild beast had torn him to pieces. But God had watched over Joseph; he had become Viceroy of Egypt, and as such generously supported his family with grain. Later, at Pharaoh's command, he also gave him and his family the small country of Geshen as their place of residence, so that now, including him and all his sons and grandchildren, there were 70 people in Egypt, where he lived for another 17 years (47:28). When he felt the end of his life approaching, he made his son Joseph swear that he would have him buried in the tomb of his ancestors, then adopted Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasses, blessed them, then announced to his own sons the fate of the 12 tribes of which they were to become bearers, prophesied especially to Judah that the sceptre would not depart from him until the Messiah came (49:10), and then died in 1689 BC at the age of 147.
After the 70-day mourning period was over, Joseph and his brothers, accompanied by a large retinue, brought their father's embalmed body to Canaan and solemnly buried him in the double cave near Mambre, which Abraham had purchased from the Hittite Ephron, and where Abraham lay with Sarah, and Isaac with Rebekah, and where Jacob was now also buried with Liah (50:13).
Like Isaac, Jacob was in many respects a type of the Messiah; but it would take too long to list all these relationships here. Only a few things should be noted: Jacob was the blessed son and heir, yet, according to his father's will, he left his house and went to Laban in poverty, whom he served for a long time in voluntary servitude, after which he returned to his homeland rich. Even the only-begotten Son of God, according to the will of the Father, left his glory, took on the form of a servant, served in poverty for a long time on earth, and then returned to heaven as victor over death and hell and as head of his numerous church.
Jacob had covered himself with the skin of a kid when, as Esau, he received the blessing from the Father; the Son of God had covered Himself with the sins of humanity in order to erase them and bestow upon us the blessing of the Heavenly Father. Even if what Rebekah and Jacob did here cannot be humanly justified, God nevertheless turned the evil into good here too by taking it from the indifferent Esau, who did not sufficiently respect his birthright, and giving it to the better suited Jacob, who thus became the bearer of the promises and the immediate progenitor of His chosen people, who received from Him the title Israelites, later, after his son Judah, the name Jews, and from whom finally came the promised Messiah, through whom all of us, too, were adopted as "children of Abraham" and raised to "Israelite dignity".
Although the Patriarch Jacob, like Isaac, is not formally venerated as "saint" and is not listed in the Roman Martyrology*, there is no doubt that he is in heaven as a saint, since Christ Himself says that His chosen ones will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11).
Since the Bollandists*, in their work, only included those saints of the Old Testament who are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology*, the Patriarch Jacob is not specifically listed by them. However, he is named among the praetermissi, namely on August 21 (IV. 399), where it is noted that in one calendar the commemoration of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is set for this day; then on October 6 (III. 259), where, according to Sollerius' Auctuarium at Usuard (June VII. 582), it is stated that the Deposition of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, (whose bodies were discovered in the church Ebron in Judah by the Latin canons of that church in 1120), is celebrated on October 6; finally on February 5 (I. 594), where it is reads that the Salisbury Martyrology of Richard Whitford lists the memorial of some saints of the Old Testament on February 5, namely Abraham and Sarah, Melchisedech and Lot, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and his wives Rachel and Liah, as well as his 12 sons and the two sons of Joseph, all of whom are described as "Saints".
Almost all of these are also mentioned in the Menaea of the Greeks on the Sunday before the birth of Christ, and although they are not mentioned individually (except for Abraham on October 9, and to which the Greeks also add Lot), they are mentioned together on December 19, which is also the day on which both the Bollandists* and the Greeks write about them, just as the patriarch Jacob is mentioned in the Elenchus* on December 19. In an addition to January 2 (I. 1084) it is said that among the relics brought to Prague by Emperor Charles IV are also those of the holy patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In Church art, Jacob is represented in his various circumstances, either sleeping under the ladder to heaven, or wrestling with the angel, or blessing Ephraim and Manasseh.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 3, Augsburg, 1869, pp. 90-93. -Illustration by Owen Jones from "The History of Joseph and His Brethren", Day & Son, 1869)
*A hagiography source used by the authors
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Jacob may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org
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