BibleProject - God's Response to Human Power Structures – Firstborn E1

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

In ancient Near Eastern societies, firstborn sons were prized above all other children and inherited special privileges and authority simply because of their birth order. In this episode, Tim and Jon start a new theme study covering the theme of the firstborn. Spoiler alert: The God of the Bible opposes lots of human ideas about power, and the privilege of the firstborn is no exception. Again and again, we’ll see Yahweh picking younger siblings and people we wouldn’t expect to be his chosen representatives.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-21:51)Part two (21:51-37:16)Part three (37:16-52:27)Part four (52:27-1:09:34)Referenced ResourcesZondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Clinton E. ArnoldInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS"Find Yourself" by Blue Wednesday and juniorodeo"Green Valley Trail" by Ruck P"Passing Storm" by Thomas Prime and ModeratorShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Why do some people have more power than others? Why do kings pass on their power to their oldest sons? What makes one person more eligible to be in charge than another person? And does power always correct? We are beginning a new theme study here on the podcast. It's a theme we're calling the first board. And it's really a theme about, well, who gets to be in charge, who gets to have power, and

how will they use it? The idea appears in the first pages of the Bible connected to the phrase image of God. You could argue this is one of the dominant themes of Genesis. In terms of the New Testament, the first born is a title ascribed to Jesus, multiple places in the New Testament, in the letters of Paul, two times, in the letter to the Hebrews, and in the last book of the Christian Bible, the Revelation. So it goes from end to end,

and it's kind of like once you see how the theme works, then you can't unsee it, you just start to see it everywhere. I'm a firstborn child in my family, and while I got to do a lot of things first, among my siblings, I wasn't really given a special position or privilege in my family because of birth order. But in the ancient world, being the first born son was extremely special.

The first born was meant to carry on the family legacy to receive a double portion of inheritance. They're given the unique authority and power of the family legacy to receive a double portion of inheritance. They're given the unique authority and power of the family. And really, this is all just a main theme in Genesis about humans discerning good and bad. The basic human assumption, when it comes to the good and bad and the future of the family, is that the first born son should be elevated overall.

And sometimes, what these humans do to put a sun in that position of firstborn, or to produce that firstborn, causes pain and grief and division and abuse. And so what God is constantly doing is subverting and overturning human assumptions about power and privilege. As we unpack this theme, we're going to see he frequently picks the second born or the late cover. He picks the less likely, the oppressed, the overlooked, and he chooses them to be the leader.

Spoiler, the God portrayed in the Bible consistently, and by consistently meaning in almost every generation is overturning and inverting this cultural assumption that the first born should have the right to the father's authority or priority. Today Tim McE and I begin the theme of the first born. I'm John Collins, you're listening to Bible Project Podcast. Thanks for joining us. Here, in real time, yeah, in real time for us, it's been a while. Yeah, but it might be that this also is the first to come out. That's right. Since our whole movement, yeah, reading through the Torah and movements.

Right. Yeah, we talked to earlier, it's first, yeah, five scrolls of the Hebrew Bible, which was awesome. Yeah, I was really enjoyed that. So, yeah, but what we're going to do in this series is dive into a theme, biblical theme, trace it from the first pages of the Christian Bible to the end. And it's all in prep connected to a theme video. We're going to be releasing at some point in the Bible project. Future for us. It might be past, but depending on when you're listening to this.

It's actually slotted to come out for Christmas. Oh, 22. Oh, sweet. Oh, okay, great. And when you say it, John, what is the it? What is the theme video that we're gonna be discussing? The theme video, you call it the first born. The first born.

Yes. The theme of the first born. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's a very, that's very kind of in the weeds geeky Bible idea. Yeah, it's maybe not the first thing that somebody would maybe think of as a like prominent theme that runs throughout the Bible. Yeah, but it is. Oh, but it is. You know, we've had some theme videos that feel pretty intuitive. You know, heaven and earth, you know, those two words are in the first line of the first

sentence of the Bible. Right. We've done ones on God, the Messiah. The Messiah, Holy Spirit. But then we've done ones that I think are important, they're like sleeper themes, where they're right there, they actually pervade everything, but they maybe don't come up in terms of being mentioned all the time. The image of God is like this. of being mentioned all the time. The image of God is like this. It's a phrase that is only used two times, two occasions in Genesis, and then a few times in the New Testament. But as we've discovered over the years, that idea underlies every single page of Scripture.

And the story of the Bible doesn't make a lot of sense without understanding that idea. So that's an example. Okay. Yeah. So first born is kind of like that. And actually, it's... Can it... It appears a lot more than the image you got, though. Oh, first born? That's true. Yeah. That's right. And actually, the idea of the first born is intimately connected to the theme of the image of God.

Cool. As we won't discover. Great. But, yeah. So the theme of the first born, it fits our categories for theame. It appears, the idea appears in the first pages of the Bible connected to the phrase, image of God. Okay. But then the idea of some sort of conflict over the status of the first born. Yeah, that's Cain Abel. Comes right to the surface and Cain Enable, though as we're going to see later in this conversation, that's actually

the second cycle of that theme, not the first. It appears the idea of the first born getting inverted or subverted or the rights or authority of a first born getting turned upside down, given to a younger sibling. You could argue this is one of the dominant themes of Genesis. Genesis. And it echoes throughout the rest of the Hebrew Bible. And then in terms of the New Testament, the first born is a title a scribe to Jesus, multiple places in the New Testament, in the letters of Paul, two times, in the letter to the Hebrews Hebrews and in the last book of the Christian Bible, the Revelation. So it goes from end to end. It does. And it's kind of like once you see how the theme works, then you can't unsee it. You just start to see it everywhere. So that's

at least why. I'm, I guess I'm making a case. You're making a case that it was a thing. Yeah, totally. Alright, I believe you. Yeah. I mean, you didn't have to try to convince me. But that's a good overview, I suppose. So first born, I think, at a first blush, for some reason for me, it might feel completely disorienting.

What are you talking about? But actually, from many cultures, it's really important. Yep. Who's the first born of the family? I'm a first born. Yes, you are. Yeah. I think I, so funny.

