Esau’s kiss to Jacob is written with scribal dots over the word וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ, “and he kissed him.” Traditional commentators suggest this hints to Esau’s feelings or state of mind. Critical scholarship, however, points to something much more prosaic, a question of syntax.Those are old dots. Origen seems to have known about them in the third century.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.