Tangential to this: my popularized knowledge of Nietzsche involves the idea that he taught that the lower people envy and impute guilt to the higher.

But, if that is true, I think that Nietzsche understimated how needy the aristocratic types can be. No one wants to admit that forces beyond their control dropped them on the top of the bell curve; everyone wants to pretend they climbed up from the lower slopes.

Did Isaac merely prefer the game Esau hunted for him? Or did he say to Jacob, “If you would try harder you could make me happy too.” Did Rebekah spend years trying to get Jacob to behave like Esau before she gave up?

Take homosexuality. Not everyone is tempted by the same sex. Not everyone needs to resist that temptation. And why would not that be true in other areas? We all seem to assume universally identical impulses with various degrees of self-control. But couldn’t it be true that most people have the same self-control and widely varying impulses to certain behaviors?

Understand, this doesn’t justify anything that is wrong. But it ought to make us think twice before making judgments about people’s character. If one person struggles with a drug problem and another doesn’t, is that mean that the latter is better or that the former wasn’t protected by his parents?

The Bible sets up a moral order in which certain sins (not all!) are punished. But it also shows us time and again that those who are on top of the moral order (or seem to be) are in fact worse than those who fall short of it. Jephthah, the son of a prostitute, has to rescue the tribe that exiled him because of his parentage. David welcome’s people who take up a life of fighting in order to escape their creditors.

Jacob is not nearly as disreputable as others, but he fits the type in other ways. He was certainly regarded as disreputable by those in a position to say who counted as such. All the evidence in Genesis tells us that the patriarchs were already following much of the law code given in Exodus-Deuteronomy. According to the law of primogenitor the firstborn got twice the inheritance of the rest. So Esau should have received two thirds and Jacob one. Jacob deceives his father and get’s the older brother’s blessing (just as God had commanded, but Isaac wasn’t listening to God on this). But when Esau finds out what Jacob has done, he expects there to be more left over. “Bless me too, Father!” If the Heel Grabber (Jacob literally) took his inheritance, well than he should get the Heel Grabber’s. But no. There is nothing left over. Isaac had tried to rob Jacob of his inheritance and give everything to Esau. This happens again later to Jacob when Laban hunts him down. Even when God is firmly on the side of Jacob Laban cannot cease to make ludicrous claims on Jacob. He claims that Jacob’s wives still belong to him because that he is their father, and that even the grandchildren belong to him. (Even in the Bible patriarcy can be a bad thing.)

I consider it a lingering effect of the consciousness of a corrupt Christendom that scholars continually want to side with the establishment against Jacob. Isaacc and Laban are obvious crooks expoiting the less powerful to give presents to their favorites and using false accusations against those who are not so favored. But somehow the fact that Jacob managed to prosper anyway and foil many of the plans against him is read, not as a heroes tale, but as a record of sin.

Jesus likes to topple those sitting comfortable on top of the bell curve, using those who are beneath it. But he perpetually warns them not to set up a throne for themselves on that apex.

do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”