Rachel Laban and the Household gods In Genesis 31, we are told the story of how Jacob receives word from the Lord to gather his wives, children, servants and livestock and leave Haran to go back to Canaan (it wasn’t Israel yet). Jacob briefly consults with his wives Rachel and Leah and they both agree that he should do as the Lord says. Rachel then goes into her father Labans house and takes what in Hebrew are referred to as Teraphim (תְּרָפִים) which is translated to mean household idol or idols. When her father Laban returns home from shearing his sheep he finds the idol(s) gone and sets of after his son in law and daughters. When he catches up with them, he makes a great fuss with Jacob over the teraphim and searches the whole camp for them. Rachel hides them under her on her saddle and tells her father she is menstruating in order to keep her from finding them. The question is this: Why such a fuss over an idol? For years Bible scholars, theologians and historians debated this question Teraphim themselves were often cast from silver, gold or bronze depending on the wealth of a family and often had great monetary value based on composition and size. The household idols would have an even greater value to Rachel and her family though, one that goes into the laws and customs of the land they lived in. Legal documents from Sumer and Akkad have recently shed light on this question. In Mesopotamian legal tradition the possessor of the teraphim was considered to be the legal heir of the estate. The household idol would be stamped with the family seal on the bottom or the back depending on size and construction. Before a family patriarch passed away in ancient Haran, would give the household idols to the executor of his estate and the executor would then be considered the legal inheritor of his property and be responsible for distributing any additional inheritances. By the time they left Haran, Rachel had watched Laban, her father, lie to Jacob, her husband, and cheat him out of money and livestock numerous times. She no longer trusted her father, and thus, by taking the teraphim, Rachel made sure that either her husband or sons could lay legal claim to her father’s estate, in case Laban reneged on his agreements again, and the rest of her family would have nothing to say about the matter. Unfortunately for Rachel, taking of the household idols was the wrong thing to do. To be continued…
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:54:49 +0000
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