Yeah, some people are really into birth order. Yeah. Like it's one of the first things they ask when they meet somebody. Or, you know, is there getting to know somebody? Yeah. It's like my wife's like this. Oh, okay. If she's getting to know someone by the second or third conversation.

You're acting like a middle child. She wants to know. Totally. Yeah. third conversation, you're acting like a middle child. She wants to. Totally. Yeah. Or the first born. Or the third. Yeah. Third. I mean, there's a lot of, I don't know, family systems research that has gone.

Yeah. Gone into this, and there are like typical patterns, right? That shape the mentality and developing psychology of a human based on their birth order, right? I think I don't know. It must be. It must shape you in some way. Yes. Not to say always in the exact same way.

Yeah. I bet there's people listening to this conversation who could give us a lecture right now. On the other hand. So what you're naming aside from that is just that there is a cultural practice that pops up in human societies and cultural traditions throughout all of human history in all parts of where humans have ever been, of this practice, of the first born child. And in patriarchal cultures, the first born male child, the first born son, having a place of special honor in terms of responsibility, authority, maybe the future of the inheritance

or a state or wealth property of the family, and that the first born son bears some special role. From probably a majority of human history and a majority of places that was at play to some degree. Yeah. It's not like I said, I'm the first born in my family. Yes. And I had no special like, I wasn't treated differently. I didn't get a different status and heritage, whatever.

Like that's just not a normal thing in our culture. That's right. It doesn't matter. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and that has to do with the fact that you and I are in a culture that right now stands at the end of a long process of creating a whole new story about human identity and value and worth. That's not tied to how most human cultures have thought about these things for most of your history. So we're the outlier. If you think, well, at first, second, what does it matter? If that's your mindset approaching this topic, and that's my culture upbringing too, then

what that shows is that I'm a minority in human history and thinking about. So the biblical authors are writing in a context where it matters so much. Matters a lot. A lot. Yeah. In an interesting way though, because the biblical authors, not the way you would expect. But not the way you would expect. Yeah, they were spoiler, they're going to subvert the norm.

Yeah, spoiler. The God portrayed in the Bible consistently and by consistently meaning in almost every generation is overturning and inverting this cultural assumption that the first born should have the right to the father's authority or priority kind of well Yeah, in terms of human partners. Yeah, but then when you Probe a layer deeper and what you see coming out in the New Testament is the status of a firstborn is like baked into the structure of the universe. Okay. So anyway.

We're just spinning all around it. We are. Yeah. Okay, but we're just naming that this the technical term, if you look in biblical studies, theological literature, sociological literature is called the law of primo genitur, which is a Latin phrase, primo meaning first and genitur meaning like descendant offspring lineage. The first. This is Latin. Latin. Primo-tenitur.

The first of the offspring. The first of the first. This is Latin. Latin. Yeah. Premotentature. The first of the... The first of the offspring. Offers of the descendants. Yeah. We need a fancy Latin word just to make ourselves feel special. I'm just saying, like, if you start looking for this theme described by biblical scholars and theologians, the phrase is the law of Premot genitour.

But that's it. The practice that a firstborn son is somehow a special, unique representative of the father. This is a patriarchal institution in male dominant cultures that the firstborn son by natural right assumes the responsibility, authority, and representation of the father as well as power, authority, and the future of the estate. So it's against that cultural backdrop that the biblical story is going to just, from

the first pages, start just doing twists and turns and inversions. And the shock factor of all those inversions won't really land unless you get that basic cultural assumption that's in the background. Should we start there then? Should we start with trying to be sympathetic with that cultural assumption? Okay. Yeah. Sure.

We can also problematize it a little bit, because as I looked into this topic, especially in an ancient Near Eastern cultural background, things were a little more complicated. Okay. Sure. Yeah. You want to lead us how to do the imagination. Well, you know, we gotta imagine you're living in a culture where your security

and your well-being all depends on your family structure. Yeah, right? Sure. You don't have some other employer, you know, that can, how you have like, stock with or retirement pension plan with. You don't have the government have with us some sort of safety net. Like, you have your family. Yeah, your family is your present and future web of safety. Yeah. Instability. Yeah, that's right. That is how most human societies have operated for most of human.

And when it comes to then, how is the family going to continue to work generation after generation? Who's going to lead the family? Then there has to be someone who's responsible for making sure the family's taken care of and basically becomes the little king of the of this tiny tribe, I suppose. Yeah, yep. Which is often, in most cultures, a patriarch. Yeah, you know, it's interesting to think about those that, and this is where I don't know,

because the biblical story doesn't take place in or it wasn't written in a time when humans were in hunter-gatherer stage. It was during the agricultural stage. Yeah, yeah, so it's kind of the assumed state of the ideal state of a family within the biblical story is settled on the land that is abundant with an extended family that provides safety stability in order.

So what I don't know is whether something like the law of the firstborn, the practice of elevating the firstborn, if that held in previous stages of human society building like a hunter-gatherer's. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. That's interesting. No, well, I mean, from the very little I've heard, it sounds like there was less of a sense of ownership of things. Everything just was a lot more shared in hunter-gatherer communities. Yeah, that's right, yeah.

Yeah, it's not about, yeah, your family identity wealth production isn't necessarily tied to a piece of land. Yeah, you actually don't, yeah, you don't own land, you're moving around. Yeah. Everything's shared. Yeah. There's not a lot to inherit or disinherit. Yeah.

You just kind of like everyone's helping each other. Okay. Can ship. It's almost like everyone's part of like, if you're in the tribe, you're in the family. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. But I don't know a ton. Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting. Well, side trail. Yeah. to flag. But in the biblical story and the cultural background of the biblical authors where that all takes place, it's the biblical authors in Israel, this is Israelite literature, their first place of existing was in the land,

Federation of Tribes, in the settled agricultural life there. And that society was structured, yeah, patriarchally, in terms of like extended families and that with patriarchs. And then all of a sudden, who will carry the leadership and hold the security and property of the family through each generation. And here we come in to why the law

were the practice of the first born, how it fits in terms of a structure of a family and a society. And I'm sure it depended actual benefits of a first born probably changed from generation like different times of human history even within Israel I suppose. But was there a general kind of rule of like the first born gets like a double portion? Yeah, this, yeah, so this is debated.

