920
Lectures Watched
Since January 1, 2014
Since January 1, 2014
- A History of the World since 1300 (67)
- History of Rock, 1970-Present (50)
- A Brief History of Humankind (48)
- The Modern World: Global History since 1760 (35)
- Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science (33)
- The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future (28)
- Introduction aux éthiques philosophiques (27)
- Roman Architecture (25)
- Jesus in Scripture and Tradition (25)
- Sexing the Canvas: Art and Gender (23)
- Descubriendo la pintura europea de 1400 a 1800 (22)
- Introduction aux droits de l'homme (19)
- Buddhism and Modern Psychology (18)
- Calvin: Histoire et réception d'une Réforme (17)
- The Ancient Greeks (16)
- The French Revolution (15)
- À la découverte du théâtre classique français (15)
- Christianisme et philosophie dans l'Antiquité (14)
- Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases (14)
- Letters of the Apostle Paul (14)
- Egiptología (12)
- Western Music History through Performance (10)
- Phenomenology and the Conscious Mind (9)
- Human Evolution: Past and Future (9)
- Greek and Roman Mythology (9)
- Alexander the Great (9)
- The Great War and Modern Philosophy (9)
- The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture (9)
- Villes africaines: la planification urbaine (8)
- Masterpieces of World Literature (8)
- Programming Mobile Applications for Android (7)
- Introduction to Psychology (7)
- Fundamentos de la escritura en español (7)
- MongoDB for Node.js Developers (7)
- Pensamiento Científico (7)
- Greeks at War: Homer at Troy (7)
- Lingua e cultura italiana: avanzata (6)
- A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior (6)
- The Emergence of the Modern Middle East (6)
- Reason and Persuasion Through Plato's Dialogues (6)
- Fake News, Facts, and Alternative Facts (6)
- Karl der Große - Pater Europae (6)
- The Rooseveltian Century (6)
- Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas (5)
- Dinosaur Paleobiology (5)
- Understanding Einstein: The Special Theory of Relativity (5)
- L'avenir de la décision : connaître et agir en complexité (5)
- Designing Cities (4)
- Problèmes métaphysiques à l'épreuve de la politique, 1943-1968 (4)
- The Kennedy Half Century (4)
- Introduction to Public Speaking (4)
- Emergence of Life (4)
- War for the Greater Middle East (4)
- Postwar Abstract Painting (3)
- Découvrir l'anthropologie (3)
- Analyzing the Universe (3)
- The Music of the Beatles (3)
- La visione del mondo della Relatività e della Meccanica Quantistica (3)
- Initiation à la programmation en Java (3)
- Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life (3)
- History of Rock and Roll, Part One (3)
- La Commedia di Dante (3)
- Devenir entrepreneur du changement (3)
- Moons of Our Solar System (3)
- Orientierung Geschichte (3)
- Paleontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution (3)
- Western Civilization: Ancient and Medieval Europe (3)
- Russian History: from Lenin to Putin (2)
- L'art des structures 1 : Câbles et arcs (2)
- Art History for Artists, Animators and Gamers (2)
- Introduction to Classical Music (2)
- Galaxies and Cosmology (2)
- The Science of Gastronomy (2)
- The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem (2)
- Søren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity, Irony and the Crisis of Modernity (2)
- Philosophy and the Sciences (2)
- Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication (2)
- The European Discovery of China (2)
- Our Earth: Its Climate, History, and Processes (2)
- Découvrir la science politique (2)
- Introduction à la programmation en C++ (2)
- Introduction à la philosophie de Friedrich Nietzsche (2)
- Géopolitique de l'Europe (2)
- Gestion des aires protégées en Afrique (2)
- Lingua e letteratura in italiano (2)
- The Changing Landscape of Ancient Rome (2)
