Some points to consider

[Mallet]

Well, how about this.

Smokie can't kill candidates, and candidates can't kill themselves.

So on the Island the Candidates are pretty safe.

Jacob, on the other hand, might also be looking for good, non-candidates, to have on the Island.

So a list listing good people (Eko, Cindy, etc...) would be who the Other's should kidnap to bring them to the fold and to protect them from smokie.

Candidate should eventually find their way to Jacob if they really are special (and should be safe while doing so).

So, when smokie came across Eko out in the jungle, it killed him because he was a good person. If the Others had managed to kidnap Eko he would have been safe with them behind the sonic fence.

So the list was of people the Other's should kidnap and take to protect them from Smokie.

Jack wasn't on the list because the other's didn't need to protect him, since Smokie couldn't kill him and he "had to find his own way" to jacob and to his future role on the island.

 

[McCoy]

I'm of the opinion that most of what Ben did was indeed related to lists of Jacob's brought to him by Richard. While practically crying to Jacob in the statue he mentioned them and how he did what was asked without ever questioning, no matter what it might be costing him, both emotionally and physically (the man can sure take a beating or ten). Jacob's lack of interaction, of approval, fed into his lost-little-boy insecurities and made him ripe for MiB's manipulation into that final attack on Jacob. Ben was MiB's loophole, and you can see that MiB really had been working on him for a very long time.

I've been going through previous Ben scenes on YouTube and you know what? I think that just about every evil thing we've seen him do has cost him a bit of his soul. If he truly relished his father's death, don't you think he would have watched? But he couldn't even look at Roger as he died. And walking through Dharmaville after the Purge (which must have been carried out by Widmore, who was still around), coming up to Horace and gently closing his staring eyes (the same as he did for Alex), was a compassionate touch that I didn't notice the first time around.

Ben has lost everything and been cruelly used by both Jacob and MiB. But in the same way that MiB used Ben as a loophole to kill Jacob, I think, at the end, Jacob turned things around. Ben had been crossed off the candidate list at some time in the past. I think that by touching him as he died, Jacob put him back on that list right under MiB's nose. Ben is now an unknown quantity and will end up saving the day, you watch.

In fact, I predict that, at the end of all this, Ben will be taking Jacob's place as caretaker of the island, and MiB will remain trapped on the island, but now in Locke's body. The final shot will be Ben and Locke at that same location on the beach where we saw Jacob and MiB, discussing the never-ending cycle as a new ship appears on the horizon, or a new plane crashes to the ground.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Maybe telling someone they aren't on Jacob's list is just the greatest insult in Other society. You know, like "Get f***ed!" or "Go to hell!"

"You're not on Jacob's list!"

"Well, f*** you, too!"

 

[propita]

Well, Locke saw Smokey "and saw that it was good"--so had he sided with MiB back then without even realizing it. Kinda like Richard did in the Black Rock? But when Richard failed to kill Jacob, the siding ended? Did nothing happen to end Locke's having sided with MiB>

I thought that maybe Ben had been misled by MiB somehow, for years, into unwittingly acting against Jacob--which would mean that Widmore may have been on Jacob's side all along and which is why Widmore wanted Ben dead. But that wouldn't jibe with Richard (presumably in contact with Jacob) continuing to act as Ben's adviser after Ben ousted Widmore. Nor would it jibe with Widmore seems to want to kill anyone there--despite Jacob seemingly wanting Widmore to find the island ("someone's coming to the island").

Aargh! I'm lost.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Aargh! I'm lost.

What I can't figure out is why Flocke evidently needed Richard to find Jacob in "The Incident," when it's clear he knew where Jacob lived all along. But he acted pretty darn surprised when Richard told him Jacob was living in the statue.

 

[Mallet]

I thought that maybe Ben had been misled by MiB somehow, for years, into unwittingly acting against Jacob--which would mean that Widmore may have been on Jacob's side all along and which is why Widmore wanted Ben dead. But that wouldn't jibe with Richard (presumably in contact with Jacob) continuing to act as Ben's adviser after Ben ousted Widmore. Nor would it jibe with Widmore seems to want to kill anyone there--despite Jacob seemingly wanting Widmore to find the island ("someone's coming to the island").

Aargh! I'm lost.

But remember Jacob just said he doesn't make or force people to be good or bad. He just brings them to the Island and lets them do what they want.

So even if Widmore and Ben went "evil" or against what Jacob would have liked, he wouldn't have stopped them directly and neither would Richard. Remember Richard did give Locke some inside info that helped Locke become the new leader of the Other's. So Richard may not have personally wanted Ben in command, but as Jacob's "avatar" to the Other's he couldn't directly force Ben out.

I also don't think Jacob is responsible for bringing Widmore back right now, or for bringing the freighter to the island. I think that Widmore had been searching for the Island and finally found a way to locate it (after the Swan Station went boom, just like Penny was able to). Jacob may know that Widmore was/has come back, but I don't think he brought him there.

I think Jacob really has taken on a "god-like" role. He brings people to "the garden" but after that they are free to make their own choices and take their own actions both on and off the Island. Jacob just hopes that someone will eventually be good enough to take over his role. And not give into the temptations offered by the MIB.

 

[Jenee]

"the garden"!?!?!

Surely you don't mean some sort of 'Garden of Eden' where everything is wonderful - cuz, I think the Losties would disagree with you.

 

[Mallet]

Well it would be wonderful, it's a beautiful place, it heals you, etc... it's only the bad people that ruin it. Crazy Other's, Insane smoke monsters, etc... If the island only had good people on it, then it would be pretty amazing place.

 

[Jenee]

So perhaps Jacob and MIB are Cain and Abel and they are protecting the garden.

 

[coolghoul]

^ Well - you are free of the past on the island per Jacob.

So while it might not be Eden, it might be a "re-start" or "start-anew" chance.

Re the lists, here's my theory.

#1 - Take Eko out of the question. His case is affected by the actor chosen and Adewale's wish to not continue on the show and also the supposed bad blood between him and some of the other actors. So my theory or any theory cannot truly account for either Eko's initial promise of importance and then his subsequent unimportance and death.

There is a list of candidates. However as we have seen, it is a list continuously being revised. With names being struck out as Jacob follows each character (either in his mind or creepily watching them thru the lighthouse to view their activities in the outside world or whatever mechanism he has to track them on the island). People who are struck out are innocents - they are not going to contribute anything to the overall plan. And for these, Jacob instructs the others to pick them up and give them shelter/comfort/food etc. - basically protect them (instead of letting them face the island alone or with the other survivors of the crash who are braving all kinds of things - boars, starvation, lack of basic medicine, shelter etc.) and keep them out of harm's way.

Also, since the candidates are closely associated with other people. eg. Jin is close to Michael etc. Rose and Bernard are close to several of the losties etc. it may not be possible to bring all the struck out people into the Dharma barracks for a more comfortable life.

Jacob while he does have a few powers, he is not omnipotent (otherwise MIB wouldn't have a chance to escape). If he can (assuming that MIB is not interacting with them), he will try to protect innocents by "removing" them from the island high-stakes game.