Son-In-Law

The umbrella collects two episodes where the son-in-law relationship is in the background of the action — one where the son-in-law deals unjustly with his father-in-law, and one where the son-in-law's household becomes a place of healing.

Jacob with Laban

Jacob, married into Laban's household, sets up a breeding scheme that increases his own flocks at Laban's expense. He takes "rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree" and peels white streaks into them, then sets them across from the watering-troughs where the flocks come to drink. The flocks conceive at the rods and bring forth "ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted." Jacob then separates the offspring, builds his own droves apart, and times the rods to the stronger of the flock — "but when the flock was feeble, he didn't put them in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's" (Gen 30:37-42). The narrative records the son-in-law's gain at his father-in-law's loss without further comment.

Peter and His Wife's Mother

In the Capernaum scene, the son-in-law relationship is named indirectly — Peter has a wife's mother, and her sickness becomes the occasion for healing in his house. Coming out of the synagogue, Jesus and the disciples enter "the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and right away they tell him of her" (Mark 1:29-30). Luke's parallel records the same household: "And he rose up from the synagogue, and entered into the house of Simon. And Simon's wife's mother was held with a great fever; and they implored him for her" (Luke 4:38). The household includes Simon's wife's mother — Simon stands in the son-in-law's place — and she is the one for whom the family asks Jesus' help.