Okay. Because our ancient evidence is very thin actually. But sorry, just one more note before we do that. Just children in general play a different role in cultural imagination in that kind of society, because children are also producers and protectors of family wealth, farm hands. Like they're your first laborers to help you. And so having large families is a sign of abundance and adds to your security, the more children, the more abundance and security that there is. And so there's something

about the first of those. And you know, maybe here we can jump out of trying to sympathetically imagine in ancient context. And actually just think of like, if you grew up going to school and at recess and you're picking teams, like who gets picked first? Something, yeah, there's something about being first or just lining up for something. I'll do my kids right at this all the time. They wanna be first in whatever line it is,

even if it's only three people. Even it's just my two boys. It's like a big deal who's in the front. And I'm constantly, you know, trying to talk with them about this. Like, it doesn't matter. But to them, it does. There's something innate within them that being first, there's something primal to how humans imagine the world

that being first is somehow. Okay, I get that. It feels good to be chosen first in kickball. I get that. I don't fully get the like, I need to be first in line. Like mom comes out to hand out popsicles. I gotta be first. Yeah. Well, you really? That's just like, I want mine before somebody else. I want it now. That's the idea. I want it now. And if I'm second, then I get...

I might not get the flavor I want. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's primal. So, but keep going on your team. Well. You're saying for you, that was really even as a kid, you don't remember thinking that that was important.

I can't remember feeling that was that important. Yeah, I think because it's so, once you get socialized... I probably just don't remember feeling that was that important. Yeah, I think because it's so once you get socialized. I probably just don't remember. Yeah. But there was definitely a concern of like, I don't want to be too far in the back of the line we're going to miss out. Yes, okay.

But you know, for me actually, the first also comes with a little pressure. I'm like, you can't see anyone, like how are they gonna handle this? Yeah, yeah, sure. Like maybe I can learn something from that. How the first person deals with this. This is your first born, right, position in your family.

Well, yeah, because that's first born and there is a trail blazing aspect of being the first born in a family. Yeah, yep. And so when I was outside of the context of the family, it felt nice to kind of like be like, oh, someone else, you go first. I'm gonna see how you handle this.

That's interesting, yeah? I get that. I was a second born in my family, and I learned a lot by observing my sister. I learned a lot. It definitely informed how I thought about my behavior and my decisions, my family. So okay, in- sorry, I'm bringing this up.

I'm just trying to say, there's something primal and there's something I think fairly universal in human nature that there's a desire to be first and that there's some sense that the first either gets the thing first or there's a place of importance. I don't know. There's also something really special about if you're a parent having your first child. It represents the beginning of your family in a way. And kind of the proof of like, we can do this. We can have kids.

And there's so much joy and there's something so special about that first moment with your first child. And then you have to retrain yourself and you learn when you have another kid, like this kid is just a special because they're completely different. But there's something about the first and I think in a culture where like now

you're dependent on your kids. Like it would just kind of make sense to be like, man, this first child, yeah, yeah, like deserves. Yeah, yeah, he's here first. Yeah, you know, there may also be something to the fact just chronologically, that's the child that will develop first. Oh, yeah. And become an adult first.. And become an adult first.

Yeah, become an adult first and therefore have the ability to like share the adult responsibilities first. Very practical. Yeah, that's a more practical observation here. Yeah. So here's what's interesting is that this definitely was a practice in ancient Near East surrounding the biblical authors in the time of the Bible. So there's actually only one law in the Torah in Deuronomi that addresses it explicitly,

and it's interesting. So this is in Deuronomi chapter 21, verse 15 through 17, and this law is going to make your ears ring with the story of Jacob and Esau and of Jacob's wise Rachel and Leia from Book of Genesis. So if a man has two wives, so, the polychemy was common, a certain phase of internear shinn culture, if a man has two wives, and the one is loved, and the other unloved.

And let's say both the loved and the unloved wives bear him sons. If the first born son, that's the chronologically first one, is the son of the unloved wife. Then it will be, in the day that he wills what he has to his sons. He can't. Oh, and Lincoln Herrits, or when he gives it to the Herrits. Passes, yeah, yeah. The position of the first born to take over the authority of the family, and take responsibility for wealth or property or whatever. The patriarch cannot make the son of the loved wife, the first born, before the son of the

unloved, who is the actual first born. Just because you have a favorite wife, like your first born is your first born. Yep. But he shall acknowledge the first born, that son of the unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his power to him belongs the right of the firstborn. So there's actually a lot of fascinating things. But it's clear this is in the backdrop of an assumption that first of all there's somehow this law of primo genitor, the right of the first born here, so the Hebrew word

bechorah. Oh yeah, sorry, let's language here. So Hebrew, the word first born is bechor and it comes from the verb bachar, which is the verb to produce the first child and it's actually this verb. There's a verb for to produce a first child. The first offspring and it's a verb used of plants, animals and humans. Like a wheat stock. Like a first head of grain. Yes, first head of grain. Yeah, an animal. We don't have a word for this. Do we? No, the closest would be adopting a King James ism from this word, which is the first fruits. First fruits. Yeah. Oh, that's a noun. This is a verb. Oh Oh yeah, a verb to produce your first seed.

Yeah, there's no verb. Yeah, that counts for plants, animals and humans. Or even counts for either any of them. Right, what would you say? Hmm, the first fruiting? Well, you could say that calf was that cow's first born. But that's, oh, but for a verb, I understand.

Oh, okay. A bear a first born. Yeah, there's a verb, I understand to bear a first born. Yeah, there's a specific verb. So here, we're back into agricultural context. You know it's important when they have a verb for. A specific verb for bearing the first person. And you know, we've gone very far from how they view it. Well, we don't have a verb for.

Okay, there you go. Thank you. Thanks for being persistent on that. I see your point and it's a very good one. No, it's true. That's exactly right. The Choir. The Choir.

