Genesis 25:22-23, “And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If [it be] so, why [am] I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and [the one] people shall be stronger than [the other] people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”
I remember studying Greek mythically in college and reading about the King Abas of Argos, whose wife, Ocalea, bore him two twin sons Proetus and Acrisius. The legend says that even in the womb they fought each other and this rivalry carried on through childhood into adult hood. By one account Proetus acquired the throne of Argos but when he seduced Danae, Acrisius’s daughter and Proetus’s niece his twin brother rose up against him, removed him from the throne and exiled him. Eventually the brothers came to an understanding and the kingdom was divided into two and each served as king in their respective kingdom.
I remember thinking, “Now where have I heard this story before?” Oh yeah, in Sunday School only the characters had different names. Of course the Genesis account predates the Greek account so if anybody borrowed a nifty story line from anybody it would have had to be the Greeks ripping off the Hebrew.
What stands out in both stories is the idea of the twin brothers duking it out while in the womb. Do fetuses really have that much awareness that they can be in conflict? What have they to fight over other than a parking space?
The Talmud teaches that the unborn children did not fight each other but expressed their longings and desires. When Rebekah passed a place of worship to God the child Jacob in her womb became excited and reached out to worship God. When she passed a place of idols the child Esau started kicking up a rouse. I would not readily dismiss the Talmud’s teaching because the word struggle in Hebrew is a word whose root is rarely used in Hebrew and in a verbal form that is rarely used. It is the word ratsats and is found in a Hithpole form. I’ve only run across a Hithpole a couple times in my forty years of Classical Hebrew study. In fact you only learn about a Hithpole in an advance Hebrew study class, if it is even mentioned there. It is basically saying the verb should be reflexive and rendered in a passive form. The word ratsats comes from a Semitic root in the Canaanite language and has the idea of feeling a desire or reaching out. In the Hebrew if the word were found in a Piel form it would mean a struggle, desire or reaching out to do violence, but it is not in a Piel form. It is in a reflexive passive form and would mean the fetuses were sensing a desire and reaching out for something. Hence the ancient rabbis and sages tried to figure out what would create a sudden arousing of desire in the unborn Jacob and Esau. So they concluded that whenever Rebekah passed a place of worship the unborn Jacob when reach out to worship God and when they passed a place of idolatry the unborn Esau would reach out to the idols.
The study of DNA and genetics is a fairly new science and we are just learning some of the things that are passed down from generation to generation, through our DNA. Isaac Asimov once said that myth is only science which has yet to be discovered. I think maybe the Bible is giving us some clues as to what may soon be discovered in science, in this case in the study of DNA.
Look at Exodus 20:5 “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Could this be saying that our sinful behavior can be passed on genetically through our DNA to our children? We know that if a child’s parents were alcoholics that child has a good chance of becoming an alcoholic. Is it just the influence from early childhood or is this predisposition to addiction something that is genetically passed on? Science may one day prove this theory.
When Jesus died on the cross he conquered our genetic inclination to sin for the Bible teaches in Romans 5:12 that we inherited our inclination to sin from Adam. Was that a genetic transfer? Do we carry some of Adam’s DNA and genetic inclination to sin in us today? If it is then the death of Jesus on the cross can change that DNA. If our parents were involved in witchcraft, addiction, sexual sins, or any other abomination that may be written in our DNA that does not mean we are doomed to repeat the sins of our parents for God through the death of His Son Jesus Christ has the power to change the abomination written into our DNA. Such a change is the gift of God, it is our salvation that God rewrites the DNA passed down from Adam himself.
But let’s look at this another way. Suppose Esau carried a dominate strain of DNA from past idolatry in his family and Jacob carried the dominate strain of DNA of his grandfather Abraham’s love for God. Perhaps this is why God told Rebekah that the youngest, who would be Jacob, would rule over his brother and this is why that ancient sages teach that when Rebekah passed a place of worship the unborn Jacob ratsats or reached out to worship God.
If your parents were Godly or ungodly, Jesus through His death and resurrection has leveled the playing field. He has given us the chance for a clean slate, to change our genetic dispositions. Still, I was fortunate enough to have Godly parents. I recently purchased a book which showed life during WWII. I saw a picture of the Queen Mary being used as a troop ship. I felt as if I had once been on that ship, It’s corridors, its mess hall, its deck all look so familiar to me. I remembered my father telling me that he went overseas on that ship during WWII. Could those memories have been written into his genetic code and passed on to me? My mother would read the Bible while I was still in the womb. Could her memories be written into my genetic code? Could my parents love and devotion for God be written into my genetic code? Is this reason I have loved God all my life and through thick or thin somehow I have always maintained my firm foundation in God and remained anchored to the Rock? Maybe one day science will prove this, but in the meantime, it would not be a bad idea for a young couple to begin preparing to raise their children even before they are conceived by growing in their own love and devotion to God so they may pass this genetic Godly influence onto their children as maybe Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah passed it on to Jacob. If an Esau happens along with the ungodly traits, will Jesus took care of that DNA 2,000 years ago on the cross.
You know maybe there is more to Genesis 25:22-23 than we realize, maybe it is science that is yet to be discovered.
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