"The Mess of Pottage and the Despised Inheritance"




The Mess of Pottage (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)


Once upon a time, in England at least, Bible stories were a deeply ingrained part of the literary and social fabric. It has recently been illustrated to me that this may no longer be the case. We can no longer assume that characters and events described in the Old and New Testaments are familiar to a generation increasingly sceptical of the Christian world view and detached from its institutions and teaching. 

Of course, as with everything, this is not all bad. Running parallel with its unequalled contribution to literacy, education and culture over the centuries, the Christian Church has also been a regressive and constraining force. From Copernicus and Galileo onwards, and perhaps most dramatically in the last Century, we have witnessed the supremacy of Christian dogma eroded and dessicated. 

Ecclesiastical buildings, office holders and ritual have taken on the appearance of rocky stacks rising out of a raging sea:  indomitable but presaging inevitable destruction. Like them, Christianity and the institutions that represent it, have displayed remarkable longevity and resilience, not unlike the Monarchy, to which it is closely aligned. 

Will they, we wonder, survive?


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It is in this context that the 'Mess of Pottage' applies. It may well mark a watershed in more ways than one, as to whether it means something or not, whether it happened or not. The power of an apocryphal story is that it resonates down through time, hopefully leaving in its wake a helpful lesson. So what is the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob and the Mess of Pottage?

Even the the words have an archaic ring to them, essentially because they are in the language of the early seventeenth century and the King James translation into English of older versions, largely based on the works of Wycliffe (1320-1384) and Tyndale (1494-1536) from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.

"Mess" meant a quantity of food set on a table or provision of food for a person or party for one meal. The old meaning and its connection to food, though largely redundant, is retained in the military connection to 'Officers' Mess'. 'Mess' is now more commonly used to indicate muddle and/or confusion as in "what a mess you have made of this."

"Pottage" is similarly antiquated now. It simply means a meat or other stew from a common pot with ancient German and French roots. So the 'mess of pottage'  in the Bible story in Genesis 25:29-34 is simply a single portion of stew, heated and cooked over a fire. The phrase alludes to Esau's sale of his birthright for a meal ("mess") of lentil stew ("pottage") and connotes shortsightedness and misplaced priorities.

As a child, this and other Old Testament stories had a profound effect on me. Somehow or other they had been recorded millennia before in a foreign territory and alien culture, yet had retained their relevance and power in the modern age. In the mind's eye, the characters were vibrant and situations described quite believable. More importantly they imparted a kind of wisdom and moral lesson that one could choose either to accept or reject, as personal lodestones.

For those unfamiliar with the story, it involves essentially four characters: the old and dying father, Isaac; his wife Sarah; their two sons Esau and Jacob, his younger sibling. These were characters with history. Isaac was the son of Abraham, the iconic founder of the Jewish race and religion. He had narrowly escaped a sacrificial death at the hands of his father, believing God had commanded him to test his faith. What sort of God was this that demanded such a brutal and merciless act? 

Yet God it seems had other ideas, and just in the nick of time intervenes, orders Abraham to stay his hand, and with the aid of a ram caught in a thicket, offers the solution of an animal sacrifice in the place of his son. 

Even as a child, I wondered how this traumatic event affected Isaac thereafter? Even more profoundly what did this say regarding the character of the Divine Creator, both it would seem wickedly frivolous and yet touched with sympathy and forgiveness. 

Or was it just the story of a demented and superstitious old man wishing to placate his own internal demons, saved from an unconscionable act by a fortuitous combination of circumstances?

These paradoxical themes run throughout the Bible story for the course of several thousand years. Is the nature of the Divine violent and vengeful or loving and forgiving, as is the nature of man himself? 

The Greeks and Romans had a panoply of celestial Gods, all with their own distinct characters. The Jews distinctively had only one, unless temporarily straying to worship Baal. Christianity developed the concept of the 'three-in-one' 'Trinity' to accommodate notions of God the Son, Father and Holy Ghost. Which rather brings us back to the trinity of Isaac, Esau and Jacob and that Mess of Pottage.

Bible stories endeavour to square the circle of the human experience, to make the irrational and conflicting, rational and integrated. The two sons are archetypal in character. Esau was rugged and manly; Jacob more domesticated and homely. Jacob was a 'mother's boy', Esau his father's favourite. As a child these traits resonated through me. I yearned for the former but was confronted by the latter. It would plant a dichotomy that lasted all my life.

Esau returning from the hunt, and ravenous, decided to swap his inheritance for a 'mess of pottage' his brother had prepared. He could not resist current desire for future gain; he could not defer his satisfaction; he was impetuous and impatient; short-sighted and foolish. I wonder if in current events, his behaviour rings a bell? A message not in a bottle but in a pot! It was Max Weber who suggested 'deferred gratification' was a significant element of the 'Protestant ethic', in turn based on biblical principles. If only Esau had been blessed with it.

Isaac blessing Jacob  by Gerrit Willemsz Horst (c.1612 - 1652)


Jacob was not a hero figure I wished to emulate. In a classic case of deception, on his father's deathbed, blind and debilitated, at his mother's insistence, he went to great lengths to pretend to be his brother and thus gain his father's blessing and inheritance. I suppose he rationalised it by virtue of the pottage incident earlier but as a kid I could never understand why it was said God preferred this cheat and blessed him. It may also have laid the foundations of the persistent myth of the Shylock trait.

I suppose the moral of the story was and is, if you are stupid enough to give away that, which by birth and inheritance is rightfully yours, for a bowl of soup, or anything or anyone else, you must accept all the disadvantages and estrangements it brings. Nor is it worth crying over spilt milk. The mess is all of your own making and the consequences unavoidable for all time.



Abraham and Isaac

From: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+22%3A1-19&version=ESV

Genesis 22:1-19 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”[c]

15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Esau and Jacob and the Mess of Pottage

From: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+25%3A29-34&version=KJV

Genesis 25:29-34 King James Version (KJV)

29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:

30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

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