---
title: Genesis 25:29
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-25-29/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-25-29.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Genesis 25:29
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Genesis 25:29

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "On one occasion Jacob was boiling some stew when Esau returned from the field exhausted."

## JW Usage

A familiar narrative used in Watchtower material to warn against despising sacred things for immediate gratification, as Hebrews 12:16 does. Its bearing on the meaning of "firstborn" is not usually drawn out, because the Watchtower's reading of Colossians 1:15 depends on firstborn meaning first in time.

## Protestant Usage

This is where you go when a Witness says "firstborn of all creation" means Jesus was the first thing created. Esau was born first. That is not in question. But a few verses later he sells his position as firstborn to Jacob for a bowl of stew, and the birthright transfers. From then on Jacob holds the firstborn's place while Esau remains the one who came out of the womb first. So in the Bible's own usage, firstborn names a rank that can be transferred, not a fact about chronology that cannot. Esau proves it by losing it. The clearest statement of the principle is Psalm 89:27, where God says of David: "I will appoint him as my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth." David was Jesse's youngest son. Firstborn there means appointed pre-eminence, and everyone knew it. That is the lens for Colossians 1:15 — and the very next verse defines it, giving the reason he is firstborn over creation: because by him all things were created. Compare Genesis 27:36, Job 12:10.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Colossians 1 — Inserted 'Other'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/colossians1-other.md) — The NWT adds a word that changes everything [NWT Translation]