20260721 Transcript

T&MP 2026-07-21 Who Was Abraham? - Centre Place

Who Was Abraham?

Transcript:

The Abrahamic Religions

(00:00) Our topic this evening, who was Abraham? Was sort of surprised that we have never really done a full deep dive lecture on Abraham who is such an important uh biblical figure but also such an important figure in the religions that are called after his name, the Abrahamic religions. So for example, the Cabba, which is literally means cube, the Cabba of Mecca.

(00:34) Uh it's a stone building at the center of a mosque in Mecca where pilgrims make the conclusion of the Haj, the great pilgrimage. That is one of Islam's five pillars. In other words, something that Muslims ought to try to do at least once in their life if they can. The Cabba also uh marks the direction to which Muslims face five times each day when offering prayers.

(01:01) Um the modern building, you know, it's been destroyed many many times in history. The modern building uh uh is a reconstruction that included massive structural replacements that happened as recently as 1996 having um been an update of an Ottoman era uh rebuilding that had happened centuries earlier and so on.

(01:25) So during the prophet Muhammad's lifetime there was an earlier Cabba and that was seen by the local Arab community as a holy shrine and in it multiple traditional gods of the Arabs were worshiped including one named Hubal whose name is thought to derive from the Bal or Lord uh a god in the pantheon of the Canaanites.

(01:52) And the shrine was also said to house 360 statues where different of different gods venerated. And the number there seems to be pretty telling. So maybe it's related to the calendar where there is a a god assigned to each day of a local solar year calendar. So Islamic tradition anyway believes that that that polytheism that worship of multiple gods that uh filling of the Cabba with idols is a later degradation.

(02:24) Um because again traditional legend had that that long before one of the rebuildings had been by uh a prophet Ibraim which is the Muslim understanding or name for Abraham and his son Ismael. again the Muslim name for Ishmael and it had been at that time anyway a place to worship the one God Allah. Islamic tradition then identifies Arab peoples as descendants of Abraham via his eldest son Ishmael giving um him a very prominent role in the religion.

(03:01) And this is um an inheritance that Islam has from uh stories that are found also in the Hebrew Bible. Of course, in Jewish tradition, Abraham is also understood to be the ancestor of the Jewish people via Isaac, his son by his wife Sarah, and then Isaac's son uh Jacob, who is the imponous ancestor of Israel.

(03:31) um since his name is both Jacob and Israel. And then of his 12 sons, one of them is Judah, the aonomous ancestor of uh the Judeans or and which is where we get our name uh uh Jewish and Jew. Okay. And since Christianity like rabbitic Judaism is one of the heirs of second temple Judaism, all three of these religions, Judaism, Christianity in Islam along with other groups like the Samaritans are called Abrahamic religions because of this common traditional understanding.

(04:08) If we just look at um kind of a a very simplified chart of these religions beginning with uh Judaism of the first temple uh before the temple of Solomon is destroyed by the Babylonians. Um after the exiles return from Babylon in the Persian period and rebuild a temple that becomes second temple Judaism which lasts all the way down until the Romans destroy the second temple.

(04:36) Um the Samaritans also uh emerge as an heir during the second temple period of first temple Judaism as they uh go into sism from uh other second temple Jews and maintain their own traditions, their own Torah, their own temple uh in the northern heartland, Mount Girazim. And we also mentioned that since the second temple Jewish religion is um beginning or is refounding itself uh within the Persian period, there also seems to be significant um influence from the religion of the Persian Empires or Astrianism um which is seen as either one of the

(05:22) original or monotheist or or maybe uh duotheist religions. Um like I say, one of the principal errors of second temple Judaism after the destruction of the temple and the regrouping of the religion by the rabbis instead of being led by um priests who are making sacrifices as debic Judaism of which almost all Judaism today is descended whether it's orthodox, reform, conservative and the other types so for and so forth they all are part of rabbitic Judaism.

(05:56) The other principal heir being Christianity that also was significantly influenced by Greek paganism or more specifically Hellenism in general but especially Greek philosophical ideas. You know that also was influencing second temple Judaism the entire time but in some ways rabbitic Judaism um pushed back more on it than Christians who tended to embrace the Greek inheritance much more fully.

(06:22) Um early Christianities one of the principal errors is the imperial religion of the Roman Empire um which ultimately became split into eastern uh Greek Christianity and western Latin Christianity among other heirs like the uh traditions of um uh African Christianity and also uh uh further east Christianity, the churches of the east.

(06:51) Um, one of the diverse communities within early Christianity that eventually went distinct, I'm sorry, extinct is the Christians who continued to follow Mosaic law. And it seems to be this branch of Christianity that influenced early Islam uh with its major components being the Sunnis and the Shiites. Although again there are multiple um more traditions than all of the ones that I'm having here in this very very simplified diagram.

(07:21) And so with all of these religions looking back to Abraham and seeing Abraham a little differently um we could have an entire lecture on how um Abraham is seen and how Abraham is understood in later sources. So how do the rabbis talk about Abraham? How is Abraham understood in Christianity both east and west? How to how is u he talked about in the New Testament, the Christian scripture.

(07:52) How is he talked about by again the in the literature of the rabbis? How is he talked about in both the Quran and all of the hadith uh of Islam, the sayings associated and teachings associated with the prophet Muhammad. And so that will have to come in a very different lecture. But what I want to look at instead is what can we say about uh Abraham and the character all the way up to the tradition as we have it in the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.

Abraham in Biblical Studies

(08:24) So Abraham is one of the first major characters. Actually he's the first major character in Genesis. So the stories of creation, the Eden story, Adam and Eve, then the Cain and Abel story and some other uh traditions associated with Cain, uh Noah and the flood story. These are all pretty pretty brief stories where the characters more or less only have one or two very brief stories attached to them.

(08:51) Suddenly we get to Abraham and there are lots and lots of stories and um and he becomes therefore a first major major figure. Abraham. Um, we've done recently a story on Moses and the Exodus and how the Exodus is one of the two origin stories or origin myths for the Israelites. And so the idea when you're trying to say as a people who you are one of the where did you come from the the options tend to be you either as a people you always were here you um have been there as long as the the stones and maybe you um emerged out of the rocks or or something

(09:32) like that or you came from somewhere else and there are two we came from somewhere else stories competing in in Genesis and Exodus. So one is um everybody came from from Egypt and led through the wilderness and came into the land of Canaan uh led by Moses and then uh his successor Joshua and another one is uh Abraham as the progenitor came from of the childies.

