Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 607.

As most of the myths or allegories in Genesis are now traced to a source
far more remote than the beginning of legitimate Jewish history, it is
not unreasonable to suppose that this story, too, was copied by the Jews
from the traditions of earlier races; nor, when we remember the true
meaning of the cognomen Jacob, that the entire story should be regarded
as an attempt to set forth certain facts connected with the great
physiological or religious conflict between the sexes.

The significance of the idols worshipped by Jacob and his family is not
for a certainty known, but it is believed by certain writers that the
Seraphim and Teraphim were the usual images which were used to represent
the male and female energies. "Then Jacob said unto his household and to
all that were with him: Put away the strange gods that are among you."
In referring to this passage, Inman, in a note, says:

"The critic might fairly say, looking at Genesis xxxv., 2, 'Put away the
strange gods that are among you,' that there were images of God which
were not strange, and that in these early times there were orthodoxy and
heterodoxy in images as there are now. In ancient times the emblem of
life-giving energy was an orthodox emblem; it is now a horror and its
place is taken by an image of death. We infer from the context that
Laban's gods were orthodox."

So, also, must have been the stone pillar set up by Jacob at Bethel
(place of the sun). From a study of similar stones, examples of which
are to be found in nearly every country of the globe, it is known that
they represent the male energy, and from all the facts connected with
the story of Laban's gods it is probable that they were emblems of this
power. We may suppose then that the "strange gods," the unorthodox gods,
which Jacob ordered put away, were those representing the female energy.

It seems strange that any person can study the history of the
Israelitish Exodus by the light of later developments in biblical
research without recognizing the fact that the "Lord" which brought the
children of Israel out from the bondage of Egypt was the male power,
which by a certain sect had been proclaimed the only actual creative
agency, and therefore the "only one and true God."

Although, at the time at which Abraham is said to have lived, the
knowledge of an abstract dual or triune God still remained, yet, during
the five hundred years which elapsed until the t