JACOB
261
JACOB
various colonies with which he was connected, he was
made a meinljer of the Order of St. Gregory the Great
in 1904, and as recognition of his great services to the
State, the king conferred on him, shortly before his
death, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George.
C. SCHREINEB.
Jacob, (3pV'; Sept. 'lo/ccijS), the son of Isaac and Rebecca, third great patriarcli of the chosen people, and the immediate ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel. The incidents of his life are given in parts of Gen., XXV, 21-1, 13, wherein the documents (J, E, P) are distinguished by modern scholars (see Abr.^ham, I, 52) . His name — possibly an abbreviation of Jacob-El ( Baby- lonian: Ya 'kub-ilu), with which compare Israel, Is- mael etc. — means "supplanter", and refers to a well- known circumstance of liis birth (Gen., xxv, 25). His early years were marked by various efforts to get the birthright from his brother Esau. His struggle for it began before he was born (xxv, 22-5). Later, he took advantage of Esau's thoughtlessness and de- spair to buy it from him for a pottage of lentils (xxv, 29-33). In virtue of this purchase, and through a ruse, he finally got it by securing the blessing which Isaac intended for Esau (xxvii, 1-37), Then it was that, to escape his brother's avenging wrath, and appar- ently also to obtain a wife from his parents' stock, he fled to Haran, the dwelling place of Laban, his mater- nal uncle (xxvii, -il-xxviii, 5). On his way thither, he had at Luza the vision of the angels ascending and descending by a mysterious ladder which reached from earth to heaven, and of Yahweh renewing to him the glorious promises which He had made to Aliraham and to Isaac; in consequence of this, he called the place Beth-El, and vowed exclusive worship to Yahweh should He accompany him on his way and bring him back safely home (xxviii, 11-22). Jacob's relations with Laban's household form an interesting episode, the details of which are perfectly true to Eastern life and need not be set forth here. Besides blessing him with eleven children, God granted to Jacob a great material prosperity, so that Laban was naturally de- sirous of detaining him. But Jacob, long wearied with Laban's frequent trickery, and also bidden by God to return, departed secretly, and, although overtaken and threatened by his angry father-in-law, he man- aged to appease him and to pursue his own way to- wards Chanaan (xxix-xxxi). He managed also — after a vision of angels at Mahanaim, and a whole night's wTestling with God at Phanuel, on which latter oc- casion he received a new blessing and the sig- nificant name of Israel — to appease his brother Esau, who had come to meet him with 400 men (xxxii-xxxiii, 16).
Passing through Socoth, Jacob first settled near Salem, a city of the Sichemites, and there raised an altar to the God of Israel (xxxiii, 17-20). Compelled to leave on account of the enmity of the Chanaanites — the precise occasion of which is uncertain — he went to Bethel, where he fulfilled the vow which he had made when on his way to Haran (xxxiv-xxxv, 15). Pro- ceeding farther south, he came to Ephrata, where he buried Rachel, who died giving birth to Benjamin, and where he erected a pillar on the site of her grave. Thence, through Migdal-Eder, he came to Hebron, where he was joined by Esau for their father's burial (xxxv, 16-29). In Hebron, Jacob li%'ed quietly as the head of a numerous pastoral family, received with inconsolable grief the apparent evidence of Joseph's cruel deatli, passed through the pressure of famine, and agreed most reluctantly to his separation from Benjamin (xxxvii, 1-4; xlii,'35-3S; xhii, 111"). The news that Joseph was still .alive and invited him to come to Egypt revived the patriarch, who, passing through Bersabee, reached Eg^^jt with his sons and grandchildren (xlv, 25-xlix). 'There it was given him
to meet Joseph again, to enjoy the honours conferred
upon him by Pharaoh, and to spend prosperously his
last days in the land of Gessen. There, on his death-
bed, he foretold the future fortunes of the respective
descendants of his sons, and passed away at the age
of 147 (xlvi, 29-xlix). According to his last wishes,
he was buried in the land of Chanaan (1, 1-13). De-
spite the various difficulties met with in the examina-
tion of the Bil)lical narrative and dealt within detail
by commentators, it is quite certain that the history
of Jacoli is that of a real person whose actual deeds are
recorded with substantial accuracy. Jacob's char-
acter is a mixture of good and e\'il, gradually chastened
b}^ the experience of a long life, and upon the whole
not unworthy of being used by t!oil for the purpose of
His mercy towards the chosen people. The Talmudic
legends concerning Jacob are the acme of fancy.
See bibliography to Isaac.
Francis E. Gigot.
Jacobellus von Mies. See Hos and Hussites.
Jacobites. See Barad.eus, Jacob; Eastern Churches. — A. Schi'imatical Churches.
Jacob of Jiiterbogk (in the world Benedict Stolzenh.^gen), theologian and canonist, b. of poor parents near Jiiterbogk. Brandenburg, Germany, 1381; d. at Erfurt in 1465. In 1401 he entered the Cistercian monastery of Paradies, in Poland; hence his names Jacobus de Polonia, Jacobus de Paradiso, and Jacobus Cisterciensis. Being sent to the LTniver- sity of Krakow by his abbot, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, and thereafter Ijecame professor of theology and preacher at that university. Displeased at the loose discipline of his order, he entered the Carthusian monastery at Erfurt in 1441, taught canon law at the university of that place for many years, and was elected rector in 1456. From the time of his entrance into the Carthusian Order he is often called Jacobus Carthusianus, Jaco- bus de Clusa, and Jacobus de Erfordia. He was full of zeal for reform in the Church, and in some of his writ- ings severely criticizes Italian ecclesiastics for bestow- ing responsible benefices upon incapable and unworthy persons. Like many other great men of his time, he advocated the so-called conciliar theory, that a general council is above the pope.
He is the author of about eighty treatises, mostly on theological and canonical sul:)jccts. The following twelve of his works have been printed: " Quodlibetum statuum humanorum", a sort of treatise on moral theology explaining the obligations of men in the vari- ous states of life; "Tractatus de animabus erutis a corporibus ", an interesting treatise on the condition of the human soul after death — seven editions of this work were published; "De valore Missarum pro de- fuiictis celebratarum " (the preceding three incunabula contain neither place nor date of publication; the first came out at Esslingen in 1475, the second at Er- furt about 1463, the third in 1493 at an unknown place). " De causis multarum passionum ", edited by Pez in "Bibliotheca ascetica" (Ratisbon, 1S35), VII, 389—144; "De indulgentiis ", a dogmatically correct treatise on indulgences, edited by Walch in "Monu- menta inedita medii a>yi" (Gottingen, 1764), II, ii, 163 sq.; " Petitiones religiosorum pro reformatione sui status ", edited Iiy Kliipfel in " Vetus Biblioth. ecclesi- astica" (Freiliurg im Br., 1780), 146 sq.; "De negli- gentia pr^latorum", edited by Walch, loc. cit., I, fasc. 4; "Avisamentum ad papam pro reformatione ecclesia"", a memorial addressed to Pope Nicholas V, in which the author urges a reform in the Church, edited by Klupfel, loc. cit., 1.34 sq.; "De septem statibus ecclcsia^", edited liy Walch, loc. cit., II, fa.sc. 2; "Sermones dominicales" (dateand place of pulili- cation unknown) ; " De erroribus et moril)Us Christian- orum" (Liibeck, 1488); "Lavacrum conscientise "