(10:04) He's um told by God to leave. He goes first to Haron in northern Mesopotamia and then makes it into the land of Canaan which um becomes again another origin story. Where did we come from? We came from via the northern Mesopotamia i.e. you know following along the fertile crescent here. So um Genesis uh 5 and Genesis 11 uh has a document that is sort of famous for these begats where saying so and so lived a certain amount of time and he begget him and her and so forth or actually all hymns.

(10:43) Uh and um this is thought by many scholars to be a separate discrete book uh like a Mesopotamian king list, the Samrian king lists where um the a document that's talking about all of the early patriarchs above whom very few actually have stories in Genesis. So, Adam has a story um Noah and uh and then Abraham and the others really just have a couple words associated with them like Enoch and Palelech.

(11:18) And so, um when you look at the book of Generations, it's split in Genesis into two parts in order to uh go from Adam to the Noah story and then from Noah to the Abraham stories. And and this is one of the first places that Abraham then appears. He's um in this particular book of generations, he's seen as a vital uh originating patriarch and we need to bring him from all of the antid-doluvian mythic patriarchs down past the flood to um the first one who was seen as the the general progenitor.

Historical and Archaeological Context

(11:56) So as um what are the sort of sources that we have outside of Abraham outside the Bible? So um some scholars have tried to connect Abraham based on his name and so if you go back you know further back into the time period when maybe Abraham would have live lived. So this map is uh dated to the 18th century BC and is showing the various Amorite u states and kingdoms that existed.

(12:31) And so um there are names that people have found for example in the kingdom of Mari where there's somebody a car a figure there named Abi Ram which sounds a little like um Abraham or Abram and same thing uh a Amorite king of Babylon is name has a name like Sumu Abum. The problem with all of these is that because you know OB that just the B in Abraham um is related to this Semitic word for father there's all sorts of names that have a little bit of that in it and so these are not particularly convincing um you know as as uh like we

(13:14) haven't really found Abraham we haven't found any of the stories we've found um that there are figures in Semitic kingdoms that have uh names that have components that include, you know, this B and so and this M and maybe maybe that is somehow related. It's not very um particularly convincing in that case.

(13:37) Um the ancient Egyptian records have also been scoured to find potential references to Abraham. So for example uh there's a stale of Si at Be Shan in Canaan in Galilee that mentions a local Canaanite tribe that's called the Raham. And so an Italian historian um Mario the Verani has speculated well if uh if they themselves thought of them have themselves as having a progenitor he would be the Abu Ra Raham.

(14:11) In other words, the father of the Raham, which could get us to a a name that sounds like Abraham. But that name is itself not attested. We just have the Raham attested. So this is a completely kind of a hypothetical uh anonymous ancestor. So again, not particularly convincing. There is an inscription from another pharaoh, Shashank I from the 10th century that mentions a town in the Negev in the desert in the southern part of Canaan called the fortress of Airaama.

(14:48) And so again, there's a possibility here with the B and the R and the M that we have some kind of an existence of an Abraham tradition in the region as early as the 10th century. And that's possible, but again, it's not um finding anything in terms of stories or or anything closer to that uh for Abraham or any historicity.

(15:09) So really, apart then from these speculative connections on Abraham's name, we don't really have any traces of the character uh outside the Bible. So let's look at the Bible. So um we did a lecture when did the Torah become authoritative. So when we look at the five books attributed to Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, um we concluded that um based on looking at all of the um other books of the Bible that the Torah really only became authoritative or well read or really important um quite late in the Makabian

(15:54) or Hasmonian period, that is to say during the sort sort of short-lived independent Judeian kingdom in the second temple period. Um, and but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of the texts weren't around. It's just that they weren't maybe as widely circulated and important, although it could mean that uh they have a later date than sometimes.

(16:18) So, people argue the date of the composition. But what we can definitely say is that although stories set in Genesis, you know, they are meant to be set in a very distant past in some cases essentially the the mythic past, the once upon a time uh kind of setting of the pre the anti-doluvian period and thus come first chronologically.

(16:40) They're not the first biblical text to have been composed. So the pentatuk took its final form during the second temple period. Um but it also may include source texts that date from the exilic and pre-exilic the first temple period. And that's also true for psalms for the deuteronomic histories. In other words, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.

(17:08) Um and it's actually also true for um uh prophetic books which continued to be edited and added to. But um parts of the prophetic books um are traceable to prophets who are active in the first temple period. And so they become some of our earliest biblical voices. And again, nobody who is writing um a book, any one of these books that become the uh the Hebrew Bible, they become the Christian Old Testament, nobody is writing that book with the idea that um their their little book is going to get compiled into a big thing that's going

(17:46) to be a Bible. Um that's something that happens later. So these are all distinct texts um and and therefore they can be looked at to see what they know about for example characters in Genesis. And so while some of the characters in Genesis like Adam and Eve, we did a whole lecture on um the Eden story, they're not referenced by the first temple prophetic writers and they therefore may have been unknown to them.

Abraham in the Prophets

(18:16) Um, Abraham is more like Moses in that he is a figure that there is a seemingly long tradition about. And so he's mentioned by prophets including Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah who um were alive and operating in the pre-exelic time, the first temple period. Jeremiah into the exile times. And then he's also mentioned by Ezekiel who's writing at the time of the exile.

(18:43) So between the first and second temple periods. So if we go to Isaiah in its present form, the book of Isaiah includes poems that are thought to have been written by the original prophet Isaiah who was active perhaps in the 8th century BC. And then to those uh poems which are spread around with in chapters 1-39 of the present book of Isaiah.

(19:13) In addition to those there are pros editions and those pros editions are thought to date sometime to the end of the 7th century the time of King Josiah that is to say the very end of the first temple period. And that component then scholars call protoisa. Chapters 40 to 55 were added in the 6th century BC by an anonymous author during the exile.

(19:43) So between the periods dudero Isaiah is what these are called. And then finally chapters 56 through 66 are post exilic written in the Persian period added by a second temple author that scholars call Isaiah or maybe multiple trido Isisa authors. So Abraham is referenced by all three, but of course it's the protoisa reference that's the earliest and the most important for our um uh attempt to find out how early this tradition is.

(20:15) So in Isaiah 29 there is a general poetic lament for the city of David. And so it begins, "Woe to you Ariel. Ariel, the city where David settled. And then as that poem continues on, there's a reference to Abraham that is a pros insertion towards the end. And so that insertion says, "Therefore, this is what the Lord who redeemed Abraham says to the descendants of Jacob.

(20:50) " And so after that insertion, um the poem then continues on with words of insurance. And they always go, "No longer will Jacob be ashamed. No longer will their faces grow pale." In other words, all of the Israelites. Um, Jacob is a um seen as the aonomous ancestor. And so, it's used as a poetic poetically here to mean all of the people.