Yep. Erdo, Bacar. Bacar is the very... Produce, produce a first born. Yep. Yeah, the first. And again, it can be used a first plant. Or a first fruit.

Or a first fruit. Yeah. The first of the produce. Yeah, let's not forget that again, given the agricultural context of the Hebrew Bible, that there's a deep analogy between the ground and the womb, and therefore between seed, like male reproductive seed, the fluid, and seeds that go into the ground, there's deep analogy there, and then of the fruit of that union between seed and ground, which is fruit in the plant form or in the animal form, in the human form, the fruit of

the womb. Yep, or the fruit of the ground. So there's the deep analogy in the biblical imagination between those two, and that's where this that's in. Isn't that interesting? It is interesting. Yeah. I have a hunch that in English there might be a verb in agricultural dingo. Mmm. Mmm.

It's just we wouldn't know it. Oh, interesting. For the plants. A plant's first. First fruit. Fruit. Yeah. Like, when a tree has its first fruit or a vine, there might be a verb for that.

Maybe. Yeah. Someone knows. It might be a verb for that. The Greek word, use of the New Testament, that is the title of Jesus, as we'll see in a little bit, is the Greek word, it's a compound word, protocos. Protocos. Protocos. Compound, Proto, first, and Tokos, which is one who is born. Proto. Proto-tokos. First born. Yeah. Yeah.

Fairly straightforward. So Proto-tokos was the Greek word used in the Sep2 agent. The first translation of the Hebrew Bible, which was into Greek. To translate Bacar. To translate these Hebrew words, yep, the noun Bacor, and the verb Bacar. And then it was adopted into Greekified Judaism, called Hellenistic Judaism, and then into the New Testament. Wait, say that again, Greekified Judaism. Oh, Hellenistic Judaism, which is the fruit of after Greek culture

married with every other culture in the nation world after Alexander the Great, but instead of calling it Hellenistic, I said first Greekified. Greekified, because that's what it is. And what happened during... Oh, well, a desigian thing's happened. I mean, but particular to this word. Oh, for this word is that the Hebrew Bible and the way it's language reflects the view of reality was,

what do you say, tuned to a Greek cultural key in the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Okay. And that became the predominant Bible of Greek speaking Jews throughout the ancient world, throughout the diaspora and the second temple period. And Jesus and all of his first followers and the authors of the New Testament were the product of that Greek plus ancient biblical Hebrew marriage of... I'm really fascinated and dive deeper into that.

Yeah, it's a fascinating topic. But it's all about culture, how language is a reflection of an assumed cultural way of viewing reality. So they were reading the Hebrew Bible in Greek as their primary source. Many people were. Many people who was bilingual. OK.

But just the point is that the Hebrew Bible was tuned to a Greek key, as it were, once Hellenistic culture, you know, just reshaped the world. And the New Testament is the product of that marriage. Right. What's not a product only of that marriage is a lot of other things. But the language and imagery used in the New Testament is not just Hebrew Bible, fast forward a couple hundred years. It's Hebrew Bible tuned to the key of Hellenistic language and culture and thought, which is what makes the New Testament so rad, because it's like the ultimate cross-cultural experience.

Oh, it understands. Wow. I can tell. That's a new territory for us. We're looking at a rabbit hole, a deep, deep rabbit hole in our conversation right now, and I can tell you're like, well, part of the reason is, I've been thinking a lot about the soul.

Oh, yes. And I've been realizing that, like there's something that happened when Hebrew Bible was Greekified. Yep. And is it that the idea developed, or it's just they got new language to talk about the same things

they were always kind of talking about? It's a great question. And yeah. Yeah, actually I learned a lot. I've learned a lot recently on a reading project I did. And I would love to talk about that more. So you. All right.

So I think have we sufficiently kind of explored this basic idea of this cultural background? So it's interesting. Oh, yeah, sorry. This was all a rabbit trail because we were talking about the law and dude Ronamy. Oh, yeah, the law dude Ronamy. Yeah, we didn't finish talking about that. So it's interesting about the law and dude Ronamy. 20 minutes later however long it was. Man has two wives. It really, so this is assumes the practice of elevating first-born son.

Yeah. The chronologically first son, if you're a polygamist family, family where a man has more than one wife. But what's interesting is that what the law is recognizing is that there will be situations where... We don't want to give the first born the right. The right of the first born will not be honored. It assumes that that happens. Okay. And so here's what's interesting, and this was new to me as I was learning about this topic,

is that in ancient Near Eastern literature, and so here I'm depending on a very helpful resource produced or edited, overseen by John Walton, who we've interviewed on the podcast before, he's a biblical scholar who really tries to make ancient Near Eastern cultural background more understandable, more accessible to normal Bible readers. So he oversaw the production of a whole commentary series called the Zondervin Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, the ZI BBC.

That's the book for me. It goes through the whole testament. And it will just go through every story and poem, giving you any relevant kind of cultural background stuff that you might not know, but that will illuminate or add some multi-dimensional color to many metaphors to the story. So on this law, commentary on this law on on Twitter, I was 21. He mentions that this law, a right of the first born, functioned in the ancient Near East, but not everywhere. Nor was it always observed, even though everywhere present. So he goes through the code of homerabi,

give some examples, ancient Assyrian laws, legal like documents from all these ancient Near Eastern cities, Mari and Newsy and Alilok. And what you find is there is a basic of some it's the same as a Hebrew Bible. There's a basic assumption that this practice of giving the first point son was the norm, but there were exceptions. And just like in the Hebrew Bible, there's a law addressing what if a dad wants to make an exception. There are also laws that do make exceptions, also down in Egypt, Babylon, and Syria.

But all the laws are usually little unique variations. So let's see, like in Egypt, he gives an example in Egypt in the middle kingdom, the law, primogenitor could be disregarded by a dying father. Property could be willed to a brother, or for example. So there's maybe the first born son is like incompetent, or maybe died, or who knows, we don't know. But the point is there's this law that states that, or cultural practice that your brother could stand in the place of the first born. So that's interesting.

