jacob and esau gerry palo wrote that there is nothing in christianity that excludes the theory of a succession of lives i wrote that the apostle paul in romans speaks of god as choosing jacob over esau and adds that this is not as a result of anything that either child had done since they had not been born yet clearly paul does not believe that they had had previous lives nor does he suppose that his readers will believe it for if they had had previous lives it would not make sense to say neither of them has done anything good or bad as yet since they are not yet born daniel cossack writes to ask whether it is fair for god to hate easau when esau has done nothing bad i reply that in hebrew it is standard usage to speak of hating when what is meant is simply putting in second place as an example consider the saying in matthew no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or now it is obviously false that a man with two masters must hate one of them but it is obviously true that he must put one of them in second place a dog that always comes when either billy or bobby calls will have a problem if they stand in different places and call simultaneously it cannot give first priority to both one must take second place in our original example second place means that jacob not esau is chosen to bear the covenant blessing and obligation and to be the ancestor of christ eugene bigelow mentions matthew which says of john the baptist and if ye will receive it this is elijah who was to come i take this to mean that john was an elijah like figure dressing and living like elijah preaching like elijah and fulfilling the prediction that elijah would prepare the way for the messiah i do not think that he was elijah in a literal sense and appareently neither did he john yours james kiefer
