Genesis 11:27-25:18

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Source Criticism (Old Testament)

Thus the creation story of Gen 2:4b–25, the account of the building of the tent in Exodus 36–40, and the laws of Leviticus have so many points of style, expression, and theology in common that they probably derive from the same document

Questions:

What is the Hebrew name for Genesis?

What distinction does Mann make between the two functions of Toledot formula and when is each function operative?

What texts in the Primeval history are attributed to P?

What do these texts have in common: Gen 1:26-27; Gen 2:7; Gen 5:1-3; Gen 9:6?

Does Eve receive special blame?

Is Gen 2-3 a fall narrative? How so?

What are the two primary interpretations of Gen 6:1-4?

How is Noah a new Adam?

Where does the word “covenant” appear? What is it in Hebrew? What does it mean?

The Abra(ha)m Cycle

Behind the Text

A blend of J, E, and P and perhaps another source (ch. 14). Some place the earliest continuous text of E beginning at ch. 20 and through to 22; the major contribution of P is ch. 17. Classic doublets: J/E covenant ch. 15; P covenant ch. 17; “Say you are my sister” ch. 12 (J) and 21 (E); announcements of Sara conceiving ch. 17 (P) and ch. 18 (J)

Historicity of the Patriarchs: Friedman’s take seems judicious: “Relatively little of the Torah’s story can be verified historically. Sufficient evidence from extrabiblical sources and archaeological artifacts is lacking to make judgments for or against historical veracity. . . . The patriarchal narrative, involving the movements of a single nomadic family across the ANE, is unlikely to find specific verification. None of the patriarchs or their spouses or their children are mentioned in any extrabiblical source. The stories have been recognized to reflect general familiarity with the behavior of some peoples of the general area in the general period of the patriarchs (the first half of the 2d millennium B.C.), but the parallels are relatively few and are unspecific in relation to actual biblical persons and events. Even the best known parallels must be considered cautiously. . . .In sum, one can speak of an historical core of persons and events in the patriarchal and Mosaic ages as recounted in these books, with historical certainty diminishing as one focuses with ever more specificity on individual actions and details in the narrative.”

Richard Elliott Friedman, “Torah (Pentateuch),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 620-21.

Potential anachronism: the domestication of the camel; the presence of Philistines appears to be an anachronism since the emerged in the area only in the 12th century BC

Within the Text

“Go from your country”, 11:27-14:24

1. The toledot of Terah, Gen 11:27-32.

Bareness and an aborted journey

2. “Go lech-lecha from your country,” Gen 12:1-9.

Gen 12:1–3 Command and promise. What are the elements of each? What is the key word in these verses? How do the veres tie into the previous section and intot the primordial history?

There are two major translation questions: one in v. 2 and one in v. 3 The New Jerusalem Bible reflects both alternatives in comparison to the NRSV: “be a blessing…bless themselves by you”

Abram’s age: 75 (v. 4) Along with Lot, Abram arrives in Canaan: “Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your offspring/seed I will give this land” (v. 7).

3. “Down to Egypt,” Gen 12:10-20.

How does this section show the promise in peril?

4. “Up from Egypt,” Setttlement at Hebron, Gen 13:1-18.

Abram’s generosity: Lot looks East, but ominously, Gen 13:1-13.

“Raise your eyes”: land and offspring, Gen 13:14-18.

5. Abram rescues Lot from the war of the kings, Gen 14:1-16.

6. Abram and the Kings Salem and Sodom

Abram is treated to a banquet and blessed by Melchizedek, makes a tithe, and identifies Yahweh as el elyon; meanwhile the king of Sodom appears ungrateful. What does the episode demonstrate?

Righteousness and Subterfuge, chs. 15-16

Yahweh makes a covenant with childless Abram

notice the different setting of these divine encounters

notice how questions from Abram move the discourse forward; what is and is not clarified about Abram’s heir?

notice the terrifying nature of the scene and the disturbing prediction

the covenant ceremony involves a cutting of the animals, cf. Jer 34:18-20, but what stands out here in relation to what is implied in Jer? Does God envoke a potential curse on himself and/or promise his presence?

the covenent focus, vv. 17-21, is particularly on the land

2. Sarai and Hagar

Sarai takes the initiatve, Gen 16:1-6. What prior J narrative is alluded to?

The angel of the LORD appears (first time: cf. Gen 18:2; 21:17; 22:11; Judg 6:11-22) to runaway Hagar (name: “the alien, foreigner”), Gen 16:7-14.

Ishmael is born; Abram’s age: 86, Gen 16:15-17.