But what the laws as a whole show is that it was a general practice, but that there were... And the general practice to be clear in that Deuteronomy passage was to give a double portion. That's right. Which means just twice as much as you give other people? Other kids. Yeah.

So let's say you have five kids. Yeah. I guess you would divide it up six ways. And then the first one gets two. The first one would get the double portion. That's the idea. Was that common in these other cultures too? Was it the double portion?

Uh-huh. Matality. Yeah, interesting. Do you think that changed? Well, here's what law says. So here's some ancient ancient laws called a collection of the laws of lipid ishtar, who is a king, which say that the inheritance of a father should go equally to the children of two wives. However, in homerobies code, the first wife's firstborn receives a preferential share. So that's like the law and do you run me? Yeah. Yeah. Although it's a little less concrete, what does that mean

that preferential share? Yeah, that's true. Yep. There was an ancient Eastern city of Mari, documents found where there's a legal decision recorded to grant a double portion to the natural firstborn son. Okay. That like the Land of the Rhyme. In the 15th century, BC, in the city of Newsy, where another legal collection was discovered, the same exact law is followed. The city of Ola-Lach on the Arante's River. There's a text that mentions a father who was aware of, but did not have to recognize the law of the first born in as well. where of but did not have to recognize the law of the first born in as well. So that's interesting. He could designate a first son, oh, he could designate a first son for inheritance purposes. Maybe that's saying he could pick

which son gets to get have the right of the first born. Yeah. So Sam text from the city of Amar is the son receives an extra share. So I think he's collected here a bunch of ones that are similar. But then when he sites examples from Egypt, it's different. A guy could name his brother. Egypt thinks different. Or their entire family could just be the trustee in the New Kingdom era. In the New Kingdom era. He says the oldest son was the expected heir But the whole family or an appointed trustee. Yeah, could become the heir So maybe for some reasons unique to Egypt the institution of the practice said Became less important it developed. Yeah. Yeah, I bet there's a whole rabbit hole down there Neo-Babylonian laws the sons of a first wife received two-thirds.

Two-thirds? Of the inheritance, while the sons of the second wife received one-third. Okay. The sons who were of different status might fare differently. So you get the feel like, okay, this was known. There's a general sense. Yes. The first born should get more.

And then from that kind of agreed upon Yes status quo. Yeah, there's variations on yes, then what flexibility is there. Yeah So a lot more digging in details we could do, but we got the general portrait. Like what is this practice? And that it was widespread in the ancient Near East, and that it's the general assumed backdrop of the biblical story. However, so this is a pivot, it's the new step in our conversation right now. When you get to the actual story, the biblical story that begins in Genesis, one of the most dominant themes in Genesis is how God, the creator God, is constantly subverting and inverting this practice of elevating the first born by God elevating or choosing

or blessing or foregrounding the younger siblings over the actual first born at like every level of the story. Happens over and over and over and over. Yeah, that's right. So you mentioned Cain and Abel earlier. Yeah, Cain's the first born, Abel's second born. God favors Abel's offering instead of Cain's. That's right. So you mentioned Cain and Abel earlier. Yeah, Cain's the first born, Abel's second born, God favors Abel's offering instead of Cain's. That's right. And immediately you should be thinking like, why? Why?

Whatever this second born. Yeah. And while the story may or may not provide some details about why, I think the story does give little clues. But all that say is, it's the first time that happens between siblings. Later, when you get to the descendants of Noah, and Noah has three sons, Sham, Ham, and Japheth, or Sham, Ham, and Yafat, what's interesting is that ordering of their names is not their birth order. The first born, the older is Yafat, Japheth. And then there's ambiguity about the birth order of Shem and Ham. It seems likely that it was Yafat then Shem then Ham.

That's interesting. Ham was the youngest of the three, which might explain the thing that he did in the tent. Who did the thing in the tent? Ham. Ham does some scandalous thing in a tent with his dad looking on his dad's nakedness. And if he is the third born, that actually kind of helps make sense of what he's doing. He's trying to jump ahead in line.

Oh, the family line. It happens again with Abraham and his brothers. And this isn't a big narrative. So wait, there was. Who gets the blessing? Yeah, that's right. Shem is the one who's blessed. And it said that Yahweh, the creator God, is going to come and dwell in the tents of Shem.

Okay. So Yahweh chooses the second or third born of God. Yahweh chooses to associate himself in his presence and his name with Shem, who's not the first born. Okay. Second time, God chooses a clear, late comer. That's right. When you get through the lineage of the biblical story,

it goes through Shem, and it traces to a guy named Tarach, who has three sons, Nachhwar, Haran, and Avraham. And there, God chooses and blesses and elevates, Three sons, Nachor, Haran, and Avraham. And there God chooses and blesses and elevates, like Shem, the younger son Abraham over his older brothers. Okay. And then one of those older brothers has a son named Lot. And Lot goes with Abraham to the land of Canaan and then that causes all kinds of

homes. Abraham's older brother has a son lot. Yeah. And if he has, then nephew. It's nephew comes with, but what a lot represents is the family of his older brother. And so the tension between lot and Abraham. It's kind of like a sibling rivalry in a way. It is. Yeah, it is about that sibling rivalry.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yep. Then Abraham takes two wives. That's a whole story. We've talked about many times in the past. Hegar, who is a slave, but that he marries. So then he has two wives, Sarah, and Hegar. And it's Hegar who has the first born son, Ishmael, and then Sarah bears Isaac, and the blessing goes to Isaac, not to ishmael. That continues with Isaac's two sons, where the first born is Issa, second born is Jacob. And this one, like, the volume's really turned up, I feel like. The whole narrative of the tension between Issa and Jacob really focuses in. In fact, it's the story where the word first born

and the now the right of the first born is used for the first time. And there are twins. So like, the status is like mere minutes. Minutes, yeah, totally, yeah, that's right. And so it's like this, yeah. And it's the theme of the birth story because Jacob comes out grabbing.

And his brother, as if the birth story, because Jacob comes out grabbing. Yeah, that's right. And his brother, as if, you know, from birth, he's trying to get that position that his brother has. And it turns out that's a position that God has destined him for. Yeah. Is to have the position of the first born, even though he's not chronologically the first born.