- Materials Science: 10 Things Every Engineer Should Know (2)
- Highlights of Modern Astronomy (2)
- La Philanthropie : Comprendre et Agir (2)
- The Science of Religion (2)
- Advertising and Society (1)
- America Through Foreign Eyes (1)
- Superpowers of the Ancient World: the Near East (1)
- The Art of Poetry (1)
- Bemerkenswerte Menschen (1)
- Big History: From the Big Bang until Today (1)
- Controversies of British Imperialism (1)
- Age of Cathedrals (1)
- Christianity: From Persecuted Faith to Global Religion (200-1650) (1)
- Narratives of Nonviolence in the American Civil Rights Movement (1)
- Constitutional Law - The Structure of Government (1)
- Contagious: How Things Catch On (1)
- Care of Elders with Alzheimer's Disease (1)
- The American South: Its Stories, Music, and Art (1)
- Programming Mobile Services for Android Handheld Systems (1)
- Animal Behaviour (1)
- From the Big Bang to Dark Energy (1)
- Configuring the World (1)
- Introduction to Data Science (1)
- Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society (1)
- The Law of the European Union (1)
- 21st Century American Foreign Policy (1)
- Éléments de Géomatique (1)
- History and Future of Higher Education (1)
- The Age of Jefferson (1)
- The Magna Carta and its Legacy (1)
- A New History for a New China, 1700-2000 (1)
- The New Nordic Diet (1)
- A la recherche du Grand Paris (1)
- What Managers Can Learn from Great Philosophers (1)
- Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1)
- Exercise Physiology: Understanding the Athlete Within (1)
- Physique générale - mécanique (1)
- Subsistence Marketplaces (1)
- Practicing Tolerance in a Religious Society (1)
- Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life (1)
- Andy Warhol (1)
- Web Intelligence and Big Data (1)
- Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics (1)
- Learning How to Learn (1)
- Imagining Other Earths (1)
- Vital Signs: Understanding What the Body Is Telling Us (1)
- Développement durable (1)
- Dinosaur Ecosystems (1)
- The Civil War and Reconstruction (1)
- Shakespeare: On the Page and in Performance (1)
- Introducción a la genética y la evolución (1)
- Poetry in America: Whitman (1)
- Anthropology of Current World Issues (1)
- Escribir para Convencer (1)
- Découvrir le marketing (1)
- Créer et développer une startup technologique (1)
- Frontières en tous genres (1)
- Une introduction à la géographicité (1)
- Gestion et Politique de l'eau (1)
- Theater and Globalization (1)
- Handel’s Messiah and Baroque Oratorio (1)
- Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1)
- From Goddard to Apollo: The History of Rockets (1)
- Miracles of Human Language (1)
- Human Origins (1)
- The Computing Technology Inside Your Smartphone (1)
- Intellectual Humility (1)
- Introduction to Italian Opera (1)
- Magic in the Middle Ages (1)
- Making Sense of News (1)
- Introduction to Mathematical Thinking (1)
- Mobilité et urbanisme (1)
- Moral Foundations of Politics (1)
- Mountains 101 (1)
- The Biology of Music (1)
- Oriental Beliefs: Between Reason and Traditions (1)
- In the Night Sky: Orion (1)
- Visualizing Postwar Tokyo (1)
- The Renaissance and Baroque City (1)
- The Rise of China (1)
- Russian History: from Lenin to Putin (1)
- Социокультурные аспекты социальной робототехники (1)
- Science of Exercise (1)
- El Mediterráneo del Renacimiento a la Ilustración (1)
- Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1)
- The World of the String Quartet (1)
- Switzerland in Europe (1)
- The Talmud: A Methodological Introduction (1)
- William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place (1)
- Wine Tasting: Sensory Techniques for Wine Analysis (1)
- The World of Wine (1)
Hundreds of free, self-paced university courses available:
my recommendations here
my recommendations here
Peruse my collection of 275
influential people of the past.
influential people of the past.
