Surprisingly, there are only a handful of passages in the Bible that are directly about twins. That in itself is somewhat strange. Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to one child is such a wonder of biology that doing the same for another infant simultaneously seems like exactly the type of miracle that would be splashed throughout the good book.
Instead, the Bible mentions twins only a few times, most prominently in the Book of Genesis, where brothers Jacob and Esau battle for power and inheritance after the younger twin, Jacob, tricks Esau into handing over his birthright. Jacob’s deception causes a lifelong rift between the two brothers, but, as with all these ancient stories, fate is preordained by God. “Two nations are in your womb,” God tells Jacob and Esau’s mother, Rebekah, “and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