So it's interesting. And obviously not like a guy with so much character that like, No, he's terrible. That God should give him the first born, because you're not the first born. So it's interesting. And obviously not like a guy with so much character that like, no, he's terrible. That God should give him the first born because you're not the first born, but he got so much. Yeah, promise. So much potential. Jacob. No, the whole point of the Jacob story is to show that yeah, he's snake snakey. Snake like from the start. Grab that heel. So there's a sibling rivalry in inversion of the first born, but then what's interesting is that you go another layer

deep. It's like in inception, that movie inception, inversion of the first born, within an inversion of the first born, because then the story of Jacob and his two wives also becomes a story of inverted first born, because Jacob falls in love with a woman who is the second born. Her name's Rachel. He meets her at a well, you know, it's a great scene. And he wants to marry her and his dad, Levan, says absolutely.

And then he pulls a fast one on him. And gives his firstborn daughter. Yeah, who's Leia and so Rachel is the loved Leia is the unloved sexual the wording and so that law we wrote a red Deuteronomy is hyperlinking to that story exactly Yeah, and what the law is saying is here in Israel We're never gonna do what Jacob did, which is favor the sons of the left wife over the actual firstborn that came from the unloved wife.

So the most interesting is through those two wives and then their two slaves, Jacob produces a family of 12 sons and a daughter. And then the next cycle of Genesis is all about the rivalry in the inversion of the first born among the twelve brothers. Yeah. So now we have the twelve brothers who are going to become the twelve tribes.

Yep. And the standout brother of this whole story becomes Joseph. Yeah, among Rachel's sons with Jacob, it's Joseph becomes the favored one, and then among Leia's sons, it's the fourth born Judah that becomes the prominent one. And really the whole story is about this rivalry of Joseph and all his brothers, and then specifically this rivalry of Joseph and Judah.

And the actual first born Rubin, he's just left behind in the dust, as well as the second and third born Simeon and Levi. But the reason they're left in the dust is because each of them, and there's the narrative about each of them doing something really terrible that disqualifies them in the heads of their father. So that's interesting. So this is all through Genesis.

We just want all the different Genesis. Yeah, totally. It's like every turn that you would expect, well, the first point should be favored. Yeah. He's not. So, and how this fits in is that God is constantly subverting and overturning the natural human assumptions

about power and privilege. If the assumption is, the first born should have the power, should have the privilege, should have the authority, God saying like, well, maybe not. Yeah, and really this is all just a main theme in Genesis about good and bad humans discerning good and bad. And so the assumed idea is the basic human assumption when it comes to the good and bad

in the future of the family is that the first born son should be elevated overall. And sometimes what these humans do to put a son in that position of first born or to produce that first born causes problem. Causes pain and grief and division and abuse. And so what God is constantly doing is subverting and overturning human assumptions about power and privilege.

That's what all these inversions are about. And that's the main narrative theme throughout Genesis. And it just continues to echo throughout the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Moses and Aaron, for example. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Aaron's the firstborn. Is he? Aaron's the older brother. Oh, yeah. No way. Yeah. And so he's chosen for the role of the high priest, but the first thing, even before he steps into his job, he's leading the people into idolatry. And it's the younger brother who got elevates to the top of Mount Sinai and the intercedes and rescues for the people of Aaron's sons, Aaron has four sons and the

first two in their first day on the job in the tavern act. Oh, yeah. Do great, you know, violate protocol. And so God takes our lives and elevates the third born, Elazar, to the place of the honored son. This happens with, my favorite place, this motif gets explored is in the opening chapters of Samuel, with the story of Hannah, in the birth of Samuel. Because Hannah is married to this guy named Alcana,

and Alcana has another wife, Penina, and Penina has all these sons and is able to produce fruit of the womb, but Hannah cannot. But interestingly, Alkanah loves Hannah more, but Penina has the place of social prominence in the family because she can produce children. And so the whole story is about how God chooses and elevates and gives a special gift to Hannah over and above Penina. And then that is the gift of Samuel, her son, who she surrenders over to become a Nazarite,

to like a virtual high priest. And he lives in and around the temple. and then the actual high priest at the time Eli has these older sons who were like terrible guys and God elevates the little Samuel the little boy Samuel Who's not even I'll leave it. Yeah over the priestly line super cool story. Oh David yeah David is the youngest son. This one yeah, this one stands out to me. I wouldn't have thought of Moses. Hmm Samuel wouldn't have come to mind.

Hmm, but yeah David. David. This is the classic story of like he, I mean he's small and stature. Yeah. He's. Yeah, he's out in the field, taking care of the sheep. Yeah. Yeah.

And he's not even in the running at first. Yeah. And actually, the man, this is in 1 Samuel, chapter 16. The main point of the story is God tells the prophet to go to the house of this guy, who has a son, who am I going to elevate his king? And so in the story, such a great story. So in the story, Samuel, this is the Samuel the Prophet,

is told to go to the house of the sky, Jesse, the battle of the might, for I have seen for myself a king among his sons. So Samuel goes to his house and he has Jesse line up all his sons. This is great for Samuel 16, verse 6. And when the sons came, Samuel looked upon Eliov, the first born. And he thought, oh, surely the Lord's anointed one is now before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, don't look upon his appearance. Don't look at the height of his stature because this guy, Eliov.

Not the guy. Not the guy. For the Lord does not see as humans see. Humans look on the appearance of the outside, but the Lord looks on the heart. So then Jesse says, I'm okay, second born, come on up. Abinna dab. He makes him pass before Samuel. And Sam says, nope.

