first born

There's a fascinating detail that I realised recently about Isaac and Jacob in the Bible (not that it's any great secret, it just occcurred to me recently). Neither of them were actually the first born son. That's important because, in ancient Israel, the firstborn son was regarded in a special light - he received a double portion of inheritance, had more authority and was given a special blessing. The first born was considered pre-eminent. In Judaism and Christianity, we consider Isaac and Jacob as being pre-eminent. We talk about God as being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Bible doesn't say a lot about Ishmael. Ishmael was not the child of Abraham and Sarah. He was the child Abraham had with Hagar, Sarah's slave, because Sarah thought she would be unable to have children. 

I've always been very aware that Jacob was not the first born son (even though the difference in ages was a matter of seconds or minutes, because Esau was his twin). The issue of Jacob not being the first born is forgrounded by the account of how Jacob actually tricked Esau out of his birthright. A lot of the drama and narrative of Jacob's life flowed from that event. I hadn't thought of Isaac as being the second born because the Bible focuses on Isaac being the first born son of Abraham and Sarah. But then I was reading about Islam and how they revere Ishmael and I realised that Ishmael was actually Abraham's first born son.