(21:15) So, no longer will their faces grow pale. When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my holy name. They will acknowledge the holiness of the holy one of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. So the original prophet then is using the names Jacob and Israel as um as a as a shorthand for the whole Israelite population for whom Israel and Jacob are autonomous ancestors.

(21:44) And it's the pros insertion here that connects um Jacob's descendants to Abraham. And so um the author here writing probably around the time of Josiah is also mentioning Abraham as an important progenitor along with Jacob. The author of that pros edition presumes that the audience is already familiar with the name Abraham and some story in which the Lord redeemed him.

(22:14) And so that's all the the shorthand that gets inserted. It doesn't say. So then if we go to the um next section of Isaiah, dudero Isaiah written again during the exile between the two temple periods. The author of this section also connects Abraham with Jacob as a progenitor of the people.

(22:40) So in Isaiah 41 we read, "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham, my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth and from its farthest corners I called you." So again, we have here Abraham connected to Jacob as a progenitor. And in this case um maybe there's also a familiarity with a tradition that Abraham is coming from a different place.

(23:11) In other words, you were brought um brought to the land to land of Canaan, you know, from a different place based on this calling that Abraham had. There's a second reference to Abraham in Deuteriah that illustrates the author is familiar with some of the Abraham tradition as we know it from Genesis. So in chapter 51 of Isaiah, we read, "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were cut and the quarry from which you were hewned.

(23:50) " In other words, look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave you birth. You know, you are cut from that rock. He's your progenitor. Sarah is his wife is your progenitor. When I called him, he was only one man and I blessed him and made him many. And so with that reference in Deuteriah, then we have this connection of Abraham with his wife Sarah as the earliest progenitor of the Israelites including this idea that God had taken one man and blessed him and made him many.

(24:27) So the image uh that exists in Genesis has Abraham envisioning his posterity uh as being as future posterity as being as numerous as the stars. And so he had been a guy as the ancestor. When you go all the way through that whole book of records from Adam to Abraham, you're he's the starting point of the whole nation. There's only one of him and God makes him many.

(24:53) So if we look at uh Micah, Micah is one of the minor prophets and the actual historical Micah would have been a contemporary essentially of Isaiah. Um but like the book of Isaiah, the book of Micah as we have it has been added to and it only reached the form that we have it in the second temple period either in the Persian part or even as late as the Hellenistic period.

(25:18) And so the single reference we have in Micah to Abraham also connects him with Jacob as a progenitor. So in Micah 7 we read, "You will be faithful to Jacob and show love to Abraham as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago." So um again taking these ancestors but introducing here also that God is faithful um because of a pledge, an oath, a covenant that God has made long ago.

(25:53) So Micah here there's awareness of Abraham and Jacob as um as both progenitors but also involving a covenant. The prophet Ezekiel as we mentioned is active at the time of the exile. So after um Jerusalem has been destroyed by the Babylonians and uh leaders of the community have been taken away into exile in Babylon. And again, Ezekiel shows that he's aware of the tradition of Abraham, who is both a progenitor of Israel and also had possession of the land as a single human being, a single human being who later was multiplied and became many because of God's activities. And so

(26:36) Ezekiel writing to his fellow exiles said, "The Lord, I'm sorry, the word of the Lord came to me." Chapter 33 of the book, he said,"Son of man, the people living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying,"Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many. Surely the land has been given to us as our possession.

(27:03) " Therefore, say to them, "This is what the sovereign Lord says. Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land? You rely on your sword who do detestable things. Each of you defiles his neighbor's wife. Should you then possess the land? So this is an interesting um you know kind of condemnation.

(27:31) And this is common thing that prophets do is tell people they need to um stop their different activities, stop worshiping idols, start obeying commandments like um eating meat the proper way, uh stop you know u different different obey the different commandments. Um, so Ezekiel's contemporaries though are obviously equating possession of the land of Canaan with a gift that God made to their progenitor Abraham when he's just one guy.

(28:04) And Ezekiel here is simply adding with that, okay, if there is any such covenant, that covenant is conditional and it would require Israelites to obey God's laws, which is the kind of thing that you prophets tend to think and say. Uh we have another example in the prophet Jeremiah who is acted at the very end of the first temple period and then lives on after Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah are destroyed.

(28:31) He goes into exile in this case in Egypt as opposed to everybody else who's off in Babylon. Jeremiah's writings and themes, as we've seen in a bunch of lectures, are associated with the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth of the um Pentatuk books, the five books attributed to Moses and also with themes of the Deuteronomic School.

(28:55) So the next set of books, the Deuteronomic histories, uh which are Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. So the book of Jeremiah makes a single reference to Abraham. Um Jeremiah in chapter 33 says, "This is what the Lord says. If I have not made my covenant with day and night and establish the laws of heaven on earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David, my servant, and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(29:33) for I will restore their fortunes and have compassions on them. So as sure as God has, you know, made day and night, he also has made this covenant and uh and the promise is there will be a restoration. And so once again, Abraham is understood as a progenitor. In Jeremiah here, he's connected not only with Jacob, but he's also we have the for the first time Isaac mentioned along with the order of uh the patriarchs as we find them in Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(30:06) And so, um, this shouldn't surprise us as it seems like Jeremiah, um, is maybe familiar. Again, we're or part of the same school that is, um, maybe helping produce, uh, the Deuteronomic histories and maybe at least one of the source texts beyond Deuteronomy of the um, Bible might be familiar with one of the source texts of the uh, Pentatuk that is.

(30:31) So this same formula um you know your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob um is given seven times in the book of Deuteronomy and in fact the Dubic of Deuteronomy never mentions Abraham without also mentioning Isaac and Jacob. So that just coming together in this kind of a formula um which makes sense again because the themes are similar between Jeremiah and these other books.

(30:55) So if we look at those deuteronomic histories um we find the very same formula in the last of them in second kings um in chapter 13 of second kings um during the reign of one of the kings of the northern kingdom king Jehoaza Aaz we read that Hazel king of Aram that is to say the area of Syria Damascus Hazel king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz.

(31:26) Uh but the Lord was gracious to them, the Israelites, and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To this day, he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. So in addition to connecting Abraham to Isaac and Jacob as progenitors, then we have this Deuteronomic theme of a covenant that God uh has made dating back to them.

(31:57) So that is a theme that is um the Deuteronomic histories are aware of uh covenant. In first kings um we have this great story of the prophet Elijah who um is having a big um showdown with the uh wicked priests of Baal uh Canaanite God. and he offers a prayer uh to God who and he speaks to these same three progenitors but instead of saying Jacob he uses Jacob's alternate name Israel as the autonomous name for the ancestor of the Israelite people.

