Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, wrote a series of fiction on the women of Genesis – Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel.
When you read the life of Rebekah in the Bible, many questions come to mind:
What made Rebekah agree to leave her family to go so far to marry a man she’s never met?
How could Isaac, a quiet peaceful man, favor Esau who was a ruthless hunter?
Could Isaac really be so easily deceived by Jacob with goat’s fur on his arm?
Was Rebekah right or wrong to deceive her husband?
Card, with his amazing insightful understanding of human nature, wove a whole story of Rebekah, from her growing up as a little girl with her brother Laban that built up to the Bible account of her being picked to be the bride for Isaac to tricking her husband to give the birthright to the second son instead of the oldest son.
The story is so believable that I almost think it did actually happen that way.
However, there were a few points I didn’t like: Abraham looked pretty bad in this story, which I don’t believe would be true. The banter between Rebekah and Abraham, and between her and Isaac got a little tiring. A few pages of that could’ve been cut out. The women in the story were very outspoken with the men, which I don’t think is consistent with the culture at that time.
It would be really interesting if the Bible was written like Card’s novels that gives us details of all the Bible characters’ lives. I’ve always wonder what Jesus’ life looked like growing up. Maybe Orson Scott Card will write a novel to explain Jesus.