The Sign of the Covenant, ch. 17

Abram’s age: 99 (v. 1). Charge (v. 1). Covenant (v. 2): progeny-nations (name change: Abraham) and land (vv. 1-8).

The sign of the covenant: circumcision (vv. 9-14).

Abraham’s Laughter: Sarai—>Sarah (90) to be “blessed with a child” (v. 16): “Isaac” (vv. 15-22)

Circumcision en masse, “that very day” (vv. 23-27) (conceiving a child with Sarah will have to wait!)

Divine Visitors, chs. 18-19

Abraham’s hospitality to three visitors; an anouncement; Sarah’s laughter: Gen 18:1-15.

Dialogues about righteousness (ts-d-q) and Abraham’s role, Gen 18:16-33.

The inhospitality of the men of Sodom; Lot’s cowardice, Gen 19:1-11.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen 19:12-29.

Lot’s daughter’s; comic reversal; ethnic polemics, Gen 19:30-38.

Resolutions: Ishmael, Abimelech, and Isaac, chs. 20-21

Abraham, still an alien in the land of promise, stumbles and endangers Abimelech; key word: ts-d-k (v. 4; cf. Gen 18:16-33). Abraham, “a prophet” (v. 7) Gen. 20.

Sarah bears Isaac, Gen 21:1-7.

“Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac” Gen 21:8-21.

Note: Next to Abraham, Hagar has the most intimate encounters with God in the Abraham cycle, and her offspring is likewise blessed. Next most intimate: Abimelech! (cf. Gen 20:3-7)

From mistaken wife to mistaken well: Abimelech and Abraham make a covenent at Beersheba, Gen 21:22-34.

The Test, ch. 22

Narrative knowledge: a test (v. 1). “Here I am” (heneni, also Gen 22:7, 11, ); “go (lech lecha) to the land . . . that I will show you” (cf. Gen 12:1).

Explore the narrative artistry and ambiguity of the text, Gen 22:1-18.

God’s oath: “because you have done this” (v. 16), Gen 22:15-19.

Abraham’s father’s household, Gen 22:20-24 (cf. Gen 11:27-30)

Epilogue, chs. 23:1-25:18

Sarah dies and Abraham must purchase land to bury her in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron near Mamre (Hebron), in the land of Canaan, Gen 23

Abraham secures a wife for Isaac, from his father’s household, one who will be willing to come to Canaan (generous and courageous Rebekah); Laban is introduced; Isaac and Rebekah wed, Gen 24.

Abraham takes a second wife, Keturah. Has more children, gives all that he had to Isaac and sends the others off to the east with gifts, Gen 25:1-6; Abraham dies (175 yrs) is buried by Isaac and Ishmael alongside Sarah, and Isaac is blessed by God, Gen 25:7-11; Ishmael’s descendants, Gen 25:12-18.

In Front of the Text

Melchizedeq, Ps 76:2; 110:2-4; Heb 10

Abram’s righteousness Gen 15:6; Gal 3; Rom 4

Abraham’s visitors

The binding of Isaac

Auerbach, Odyyseus’ Scar

"It would be difficult, then, to imagine styles more contrasted than those of the two equally ancient and equally epic texts. On the one hand [in Homer], externalized, uniformly illuminated phenomena, at a definite time and in a definite place, connected together with lacuna in a perpetual foreground; thoughts and feelings completely expressed; events taking place in a leisurely fashion and with very little suspense. On the other hand [in Genesis], the externalization of only so much of the phenomena as is necessary for the purpose of the narrative, all else left in obscurity; the decisive points of the narrative alone are emphasized, what lies between is nonexistent; time and place are undefined and call for interpretation; thoughts and feeling remain unexpressed, are only suggested by the silence and the fragmentary speeches; the whole permeated with the most unrelieved suspense and directed toward a single goal (and that extent far more of a unity), remain mysterious and 'fraught with background.'"

-- Erich Auerbach, Mimesis

“The Scripture stories do not, like Homer’s, court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us—they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be sujected we are rebels.”

“In the story of Isaac, it is not only God’s interention at the beginning and the end, but even the factual and psychological elements which come betweeen, that are mysterious, merely touched upon, fraught with background; and therefore they require subltel investigation and interpretation, they deman them. Since so much in the story is dark and incomplete, and since th reader knows that God is a hidden God, his effor to intepret it constantly finds something new to feed upon”

“certain parts brought into high relief, others left obscure, abruptness, suggestive influence fo the unexpressed, ‘background’ quality, mulitplicity of meanings and the need for interpretation, universal-historical cliams, development of the concept of the historically becoming, and pre-occupation with the problematic.”