There's a classic storytelling here now. So then Jesse made third born, Shama passed by. Nope, Samuel says. Jesse made seven sons passed before Samuel. Then Samuel said to Jesse, no, none of these has Lord Chosen. Are these all your sons? And then Jesse says,

oh, well, there is the youngest. There's the runt. The runt. And he's the one. So it's clearly this story is turning up the volume on this theme here. Yeah, yeah. And notice here, once again, it's about human expectations

about power and privilege. Yes. Yeah, very. And notice here, once again, it's about human expectations, about power and privilege. Yes. Yeah, very clearly here. The tallest, you know, in theory the strongest, or the first born with the first born right. Yeah, the order he goes through the suns is from first till last in birth order. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So that story clearly is turning up the volume here. So what's fascinating is not only is David elevated over his brothers, but then when he's elevated over to become king in the place of Israel's first king, Saul, David is also elevated over Saul's firstborn, Jonathan. Jonathan is the first born to become king after Saul. And Jonathan can see that God's chosen David, and there's that famous story where he gives him all these special items

and says, you're the chosen one, not me. So Solomon, next generation, Solomon is David's son, but I think I forget what order he's not the first born, forget. He's best sheba's first. He's about sheba's first. He's about sheba's first, but David had many wives. Yeah. And the sons in line for the role of firstborn are Obsolum, who's then killed and then another son named Audenigia.

In the rivalry between David and Obsolum, and then between Solomon and Audenigia, are the main focus of the beginning of the Book of Kings. So this is a major theme throughout the Hebrew Bible. Yeah. It's a big deal. Yeah, a big deal. Yeah. A lot of these stories don't really land,

unless you are turning into this theme. That's right. Yeah. So much focus on these sibling rivalries. Correct. And why the David story is so important is because it's saying explicitly what has been going on implicitly throughout the whole Bible with this theme is the Yahweh,

is opposed to human institutions of power and privilege that distort our perception of what is good and bad. We have an idea of what is good and the good is the first one. Or the biggest, the most powerful. That's the good. That's the good. And what's good is to make sure that I create a first born and that I am in control of things.

And all of that ends up creating so much strife. In the stories. In the stories. That's right. And then God comes to say. Strife, meaning humans taking advantage of each other, tricking each other, abusing, sexual abuse, murder. I mean, it's like the worst of human nature on display in trying to elevate or produce first-point sons.

It's a major repeated theme. And so this practice of God in subverting it is a major theme of the Hebrew Bible. The God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, actually it's a profferb. And we just tend to think proud and humble as being individual character dispositions, but in an honor, shame, culture

that's very much about social rank and hierarchy, the proud are those who would assert high social rank for themselves, and the humble are those who have a low social position. And God loves to, or as it, yeah, as Job will say at multiple times, so bring down the mighty, or no, Hannah says it in her song. He loves to bring down the mighty or no Hannah says in her song. Oh yeah. He loves to bring down the mighty from their thrones and elevate those sitting in the dust to the seat of nobles and princes. That's what this is about. Is Jesus riffing on this when the first will be last? Yes. Absolutely. When his disciples come to him and say, we're wondering who gets a sit at your right and left hand or like which one of us is the greatest? Yeah. And Jesus is just like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Those who gets to sit at your right and left. On hand or like which one of us is the greatest? Yeah, yeah.

And Jesus is just like, oh my gosh. Yeah, those who want to be first are actually the last and those who take position of the last will be the servant. So yeah, Jesus is distilling this key theme that he revival into these teachings. Okay, so all of that being said, here's the puzzle. Here's the fascinating little puzzle.

Okay. So after all... Yeah, it's very clear that God is not down with the first born for the sake of the first born. Yeah, that's right. If it's too strong to say that God's opposed to this practice, it's at least to say what God is opposed to is people abusing each other, hurting each other in order to get their children or produce a firstborn heir.

You could, you'd almost feel like he's opposed to it. Yeah, but exactly, totally, yeah, inherently. So this, that you walk away from the Hebrew Bible going, okay okay, I get it, I get what this God's about. Right? He may be anti-Fersborn. All right, to put it maybe a little hyperbolicly, or that he- It's highly suspicious.

Highly suspicious of that this institution can do anything good for humans. Yeah. So isn't it interesting that when you get to the story of Jesus, what the four gospel accounts claim about Jesus, what's explicit in the letters of Paul, explicit in the letter to the Hebrews, and in the revelation. So in all the layers and parts of the New Testament, there is a very clear emphasis on Jesus' identity as the first born, as the first born son, the

son of God, God's special first born, with the right to power and authority and responsibility over all of creation. And not necessarily being born first in his family, as much as this idea of, it's this almost like meta idea of the first born of creation. Yeah, so in, for example, Colossians chapter one, Jesus is called the image of the invisible God, so using the phrase from Genesis one. The image of God. And then he equates it in terms of the invisible God, so using the phrase from Genesis. The image of God.

And then he equates it in terms of poetic parallel lines, the first born over all creation. So to be the image of God is to be in the position of the first born of all creation. Then he calls Jesus a few lines later, he is the beginning, the first, the first born from among the dead. So he's claiming for Jesus to be the preeminent representation of the Father, overall creation, and to be the beginning and source of the new creation that is the resurrection from the dead. So what's interesting here is that Jesus,

you're like, oh, I guess God is down for the right of the first born. Cause I guess Jesus holds that place in the universe. So he's not always opposed to it. It just seemed like he was. In Romans chapter eight, Jesus is called the image what Paul is talking about, who's God has called and purposed that a human family

would form to be transformed into the image of his son so that his son would become the firstborn among many siblings. So the plan of God was always that the human family would be perfectly transformed into the image of the first born. So here the idea is, there's a first born of a family, we get that. But then it's like taking that idea to another level and saying, there's a first born of a family, we get that. But then it's like taking that idea to another level and saying, there's a first born of all of humans.

Of all creation. Of all creation, I don't know what that means. We can talk about that. Yeah, later, yeah. But then here, the first born of many brethren, the idea of like the whole human family. Yeah, that's right. Like he's the first.

Yep, he holds the status of the first born over a whole family of brothers and sisters, and they are all being transformed into the image of that first born son. That's the idea here. So when you get into the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 1 and then in chapter 12, once again Jesus is called the first born. And in both cases, it's a place of status and honor. All creation is called bow down in worship, specifically heavenly beings. Angels are called down to worship the first born.