View My Class Notes via:




Receive My Class Notes via E-Mail:
Contact Me via E-Mail:
edward [at] tanguay.info
Notes on video lecture:
The Biblical Motif of First Born Son
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on July 6, 2015 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Philistines, Esau, hatred, despised, humiliation, birthright, slaves, jealous, reprimanded, shepherds, favorite, God, beset, Abraham, agrees, Leah, prestigious, favored, birth, David, colors, strange, Laban, Jesus, Baptist, shepherd, backfires, surprise, father, wives, ill, Manasseh, Rachel, arrogant, least, innocent, tactic, Ephraim, trickery, New, Reuben
image of Joseph as
he's shepherding the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (Leah and Rachel's )
this a detail because we know that Joseph is a of his fathers
the ranking of children in terms of prestige followed order
and the most wives would be Leah and Rachel
if Joseph were really important, he would be shepherding the sons of Leah and
and especially with 's sons, these were Jacob's first four sons
yet Joseph is tending the flocks with the significant sons of Jacob
the portrayal of Joseph as a shepherd speaks to his exaltation, i.e. Biblical symbol of a leader
but his shepherding the flocks with the least significant children of the family, points to his
this detail foreshadows the difficulties that Joseph is going to encounter for most of this story
also how is he going to come to terms with the fact that his brothers are of him
we find a similar tension with in his family
I Samuel 17
Isreal is at war with the
a war and a battle in which David will slay the giant Goliath
prior to that moment, David has snuck away from his and run to the front lines of the battle to see what was happening
when his brothers saw that David had snuck away from his flocks to observe Israel's army in battle, were not pleased with this
his older brother him: with whom have you left your sheep?
we might assume that something similar to this happened to Joseph in order that he was assigned to tend sheep with the sons of least significance
Joseph is not only by his father, but he uses this to his advantage and to the disadvantage of his brothers
Genesis 37:2 "Joseph was a lad with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought an report of them to their father."
to speak badly of other people was a characteristic
Joseph is seen as an young man who uses his position of prestige
Jacob is not regarding the tensions which are welling up inside this family
he contributes to the problems that are going to this family
e.g. he vests Joseph with a special coat
often translated as a "coat of many "
singles him out from his brothers
the coat made the brothers know every day that Joseph was this special loved child within this family, loved more than them
this contributed to the brothers' of Joseph
why would Jacob adopt a like this?
it is ill-advised for the health of the family
if we look back at Jacob's own childhood, he had to deal with circumstances that were equally not so easy
he was the preferred son in God's eyes
he was not the preferred son in his father's eyes
as a result, to secure the blessing of his father, he had to use
enraged his brother
resulted in pain for Jacob
brother wanted to kill him
Jacob ran into exile where he served as a slave to his father-in-law
so Jacob wants to correct the mistake his father made
wanted to make it clear from the start who the favored son was, so Joseph would not have to achieve this status by trickery
is the progenitor of the Edomites and the elder twin brother of Jacob, the patriarch of the Israelites
Esau and Jacob were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, and the grandsons of and Sarah
Esau returned to his twin brother Jacob, famished from the fields
Jacob offers Esau a bowl of lentil stew in exchange for Esau's , i.e. the right to be recognized as firstborn son with authority over the family, and Esau
but Jacob's plan and his preferential treatment of Joseph nearly results in the death of Joseph himself
beloved sons are often depicted as rulers and
true of Joseph, David, and it will be true of as well
the choice of the beloved son often comes as a
ancient custom and Biblical law would suggest that the father would prefer the first-born son
therefor Esau and should have been the favored sons
but in both cases the firstborn son was passed over in father of a latter born son
a pattern that continues with the ordering of Jacob's
Rachel, the second born, is more beloved than Leah, the first born
Jacob will famously bless , the second born, over Manasseh, the first born
Jacob, Joseph's father, adopted Joseph's two sons, and Ephraim, to share in Jacob's inheritance equally with Jacob's own sons
we'll see this pattern in a slightly different form in the Testament
John the will concede divine favor to Jesus even though he will say he came first
one function of this motive of preferring the latter son is to say is in charge and not human beings
Vocabulary:
prescind, v. to withdraw one's attention, stop thinking about something, to leave out of consideration ⇒ "But if we look at the larger context of the chapter, we'll see that Joseph's father Jacob is not innocent in the tensions that are welling up within his family, as Jacob, after all, is the paterfamilias, the head of the family, and it is his responsibility to make sure that order is kept, but he prescinds from this responsibility by not rebuking Joseph for his actions, and in fact exacerbates tensions which we will see are going to beset this family." |