(32:33) So in the context again I'm sorry in his contest with the priest of Baal Elijah prays at the time of the sacrifice the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed Lord the God of Abraham Isaac and Israel let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord.

(32:58) Answer me. So that these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. And so, of course, at the end of the um the prayer, uh Israel, Elijah's sacrifice, you know, pillar of fire comes down and consumes the whole thing where the um the sacrifices of the priest of Baal, you know, were ignored.

(33:18) So Baal is is is simply an idol. And then finally out of the Deuteronomic histories um the last reference we have to Abraham is in the book of Joshua which provides a much more complete telling of the Abraham tradition. Um, and so this is on the occasion when Joshua has entered the land and he renews the covenant, the covenant that is the Abrahamic, Isaac and Jacob covenant at Sheckchum, the northern capital, the place that is later um, you know, the site of the or near the site of the um, the Samaritan temple. So we

(34:00) read in Joshua chapter 24 that he assembled all the tribes of Israel at Sheckchham. He summoned the elders, the leaders, the judges, and the officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, "Long ago, your ancestors, including Terara, the f father of Abraham.

(34:26) " So that's a name we haven't seen except for in the book of generations. So in other words, not in any of the other extra biblical reference I mean sorry extra Torah references in Bible texts. So including Terara the father of Abraham and Nahor. So Abraham's brother. So long ago your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.

(34:51) But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and I led him throughout Canaan and I gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Sar, that is to say the uh region of Edom to Esau. So uh and Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.

(35:17) And so um this is a retelling of a lot of the tradition including this idea that um Abraham is another one of these stories that the people how they get to the land. So Abraham came from the land beyond the Euphrates. God brought him and uh and gave him descendants in Canaan. There's a bunch of uh descendants including the uh who are descendants from Esau which is again confirmed in in Genesis.

(35:44) And then the text goes on to talk about uh Jacob and Joseph in Egypt and also uh the story of Moses and Aaron leading the people out of Egypt again. So finally um Abraham is mentioned in two of the Psalms. So in terms of as we're doing this study of all the different places he is known in books in the Bible outside the five books attributed to Moses the Torah.

(36:11) So, first of these, Psalm 47 is a psalm with a pretty jubilant tone. So, it says, "Clap your hands all you nations. Shout to God with cries of joy, for the Lord most high is awesome, the great king over all the earth. He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. He chose our inheritance for us.

(36:37) The pride of Jacob whom he loved. God reigns over other na over the nations. God is seated on his holy throne. The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham. For the kings of the earth belong to God. God is greatly exalted. So although this isn't fully explicit here, the psalmist may be connecting Abraham with a tradition of being the father of many nations.

(37:02) that of course would include the Israelites while singling Jacob out as Israel's special progenitor um and having them at the at the top of the pinnacle. So maybe in this case a um an understanding that is is pre-exilic possibly. Psalm 105 has a lot more details. It's a retelling again of the central Pentetuk story, Torah story, beginning with Abraham, followed by Jacob, skipping Isaac, but going to Joseph in Egypt and including with a lengthy retelling of the Exodus story.

(37:40) So, the Psalm 105's author again sees Abraham as progenitor and also sees him as connected to a covenant about the land of Canaan. So we read in that psalm, remember the wonders the Lord has done, his miracles and the judgments he pronounced. You his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

(38:06) He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever. The promise he made for a thousand generations. the covenant he made with Abraham. Oh, we do have Isaac here. So, the oath he's swore to Isaac. So, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yeah. So, and he confirmed it to Jacob as a decree to Israel as an everlasting covenant to you.

(38:31) I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit. So, like I say, the psalmist here also connects Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Psalm 105. Nevertheless, it's hard to decide how to date that one. So, the book of Psalms as we have it is a collection that is brought together during the second temple period.

(38:54) And while some of the individual psalms seem really really early, they make references to the king and the court of Judah back before um that kingdom was destroyed and so therefore date those um texts to the first temple period. Others are clearly composed during the exile and lots are composed also during the Persian and Henistic periods.

(39:18) And so this one um with its significant retelling of the Torah tradition, it gives the impression maybe of being late, possibly composed after the Torah took its final shape and dependent on it. However, um we've looked at this psalm before when we did our lecture on the flood because it actually gives a different number and order to the plagues on Egypt than the ones that exist in Exodus as we have it.

(39:46) And so, one theory is that this psalm um the psalmist here has access to one of the source texts or so of the uh Torah, but not all of it. So, what can we say? That's a lot actually. It's a pretty widespread tradition that exists. People are aware of Abraham within, you know, the Israelite write bookw writing community here, the prophetic and uh other communities.

(40:15) And so in the books of the Bible outside the Torah, Abraham is generally well known as a progenitor. He's frequently and very early paired with Jacob who is one of the uh names for the aonomous ancestor of the Israelites. The other being Israel and those earliest prophetic authors at least know that much. Part of the tradition pretty early on is that from one man he becomes a multitude.

(40:46) Um, out of all of them, as we saw, it was really only the duterose that mentioned Abraham's wife Sarah, but um, they just aren't giving a lot of details. So, she may well be known pretty early on at two. By the time we get to Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the destruction of the first temple, the exile, Abraham is very clearly already associated with a covenant that God has made to with the Israelites.

(41:16) giving them possession of the land of Canaan. And as you can imagine once um uh you know in the context of people who have had their kingdom destroyed who go into exile and then um by the time we get especially to the Persian period when people uh from Babylon have returned and rebuilt Jerusalem and its temple within the Persian Empire as the um pro capital of a of a very minor Persian province.

(41:48) um stories of uh this covenant, stories of um both in terms of the the Exodus uh people going from a foreign land uh like Egypt and coming back to the um the promised land or Abraham again coming from Mesopotamia, this um the same area where the exiles have been and returning to the land.

(42:13) um these become ever more important and probably the stories that um while already existing gain more and more emphasis and become the ones that people keep and retell. Um like I say, this is a widespread tradition, but as we've seen, there were very few details. So outside the retelling in Joshua and Psalm 115, the biblical authors didn't have a lot of details uh that they recount of the Abraham story.

(42:43) And so, like I say, it's possible that the compilers of Joshua and that particular psalmist of Psalm 115, they already had access to the Torah or Pentatuk as we have it. Or it's also possible that they had access to one of the component texts that were used to create the five books of Moses, the Pentatuk or Torah. So as we mentioned some of the really famous details that we'll be aware of that you know that um maybe have gone unmentioned are what about the story of Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac that um they talk about Abraham Isaac and Jacob but they

(43:23) don't reference that story or what there's no reference in any of these about um in during the covenant uh God changing Abraham's name from an original name Abram. So in other words, some of these details as we have it in the tradition and Genesis as it exists are not part of uh the details we see extra outside the Torah.

