Note 511 — Chapter V · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ESSENES

See note 2 p. 149, supra. The essentially Jewish tendency towards hyperbole and exaggeration in language must, however, be allowed for. As someone has said, “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated,” in the mouth of a Jew means little more than that on the whole the speaker prefers Jacob to Esau. See also note 1 p. 163, supra.