Did Esau get jewed?

Question

Esau was a skilled hunter, known for his brute strength as well as for being particularly hairy. Jacob, on the other hand, was cunning. He snagged his brother's birthright by being crafty and deceitful, rather than demanding it at the point of a sword. And it was Jacob, not Esau, who changed his name to Israel and became the first official Jew.

What does it mean to get 'jewed'? Which of Isaac's sons reminds you more of a 'Shylock'? If Esau had become Israel instead, would Jews be sterotyped as athletes, rather than money lenders?

Obviously this is just a stereotype, and no more accurate than the one about Africans being good at sports, or Asians being good at math. Anyone who actually thinks these are valid seriously needs to get out more.

Never the less, the stereotype does exist. Which do you suppose came first, the stereotype or God's preference for Jacob?

Answer 1

The chicken. Actually not many people know this, but Esau was a tall black man, which would have really screwed things up, making jews like chicken, and being good at sports. Making Africans actually white, and bad with math, and Asians would have had big noses.

Answer 2

How could it be any other way than God choosing Jacob and then the stereotype coming along millenia later as a response to prejudice and hatred? Your mention of Shylock is a case in point- Jews had been expelled from England centuries before Shakespeares time and there is no way that he could ever have met and interacted with a Jew- Shylock is the purest example of prejudice and stereotyping around!

And Jews became Moneylenders BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH! They were forced into it by the Church since no Christian was allowed to lend money to another with interest, and very few were charitable enough to lend at zero interest! And being the medieval world's bankers got the Jews expelled and persecuted- usually around the time a local ruler was going bankrupt and didn't want to repay his loans- much easier to expel the Jews, confiscate their property (with the collusion of the Church that agreed with such actions and got a hefty percentage of the takings) than to live up to his reponsibilities!

Answer 3

I think that god made Jacob become Israel, but if it was Esau, it would still be the same old stereotype.

In the middle ages, Jews were commonly bankers. There were a lot of them, and they were favored because they could lend money on Sunday. Because of this, they dominated the banking like black people dominate football right now.

That's how we get the Jew banker AND the black athlete stereotypes.

Answer 4

I believe that Esau willing gave up his birthrights for a bowl of lentils
im not sure you can call it crafty
maybe the beans were really really really good
or maybe the birthright "wasnt worth beans" to Esau

in any case, G-d called jacob by the name Israel

Answer 5

Jews were bankers and lenders because laws at the time forbid them to own land. Since farming and raising animals was the main source of income for people, Jews had no choice but to become bankers, since they could not farm food or animlas they could only trade money.

Answer 6

It could have been either way. When people want to stereotype someone (for their own selfish reasons), they will always come up with some "unimpeachable" reason." Notice it's always "God talking." If God really said everything people give him credit for, he would have to be a biased and bigoted blowhard. That's a little hard to believe, so evidently someone is twisting what God supposedly "says."

Answer 7

If you are a seller, and a buyer offered you much less than you asked and you except it, you got jewed. If you go to buy a car, a friend may say, try to jew them down. See if you can get them to take less. Dig? The rest, I could care less about.

Answer 8

Two points;
! it was God's choice
2 God changed his name to Israel.

Answer 9

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