The Composition of the Torah

Source: unfoldingWord Hebrew Grammar

(43:47) So if we turn now to the Torah's creation, um we've had several lectures where we talk about um the five books attributed to Moses. So within them there are different clearly identifiable authoral voices. And so for example, the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth of the five books of Moses, is a completely distinct text and it's even one of the reasons why um we give it the name Deuteronomy, which means in Greek second law, is that um the whole story is sort of finished and then and then it we have another book that kind of tells it again or tells

(44:30) about the law again. Um then within the other uh four of the books um one of the one of the voices is very clearly stands out which is the the P author or the priestly author. And the priestly author is incredibly interested in um all of the different rituals, all of the different um you know types of vessels that are necessary in order to perform all of the priestly functions.

(45:00) And then the other voice that is um very very clear is the Yahwist voice, the J source as it's sometimes called. And and this is the more um you know let's say clever courtly kind of author who is telling stories that are um you know humorous that don't always seem particularly what we would think of as a religious book.

(45:27) And these are one of the reasons why the stories have so much character. And so regardless of of how the Torah was formed, um we can identify those voices within it. So um the different options in terms of Torah formation are the supplementary hypothesis and the documentary hypothesis that explains this idea.

(45:51) So the supplementary one imagines that essentially there was an initial text to which people kept on adding things as they expand the text and so there is a distinct J source author who has um you know added to Deuteronomy for example Deuteronomy is a distinct its own book. So J sources at the at the beginning of uh the rest of the four books tradition to which then a priestly author later adds um all kinds of additional um expansions and that ultimately by expansion becomes the the pentetuk as we have it.

(46:31) The more complicated idea is that um the there are multiple voices. Deuteronomy, the Yahwist, the Elohist, and the priestly author who wrote entirely distinct books. So Deuteronomy all by itself. Uh the other um three being edited together at different stages. So the Yahwist and Elois source redacted together to form a single J source.

(47:01) which was known to the priestly writer who didn't like it who wrote a alternative um Torah and then uh a later second temple period redactor brought uh the J and priestly things together by um putting texts side by side and trying to delete very little or edit and change very little. And so um in either case what we have for sure is um different authoral voices within the text at least two of which are quite identifiable.

(47:32) The Yahwist and the priestly source Deuteronomy being being its own separate thing. Uh and and so that has to be accounted for in one of the ways. And so in either either theory, the priestly author is seen as being later writing either at the very end possibly of the first temple period, possibly during the exile or as many most people I think think um writing at in the second temple period and with the Yahweh source maybe being a first temple and same thing Elo Elois source at the end of the first uh temple period.

(48:08) All right. So, we already saw um you know that among those things is also then there are things like the book of generations which um seem to have been you know freestanding texts that also get incorporated in that aren't part of any of the voices. And so we already saw that in that book of generations Abraham comes at the very end of it.

(48:30) And so in chapter 11 of Genesis at the very end of this um list of patriarchs we read when Nahor had lived 29 years he became the father of Tara. Then Nahor lived after the birth of Tara 119 years and had other sons and daughters. When Tara lived 70 years he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Heron. So this um brings this is the end of this succession where it starts with Adam and Adam's uh son Seth and takes us all the way down to uh Abraham or actually as we saw in the text here it actually says Abram. So in all of the sources we've

(49:12) considered thus far. So in other words, the whole tradition um of the biblical writers outside of the book of Genesis, the progenitor's name has been given as Abraham. And here it appears uh for the first time as Abram. So the tradition that God changed the name of the patriarch from Abram to Abraham is found in Genesis 17.

(49:41) And this is one of the um passages by the priestly author. And this is the priestly author's account of the Abrahamic covenant. And so in Genesis chapter 17, we read, "When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. I am El Shade. Walk before me and be blameless." Um so one of the things that uh the documentary hypothesis talks about is this idea that um uh in some of the versions specifically the Elohist document and the um priestly document God only reveals God's special name Yahweh to Moses um at the u at the

(50:33) burning bush on on Mount Horeb or Mount Si depending on which of the text is talking about it. And so um when in the priestly source therefore God is appearing to Abraham or Abram here, he doesn't yet hasn't yet revealed his name. And so he appears as God Almighty, Elshade, God Almighty. So I will make a covenant between me and you and I will make you exceedingly numerous.

(51:03) Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you. You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations." And so the name change here includes a folk etmology that co ancestor of a multitude.

(51:32) I will make you uh exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring and after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you now are an alien all the land of Canaan for a perpetual holding and I will be their God.

(52:04) So, um, as is the priestly author's want, um, the account goes on in a pretty legalistic detail to indicate that the sign of this covenant, this Abrahamic covenant is going to be the circumcision of every male in Abraham's family and all the slaves he has and so forth. Um, which is to be done at the age of 8 days old and so forth.

(52:26) So very interested in all of those kinds of um you know priestly rules is the pe author. So this tradition like I say of the name change this is found only in the priestly account of the covenant and like I say um the priestly author is generally understood to be the latest voice in the pentetuk Torah. Um and so so in other words the J source or the D source would have been written earlier.

(52:52) And so maybe the reason why um this tradition of the name change isn't known or isn't mentioned anyway by any of the other extra biblical authors is because um it maybe hadn't been introduced yet. And if um if that's the case um either the other voices would have had their own name change story or more more likely um a redactor has edited Abraham's name to Abram and all of the other source texts that are used prior to the place in the story where the priestly author makes the name change.

(53:26) And so um in the original book of generations, if there had been a freestanding document, it would have ended with Abraham instead of Abram. Um when we look at the names, both Abram and Abraham likely share the same actual ancient etmology where we have that um uh B that is going to mean father, ab and ram, which means high or exalted.

(53:53) And so both names likely mean exalted father. But um as is so often the case when there is a name that um is old in ancient tradition and predates um uh the when the priestly author is writing or when the Yahwist author is writing um they'll make up a meta edetmology. And so uh we saw that with Moses which um uh the Yahwist author says is derived from Pharaoh's daughter saying because I drew you from the water when in fact it's it's almost certainly that's not the origin of the name Moses.

(54:31) It's just a what it sounds like in Hebrew. So similar similarly here the folk etmology for Abraham is either an etmology or a pun where we take that ob meaning father and the word hammon meaning multitude for abhammon but that's not really what where Abraham comes from. And so again, like I say, that's probably an indication that the tradition of Abraham long predates the priestly writer.