That's in Hebrews chapter 1. And then in chapter 12, the community of Jesus' followers is called the assembly of the firstborn, or in some translation, it's the word Ecclesia, church, the church of the firstborn. So instead of saying the church of Jesus, you could just say the church of the firstborn. It's like a title for him. Yes. And then in the Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible, in Revelation chapter 1, verse 5, Jesus is called the faithful witness, the first born from among the dead, the ruler of the kings of the land. So being the faithful witness, being the one who has stood, the faithful witness being the one who has stood faithful telling the trabearing witness to the truth about the Father. That's equated to having the status of the first born, and

then that's equated to being the ruler of the kings of the land. But it's interesting puzzle because all of a sudden it's sort of like God is not down for humans who can I've and scheme their way to become or get their child to be the first born. All throughout the Hebrew Bible, it makes me think, I guess God's anti-first born. But then you turn to the New Testament and the story gets a little more complex yet again. Yeah, because the first born is really a theme

about authority and power. Responsibility. Responsibility that comes with that. Representation. Yeah. And so you could think as you read the Bible, oh, so God's not down with giving that authority to someone just basically because of when they showed up on the scene. That's right. But he is interested in making sure someone does have that place.

That place. And then there's a kind of a lineage that goes. And so I guess to try to understand what's the puzzle. The puzzle is when we get to Jesus, is the puzzle is why isn't he celebrated as a second born? Yeah, I think what's interesting is that with all of this emphasis and New Testament saying, Jesus holds the place and status of the eternal first born within the very being of God, the community that is the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit. The puzzle is you would think that God is anti this institution or practice of just because

the first born Son has that role inherently that Son deserves the right to have power and authority. But then the whole claim about Jesus is he actually is the legitimate holds legitimately out of all the humans in the story. Right. Here is the one who can truly legitimately be called the firstborn because... He actually is the firstborn. He actually is the son of God, but he also is Chosen and he also is the one who does pass the test and like he does kind of like you know, yeah, and all comes together

Yeah, so what's interesting the gospel authors want to retain both themes or both ideas Because what they're constantly going to show is a G.S. is themes, or both ideas, because what they're constantly going to show is a Jesus humble origins. The poor family that he comes from, that he even though it's born in the city of David, Bethlehem, he's not from there, he's from a rural, your country up in Galilee, from Sticktown, Nazareth. He's not trained in Jerusalem, He's not a Bible scholar with traditional credentials. So all of that is portraying Jesus as the outsider, the younger sibling, the one who holds a place of low social rank. Okay. And then being crucified as a criminal. But then this New Testament theology as it

comes and says, surprise like he actually has this identity that's so first born. It's a new category of first born. It's first born over all of creation. Yeah, that's right. You could say the story from G.S. is birth from his incarnation to the cross and the resurrection is a story and historical time of the subversion of the firstborn. Okay. Because Jesus, right, all this humble origins, he's the outsider, and that's the one that God elevates

to the position of the firstborn. And that's the narrative. But then that narrative is infram framed within a wider claim to say, the one whom God has exalted by raising him to be the son of man over heaven on earth. That one was and always has been the eternal son of God who legitimately holds that place of representation. Who existed from the beginning? Who is the beginning? He is the beginning.

He is the beginning and the end. So he is a legitimate firstborn. So it's interesting, God both subverts his pattern, but what he's subverting is not the idea that God should have a true representative son. What he's supposing is the way that humans try to scheme and create and get that power through a redefinition of good and bad. And so Jesus becomes like the model, the true model of what the legitimate firstborn is and should be, which is the

model of humility and love and self-giving compassion. But it's this kind of the school twist in the way the New Testament tells the story of Jesus. So that's kind of the big picture. Yeah, we did the whole thing. I guess we just did the whole thing. What we can do now, we just painted the whole picture. Yeah. So what we'll be fine to do is go back and dive into some of the specific moments of God inverting this practice.

Oh, and actually, specifically to talk about the Cane and Abel, I don't think it's the first time that this theme appears. It appears with Adam and Eve's relationship to the sky rulers and to the animals. I think it's where the first time the same appears. And if you think I'm crazy, there's a bunch of second-temple Jewish literature to show you that I'm not. The most...

That, the theme first appears, what did you say, Adam's relationship? Adam and Eve's relationship. Adam Eve's relationship with the sky rulers and to the animals. The sky rulers being the sky beings beings. Yep sky rulers are first They come on day four. Oh, yeah, the animals are there They're appointed first. Yes, the animals are first on day six of creation the animals come first

But it's the late comers the humans the humans were the last ones to arrive in the Genesis 1. They are the ones that are given rule and authority over. They're given the image you got. Yeah. Alright, let's get into it. Let's talk about next. Awesome. There we go.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week we're going to dive in to the first place where this theme takes roots. And if the theme of the firstborn is about sibling rivalry and God choosing the younger brother over the older, you would think the first story to look at is the story of Cane Enable. But in fact, this theme begins earlier in Genesis 1 through 2 where Yahweh makes rulers of the sky and rulers of the land. Spiritual beings above to represent God and humans below. The humans are the late comers, the dirt creatures, less glorious than the spiritual beings above, but it's the humans who are given authority to rule.

The human rulers come last in the sequence of the six days. They don't come first, they come last. Even the animals are before them. The last comer is the one who has given the authority to rule over the land. But it's an interesting, as you read through the Hebrew Bible, it's consistently the late comer that God elevates to places of rule and authority. Today's episode is produced by Cooper Peltz with the associate producer Lindsay Ponder, edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank at Garza, Hannah Wu provided the annotations for our annotated podcast in our app. Bible projects crowdfunding nonprofit, and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified

story that leads to Jesus. Everything that we make is free because it's already been paid for by thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Hi, this is CJ and Sarah. And we're from Ulyss, Texas. We first heard about the Bible project from my mother. We used the Bible project to deepen our study of the Bible and discuss what we're learning together. Our favorite thing about the Bible project is it shows how connected the Bible is

through its themes and design patterns. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus, where a crowd-funded project by people like us. Find free videos, study notes, podcasts, classes, and more at Bibleproject.com. you