The anachronism in Abraham's oberservance of the laws
The statement in Gen 26:3b-4 echoes the divine covenant that God previously made with Abraham; it affirms Abraham's obedience to God, the promise of the land, and the universal blessings that will flow through him. Gen 26:5 adds a further statement about Abraham's meritorious observance of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
2016
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 2015, Volume: 86, Pages: 1-35 |
| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Bible. Genesis 26,4
B Divine covenant B Abraham Biblical person B Legislation Theology B Torah B Bible. Genesis 26,3-5 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The statement in Gen 26:3b-4 echoes the divine covenant that God previously made with Abraham; it affirms Abraham's obedience to God, the promise of the land, and the universal blessings that will flow through him. Gen 26:5 adds a further statement about Abraham's meritorious observance of God's “charge, commandments, statutes, and laws.” This statement raises important issues that are the focus of this study. Among these are issues related to language, namely, what I will refer to as the “clustering” of terms describing various kinds of divine laws, apparently in order to convey completeness or totality. At the same time, the varied, almost random, combinations of law terms serve to blur their individual identities. These features are explained as resulting from the combination of secular, cultic, and ritual laws within the Pentateuch, which is associated with an increasing political role assumed by the priesthood in Judea. Also, the need arises to explain the assertion that Abraham had somehow managed to observe all, or so many, of the divinely given laws when, according to the Bible's narrative, these were promulgated only centuries later in the Wilderness. This apparent anachronism was in fact already noted in early Hellenistic as well as in medieval rabbinic writings. Gen 26:5 is here explained as a reflection of the following ideas: that God was a universal law-giver; that such laws already appear in the covenant with Noah; and that Abraham is implied to have known and followed these universal laws in pre-Mosaic times. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.15650/hebruniocollannu.86.2015.0001 |