(54:58) And we have that confirmed by all of the um instances we've seen of extra biblical writers at least being aware of Abraham as a progenitor associated with Jacob. So each of the major voices that we find in Genesis, so the Yahwist or J source, the Elohist or E source, the priestly author, they all tell Abraham stories, which is why um there are a lot of Abraham stories in Genesis.

(55:30) And like I say, he becomes the first major figure. And that also though leads to several dublets. Uh a double is when um we have two distinct sources and they tell the same story and then when it's combined together um they um they exist side by side. Um the other possibility is that again if it's a supplementary hypothesis it's a little harder to explain why they do it but essentially the person would write their own version of it and even though they kept the old version in there.

(56:01) Um, in addition, the editor or redactor of Genesis has included a bunch of materials um that are have independent voices, voices that don't seem to be any one of the major writers, some of which seem very obscure. So, we looked already at the book of generations as maybe a pre-existing document that is about Abraham that um doesn't have anything much more than his name in a genealogy list, but nevertheless becomes important for uh connecting him to the anti-delivian patriarchs and Adam.

The Genesis 14 Narrative

(56:36) But we have another another odd story that again doesn't match any of the the major voices. Um where Abraham is a participant in a story of a battle between nine different kings. Um we talked about this at a lot of length in our lecture on Methuselah. So it chap Genesis chapter 14 is a very obscure story um where Abraham figures as a main character also Lot is part of the story and um it also includes this very mysterious figure Melchazdc whose name means righteous king.

(57:17) So we read in in Genesis chapter 14 in the days of King Amrael of Shinar, King Aryok of Elisar, King Chedel Lear of Elam and King Tidal of These kings made war with King Barah of Sodom, King Bersa of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Adma, King Shemember of Zebo and the king of Bella that is Zoir. So all of these joined forces in the valley of Sidim that is the valley where the Dead Sea is.

(57:53) So historically, if we take those first set of kings, Elam is an actual historical kingdom in southwestern Iran. Shinar is the biblical name for Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. And so essentially we have four great kings of the east from kind of the the direction the other side of the Euphrates uh from the land of Canaan.

(58:16) They come and attack five much smaller uh kings of what are essentially the mythical city states. um Sodom, Gomorrah, Zebo, Adma, these um these um towns that are destroyed in in Genesis and uh essentially as a um at a an ideological myth that explains why is the Dead Sea dead? Why are there uh why is there a desert all around there? God destroyed this region.

(58:47) And so there's u mythic cities that are imagined to explain that um that you know u extremely salty dead um zone. Um and we also have from this story and the rest of the Genesis tradition uh the idea that within these uh this region Abraham's nephew Lot lives. And so after um these great eastern kings win the battle against these more petty kings of these little citystates um they then take a bunch of hostages including Lot.

(59:23) So they take him captive and that uh prompts Abraham's intervention. So when Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, the men born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. So Dan is the northernmost extreme um of the northern kingdom of Israel.

(59:49) So Abram divided his forces against these uh four kings of the east by night. He and his servants and he routed them and he preserved them to Hoba north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the goods and also all he brought back his nephew Lot with his goods and the women and the people. So everybody all of the booty that these um uh attacking kings had gotten.

(1:00:14) Abraham because his victory, he's able to recover all of that loot. And so it's sort of kind of an amazing story. So even though Abraham is simply portrayed as like a wealthy man with a large household, he and his allies who are the Amorites in this story are able to route these armies of four great kings who are going back home victorious.

(1:00:35) And so in the next part of the story after the victory, this is the part that we um that we emphasized in our lecture on Melazdc. Abraham author offers tithes to Melchazdc. And that of course has led to centuries of speculation. Um like I said that we talked about in that lecture about who who should this character of Melzdc be? How do we understand him? And then this um obscure story um in Genesis 14 concludes with a conversation uh between Abraham and the king of Sodom who has been his sort of ille.

(1:01:15) So the king of Sodom said to Abraham, I'm sorry to Abram, give me the persons that you've um been able to rescue, but take the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have sworn to God most high, Elshadai, the maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, "I have made Abram rich.

(1:01:44) So I will take nothing but uh what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me." In other words, my Amorite allies, Anor, Eshkall, and Mamray. So, let those guys take their share, but I'm not going to um take any of the booty from uh Sodom and Gomorrah because he wants to um even if we're allies, I'm not I don't want to it to be said that you made me rich.

(1:02:10) So, it's an interesting exchange. It seems to give us a kind of little glimpse into traditions about Abraham that predate the compilation of Genesis. Again, it's a story that um this is all we have from it in this that survived because it got inserted into Genesis. In it, Abram is allied with the Amorites.

(1:02:32) And although he again fights against the enemies of this mythical king of Sodom, he wants to make sure that this is understood to be an alliance of convenience. He is not a vassel of that king. So, like I say, because each of the major voices in Genesis, the Yahwehist, the Elohist, and the priestly source tell long Abraham stories, there are lots of doulets and even triplets.

(1:02:58) In other words, the same story being told multiple times. So when we started looking in Genesis, when we looked at the um change of Abraham's name from Abram to Abraham, that was embedded in the priestly version of the covenant. So really the covenant that God makes with Abraham about um both the land and also making a one man into a multitude is pretty much the most important thing in the Abraham story.

The Covenant and Sacrifices

(No scientific terms were found in the transcript)

(1:03:29) And so like I say in the priestly version that involved a name change and you know typically it's expressed by a priestly ritual circumcision something that the priests are especially worried about what are the rituals and rules. So the Yahwhist or the J version of the covenant story is found right after um right after this war of the nine kings story. Okay.

(1:03:53) So, it's in Genesis 15 where we read, "After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "Oh Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue to be childless. The heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.

(1:04:20) " Abraham said, "You have given me no offspring." So a slave born in my house, Ellier of Damascus, he's going to he has to be my heir. But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir. No one but your very own issue shall be your heir." And the Lord brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars if you're able to count them.

(1:04:44) " Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And Abram believed the Lord and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. Uh and then um as he continues in the story, I'm missing a a a slide there. What we also have is the the whole extent of the land that's going to be given.

(1:05:08) So it's going to give be given everything from uh the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, all of Canaan. includes the land of the Kennites, the Kennesites, the Cadminites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphael, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gegosites, and the Jebusites. So, um, so again, one of the things that happens in that middle part, uh, before God reckons that is in the in the J story, this covenant is sealed by Abraham offering a sacrifice.

