Jacob's prophecy, included in the story that biblical scholars call the Joseph novella, came after it had already been written, during the final editing...
Jacob's prophecy, included in the story that biblical scholars call the Joseph novella, came after it had already been written, during the final editing of the Pentateuch. Was this accidental? Hardly: the editing was done by an author who had his own vision of all the texts he was working with and a clear design for the whole composition. If he includes an ancient prophecy in the narrative, he does not do it by chance. It is a parting charge to the people of God just coming to birth, a charge from the founder of the union of the twelve tribes as he completes his earthly journey.
A charge in which there is also foresight of each one's destiny. Still, this is not merely foresight of the kind sometimes found in people who perceive pictures of future reality. Each time, an obvious connection can be seen between particular traits or inclinations in one of Jacob's children and the destiny of his descendants. The Bible, after all, has no concept of doom, fate, or fatal destiny. There is no place for fatalism with God. The future of a person and his descendants is determined by the choice that person makes here and now.
Choices and actions form habits, habits set the main features of character, and character determines the path of life not only for the person himself; many character traits and the psychological features connected with them are even inherited, so that descendants too will have to face the results of the decisions their ancestors made and the fruits of their actions. Among the people of God there is also another factor: God's direct intervention in events.
God, of course, can intervene in them anywhere and at any time, but the history of the people of God is a special history; it is directed by God to a greater degree than the history of any other people. That is how the historical path of the people of God is determined: through God's work with specific people and whole communities, with all their features, and with all the consequences of everything once done, decided, or left undecided. To a person who does not know God, all this looks like fate: inevitable and inescapable. Here each person has his own name for it: for some, fate; for others, the will of God.
