Abstract:
This paper discusses the genealogical relationship between ancient Israel and its three closest neighbors, the Jordanian peoples of Ammon, Moab and Edom, as it is expressed by the Hebrew Bible. The socio-political and ideological framework that gave birth to the biblical tradition of the brotherhood of Jacob, the Israelite patriarch, and Esau, the alleged eponym of the Edomites, is specially considered. I will trace, albeit briefly, some topics that are relevant to this issue: the traditions of the origin of these peoples as they appear in the biblical scholarship; the question of the southern Jordanian material culture in the Negev; and the issue of kinship, segmentation and orality in ancient societies. Hebrew Bible's approach towards Ammon/Moab is strongly different to the biblical attitude towards Edom. My main hypothesis is that the tradition of brotherhood between Jacob and Esau should be understood in the terms of the area and period in which it came to be created: the late Iron Age II southern Judah.