“... To many, the "true" identity of the Romans was not hard to find: their love of war, their swaggering cruelty, and their living "by the sword" all suggested that they were the spiritual descendants of Esau. Indeed, there must have been something comforting in thinking of the Romans as the present-day equivalent of biblical Esau, for just as God had helped Jacob to triumph over his physically larger and stronger brother, so He might help the Jews to throw off the Roman yoke: [...] [An angel tells Jacob:] "The Most High will raise up emperors from the descendants of your brother Esau [that is, Rome], and they will receive all the power of the races of the earth who have caused harm to your seed. And they [that is, your "seed"] will be delivered into his [Esau's, that is, Rome's] hands and he will ill-treat them. And he will begin to hold them by force and rule over them, and they will not be able to oppose him, until the day when his decree will go out against them to worship idols and sacrifice to the dead." ...”