(1:05:39) And so he collects a whole bunch of of animals um you know which included like a a ram and a pigeon and a and a a turtle dove and and so forth. And he offers an animal sacrifice to the Lord. And the Lord uh um in seeing that um makes this covenant and gives him all of the land and that's the sign of the covenant. And that um that sacrifice story is something that would never happen in the priestly telling of the covenant.

(1:06:11) So the priestly author considers himself to be a descendant of Aaron via um Aaron's descendant Zaduk, the high priest under David. And so the aonomous ancestor of the Arinid priests or you know who are they call themselves the Zadakites Sadducees is Zaduk. And so it's very important that um in in their telling of the story that Aaron is the first person to be allowed to offer sacrifices and it's a a right that belongs only to Aaron and his descendants.

(1:06:52) And so all of the stories that we know about earlier in Genesis um where sacrifices occurred. So for example when Noah um offers a sacrifice uh to God after the flood and God um responds with a rainbow which is a Noic you know a Noakid covenant that um God is not going to again destroy the world with a flood.

(1:07:15) um that is clearly not a priestly uh story because um because Noah is offering a sacrifice and that simply doesn't happen. So the same thing is true here. This is is a a Yahwist story of the covenant because it involves Abraham offering a sacrifice which he doesn't do in the priestly versions of the story. So there's also a more famous story of Abraham offering a sacrifice and that is of course um his sacrifice or almost sacrifice of Isaac and this has been identified as an Eloist or E story.

(1:07:52) Like I say, this is by proponents of the documentary hypothesis. And so, um, the the between the two hypotheses, the documentary and the supplementary hypothesis is is the question about whether you can really identify this esource. And so, not everybody agrees that this would be an e source. But what we can say about it is it's clearly not a priestly story, and it's a third um version of the covenant story.

(1:08:21) So maybe the Elois version. So Abraham is famously commanded by God to offer Isaac, his long-awaited son, by Sarah as a human sacrifice. So he um in this Genesis as we have it, he has already been able to have an elder son, Ishmael, by his wife's handmaidaden, uh Hagar. Um but this is uh Sarah's now long awaited child, Isaac.

(1:08:52) And so we read um well actually this sacrifice would have been in keeping with the longstanding Canaanite practice or practice in Canaanite religion that is actually listed as a commandment in Exodus which is also uh Exodus 13:es 1 and 2 which is also a passage that is identified as an esource passage. So in in that verse we read the Lord said to Moses consecrate to me all the firstborn whichever it is to open the womb among the Israelites of human beings and animals is mine.

(1:09:31) So the firstborn of every womb is mine says the Lord. And so this is an idea that um in Canaanite religion uh uh that there is um both for animals but also for humans there's human sacrifice where the the first born male child is um supposed to be sacrificed and this is something that um the Bible routinely condemns but it's a practice that it sees happening um uh in the contemporary canate religion and it's something that for example um the heirs of Canaanite religion in the form of the uh the the Phoenician um settlers in Carthage. This is something

(1:10:12) that um has been documented among the Carthaginians as well. And so the sacrifice of Isaac's story is Genesis 22. That's also an esource, an Elois passage. So we read in that uh chapter back in Genesis after these things God Elohim tested Abraham uh he said to him Abraham and Abraham said here I am.

(1:10:43) God said take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Mariah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll show you. And so Abraham duly brings Isaac. Isaac doesn't know what's going on. Isaac sees that they're going to go do a sacrifice, but he asks, "Wena know, where's the sheep for the burnt offering, and Abraham sort of tells him, "Well, God will provide.

(1:11:05) " And when they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid wood in order. He bound his son Isaac and laid him upon the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. So in the version of the story that we have it of course an angel of the Lord appears and stops Abraham from offering the sacrifice substituting a ram.

(1:11:38) Um however some biblical scholars including Richard Elliot Freriedman have argued that this may not have been the original story if there if the esource exists. If the es source has been a distinct text um that has been combined together by redactors, then the redactors may have possibly added this story of the angel coming and offering a substitute sacrifice.

(1:12:05) And he argues that when the uh this can be read this way because when um the esort picks up again, God says to Abraham, "Because you've done this and you've not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand that is on the seashore. and your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies and your by your offspring shall all nations of the earth gain blessings for themselves because you have obeyed my voice.

(1:12:37) So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersa and then Abraham lived at Beersa. So um you know we don't have here you know it doesn't say Abraham returned with Isaac to Beeba. It just Abraham returned with his young men. You know God is saying um in this uh text because you didn't you know you didn't hold back your son.

(1:13:05) In other words it didn't it doesn't um it doesn't say because you were willing to sacrifice him you but didn't have to do it anyway. So, and and also the other interesting thing is if you go to the next esource story, um uh Abraham finds a new wife. So, maybe um Sarah has either died or maybe this uh thing that happened has caused her to to drop dead.

(1:13:30) That part of the story is is not there. And this new wife, Coutur, is the one who gives Abraham a multitude of sons in the E s sources. nor are there any Isaac stories in in the Elohist text. So whether or not um that's what happens, what we can say is that this story is a backdrop for the E version of the covenant making these covenant stories a triplet.

(1:13:55) So God seems to make this covenant multiple times with Abraham. actually what we're having is three different very dramatic stories of why the covenant um is made or how so I just want to talk just a little bit about the the moral of the sacrifice story. So um so as it gets edited together in um uh in the redactors in in especially second temple Judaism um it's very important to um uh the prophetic voices the priestly voices in second temple Judaism to u expunge this earlier um Canaanite practice um which you know again Israelites are emerging

(1:14:42) out of out of the Canaanites. So is something that will have been practiced. And so making a story where uh Abraham is supposed to sacrifice his only son, but then making it so that uh instead of that uh God makes it very clear, no no let's not do this. We should sacrifice instead an animal and that will be a substitute.

(1:15:06) That is a way we can we can end this um previous uh practice. And ultimately this also gets worked into the um into the Exodus story with the uh the last plague on the Egyptians. And so once again um the angel of death, the god of death that has been um requiring the first of uh firstborn male of of every womb.

(1:15:35) Um the way they are turned away is by um following the law of substitution. And so you sacrifice a ram uh and you paint the blood over the doors of the lentil to show that the substitution has been paid. We are not going to be um continuing on with uh that you know archaic practice that has existed before. Unfortunately then because um you know so that's a really good thing to stop that kind of practice I was is how I would say it.

(1:16:05) Unfortunately, because of um how the story then is adapted uh and becomes a a test um uh certainly as this story gets interpreted uh in Christianity in in the New Testament, New Testament authors look to this and say um that this shows just shows how what an incredible obedient guy um Abraham is is that he's willing to uh uh kill his own son because he's he'll do anything that the the Lord tells him to do.

