Genesis 22:23: Milkah, the daughter of Haran, had previously married her uncle Nachor, Av-Ram's brother; their son Betu-El now fathers Rivkah (Rebecca).
Genesis 24:15 ff tells the complex story of Eli-Ezer, Av-Raham's servant, going to Padan Aram to find a wife for Yitschak (Isaac), himself only thirteen at the time - for the episode is told in the same chapter as the Akeda. Eli-Ezer chooses Rivkah precisely because she is of the same tribe.
The key to the story, in so far as her name is concerned, appears to lie in 24:22, repeated in Eli-Ezer's retelling of the story in 24:47:
"And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ear-ring of half a shekel of weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold."Why does he do this? In precisely the way that one marks an intended purchase of a piece of cattle at an auction, by clipping a ring through its ear or nose; Eli-Ezer is literally purchasing her. He has come to acquire a wife, made his selection, and is now staking his claim; the retelling of the story of his journey at the family home merely makes the purchase formal, and at the end Rivkah is asked if she is willing to go - in the same way, Jewish law prohibits the cattle from being sacrificed if they show signs of unwillingness - but she assents, and leaves, in verse 61.
Verses 62-66 describe Yitschak seeing Eli-Ezer and some woman arriving from the distance. Verse 67 gives her arrival in Kena'an and marriage to Yitschak in the most perfunctory manner possible; no love, no romance. Merely the ewe has been purchased and the tupping ram introduced:
"And Yitschak brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rivkah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Yitschak was comforted after his mother's death."
Yitschak was comforted, by the giving of an adult teddy bear! But why do it in his mother's tent? Because Sarah's tent was not in fact his mother's tent, but the ritual tent, and Sarah the Yisra-Eli form of Asherah, the fertility goddess.
Why is this aspect of the story so significant? Because the root of her name, Rabak (רבק), means "to bind firmly" or "to tie with a noose", and was precisely the term used for animals at market, as described above. The name Rivkah itself, still in Arabic to this day, means "a rope with a noose". Thus Rivkah is possibly not her name but a description of her acquisition, and possibly in its original form was the aetiological myth created to explain the source of this custom.
But there is another layer. As pointed out frequently before, the period and kingship of Ya'akov appears to coincide with the millennial change in the astrological calendar, when Aries replaced Taurus as the first month of the year (circa 2200 BCE). In the sacred marriage up until then, the sky-god (El, Av-Raham, Kayin, Esav) symbolised by the bull Taurus, married the Great Goddess (Asherah, Sarah, Yah, Le'ah) in the form of a cow; but in the new Age of Aries the sky-god (YHVH, Ya'akov) is represented as a sheep or goat, and marries the Great Goddess as a ewe (Rachel). The story of Rivkah's purchase clearly reflects the Tauran Age, thus making Yitschak, in his capacity as tribal chief and therefore as sacred-king, surrogate on Earth of the deity, another in the line of bull-gods. See my notes on Av-Ram as Av-Re'em for further thoughts on this.
Why is this aspect of the story so significant? Because the root of her name, Rabak (רבק), means "to bind firmly" or "to tie with a noose", and was precisely the term used for animals at market, as described above. The name Rivkah itself, still in Arabic to this day, means "a rope with a noose". Thus Rivkah is possibly not her name but a description of her acquisition, and possibly in its original form was the aetiological myth created to explain the source of this custom.
But there is another layer. As pointed out frequently before, the period and kingship of Ya'akov appears to coincide with the millennial change in the astrological calendar, when Aries replaced Taurus as the first month of the year (circa 2200 BCE). In the sacred marriage up until then, the sky-god (El, Av-Raham, Kayin, Esav) symbolised by the bull Taurus, married the Great Goddess (Asherah, Sarah, Yah, Le'ah) in the form of a cow; but in the new Age of Aries the sky-god (YHVH, Ya'akov) is represented as a sheep or goat, and marries the Great Goddess as a ewe (Rachel). The story of Rivkah's purchase clearly reflects the Tauran Age, thus making Yitschak, in his capacity as tribal chief and therefore as sacred-king, surrogate on Earth of the deity, another in the line of bull-gods. See my notes on Av-Ram as Av-Re'em for further thoughts on this.
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