567. Jacob was now called Laban's bone and flesh, and this because he was in that body which was formed by marriages and thus by continual consanguinities. There were two houses, namely, that of Abraham and that of Nahor Abraham's brother. Both houses came from a single house which was that of Terah the father of them both. The house of Abraham was in the land of Canaan; that of Nahor was outside that land in Ur of the Chaldees, Syria of the rivers, or Mesopotamia. In what way the one house had been joined to the other by marriages, namely the house of Abraham to the house which was Nahor's, may be evident from n. 558 above. From the Abrahamic house came the Jacobean and Israelitish house, that is, the Jewish and Israelitish people. Thus they came likewise from the house of Nahor, but only in respect to the daughters of that house who were taken to wife by the sons of the house of Abraham. Thus the two houses coalesced into one, as though into a single body. Hence it is now said to Jacob: Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.
