This Esau proceeded from his mother’s womb “hairy all over like a skin,” but Jacob was smooth and simple. Thus Jacob received his name from wrestling or supplanting, but Esau—as those who interpret Hebrew names say—received his name either from redness or from earth, that is, “red” or “earthly,” or, as it seemed to others, his name appears to mean “something made.”Certainly, as the apostle says, both sons were conceived “from our one father Isaac.” But why these prerogatives are given is not mine to know. Neither do I know why one “supplanted his brother” and was born smooth and simple, nor why the other was born “hairy all over” and shaggy and, so to speak, enwrapped in the squalor of sin and vileness. This is not mine to discuss.
(Verse 25) And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when Rebekah bare them.
Two twins were born at so short an interval of time that the second had a hold on the foot of the first. Yet they were so unlike in their lives, character, conduct and the love their parents bore them that this unlikeness made them enemies one of the other. When I say unlike, I do not mean that one would sit while the other walked, or that one slept while the other was awake or that one talked while the other kept quiet.One of our twins led a life of servile toil, while the other served no one. One was loved by his mother; the other was not. One lost the title to primogeniture, which was then so highly esteemed, and the other obtained it. Further, there were immense differences between them in regard to their wives, children and possessions. If such differences are to be explained by those split seconds between the births of twins which are considered negligible in their horoscopes, why are such matters mentioned when other people’s horoscopes are in question?
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Genesis 25:25