A PSYCHOHISTORICAL APPROACH TO THE LIFE OF THE BIBLICAL JACOB: TOUCHING ON ALL MAJOR EPISODES, FROM BIRTH TO NAME CHANGE

This paper seeks to fruitfully combine psychology and religious studies in an attempt to decode the life of the biblical Jacob in novel ways. Jacob is an individual who walks the line between history and myth depending on the personal faith of each reader of the Old Testament. This paper chooses to approach the biblical narrative of the life of Jacob as true testimony, affording its study with all due seriousness and respect. The approach taken here is rooted in the Psychology of Religion, which is a tool springing from the discipline of Psychology. As Merkur explains in his paper on the Psychology of Religion’s origin and critical functions, this tool of Psychology allows us to re-examine the various stories narrated within the history of religion itself, that are about significant (historical or otherwise) individuals, such as Jacob, who is this paper’s research focus.