(1:16:35) And um and ultimately for me, I feel like that this is a that's that isn't the moral I would want to draw from this at all. I think Abraham shouldn't be doing what the Lord says if the Lord is going to tell him to do uh to do awful things. And so to from in now in from modern modern reinterpretation, um if it's going to be understood as a test, um I would say that that's a test that Abraham actually actually fails.

(1:16:58) But again, what we have here is a um is a tradition and a story that um gets repurposed uh it it in different stages when it's needed for different things. All right. So um in addition to uh having a triplet in terms of how the covenant is made between the priestly, the Yowist and the Elois stories, Yahwists and the Elois also tell another you know fascinating story of Abraham and Sarah when they take refuge at a royal court and they decide not to tell the foreign king that they are staying with that they're married. And so the

Hospitality and Royal Courts

(1:17:40) Yahweh version is set in Egypt. And we read in Genesis 12, there was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien. For the famine was severe in the land. And of course, Egypt is always able to resist uh uh localized famines because the Nile is getting its water from outside of the same climate zone.

(1:18:03) And so it it it's consistent. Um when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, "Sari," which is the pre-name change version of Sarah, he said to his wife, " Sarai, I know well that you are a woman, beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they'll say, this is his wife, excuse me.

(1:18:26) " And then they'll want to kill me, but they will let you live. say you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared on your account. And so when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that his, you know, his wife, the woman was very beautiful. And when the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh.

(1:18:49) And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake, Pharaoh dealt well with Abram. and he had sheep and oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys and camels. So, um, so Abraham's come out pretty good from this. Um, doesn't seem to seem seem so great for Sarai, who's now a concubine apparently in Pharaoh's house.

(1:19:13) The Lord then afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife?" Now then, here's your wife. Take her and be gone.

(1:19:37) And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him. and they sent him on his way with his wife and all of the um you know booty that he's been getting gotten from the uh being in favor from Pharaoh before. So both Abraham's sojourn here in Egypt and also the plagues that are brought upon Egypt, they prefigure the story that Jay and the other source voices are going to tell in Exodus that um in terms of you know in other words the plagues that Moses brings on Pharaoh and so forth.

(1:20:10) the fact that the Israelites then leave um Egypt much richer and desoil Egypt. And it shows Abraham as someone who can outwit his much more powerful neighbors. And so therefore as a um important ethnic hero for people who are a tiny people next to much more powerful great empires in Mesopotamia and Egypt. So the e source the elois also tells a similar story but sets it in a place called garrar.

(1:20:44) So while ring residing in gar as an alien said of his wife Sarah she is my sister and king Aimilec of Gar sent and took Sarah and that just means like father of the king or kingly father something like that. So it may just be a title like pharaoh. And God said to Aimilec in a dream by night. God came to Aimilec in a dream by night and said to him, "You're about to die because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a married woman.

(1:21:14) " Now, Amilec had not approached her. So, in this story, um uh we have a different outcome for for Sarah. Anyway, so he said, "Lord, will you destroy an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, "She is my sister?" And she herself said, "He is my brother." So I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.

(1:21:35) Uh Amilec complains to God. And so unlike the J story where Sarah is actually taken into the house of Pharaoh as a concubine, the E story anyway protects her virtue as God intervenes to warn off the foreign king. In this version, when asked to explain himself, Abram Abraham adds the detail. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

(1:22:04) So, he has married uh his halfsister. And that's explaining how why the story makes sense or uh can be on the one hand true, but on the other hand uh unsneaky and tricky, showing Abraham as a a clever person who outwits his neighbors in order and also plunders them. Um we also I also want to look at um you know one more uh kind of key story.

(1:22:30) The story of Abraham and Sarah giving hospitality to God when God uh visits them. God visits them in the form of of three three men but he's recognized as the Lord. So there's lots of other Abraham stories that we could include in our format, but um I want to read just this one from the J source because it kind of expla I think it also is com very compelling and explains both of these um figures and why they continue to be enduringly popular.

(1:23:04) So the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamry as Abraham sat in the entrance sat in the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and he saw three men standing near him. So the Lord is appearing to him but he's seeing in the form of three men. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and he bowed to the ground.

(1:23:27) He said, "My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant." So it is a um a ritual of extending hospitality.

(1:23:53) one of the central um principles of uh kind of the medieval uh operation I'm not medieval ancient neareastern code you know the the uh the guest host relationship. So they said, "Do as you have said." And so Abraham hastened to the tent to Sarah and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of flour. Knead it, make cakes.

(1:24:19) " And this is a practice that uh we see in throughout the bib Bible um Israelite women doing making cakes as part of um essentially a um a ritual for giving sacrifices to the gods and including in this is um ultimately a a practice that's condemned as they are making cakes for the um for the queen of heaven and things like that.

(1:24:44) But in any case, in this case, it's being these are being made for the Lord, for Yahweh, who's appeared as three men anyway. So Abraham then ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good. He gave it to the servant who hastened to prepare it. And then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them.

(1:25:05) And as he stood by them under the tree while they ate. So this is also you know in giving hospitality has essentially also potentially you know is offering a sacrifice to the Lord. They said to him where is your wife Sarah and Abram said there. Abraham said there in the tent. Then one of them said I will surely return to you in due season and your wife Sarah shall have a son.

(1:25:30) And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age, and it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So she is post-menopausal. Um Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I've grown old and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?" And the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? at the set time I will return to you in due season and Sarah shall have a son but Sarah denied saying I did

(1:26:09) not laugh be she before she was afraid and he said yes you did laugh so not only does Sarah have the audacity to laugh at Yahweh she gets caught lying in her denial oh I didn't laugh yeah you did and Yahweh um then goes on so I think that shows a very interesting you know again fun character of Sarah And Yahweh then explains that they are actually on their way to Sodab and Gomorrah to destroy these cities of which Lot is associated as we saw in that other fragment in the war of the uh nine kings. And so that leads Abraham to

(1:26:48) presume to bargain with the Lord which once again shows the kind of character that this um clever patriarchal figure has. So Abraham came near and said, you know, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? You're going to destroy a whole city here. Are you going to destroy the good people? Suppose there are 50 righteous people within the city.

(1:27:13) Will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. far be that from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And so the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.

(1:27:40) And so having agreed uh that the city would be spared if 50 righteous souls could be found. That sort of leaves the door open just enough for Abraham to, you know, stick his foot in there as so he's not going to um see anybody uh potentially for bargaining. And so he um goes on from there and has uh he says, "Well, what about if there's 45?" And so God's like, "Okay, yes, 45 is fine as well.

(1:28:06) " Takes it from there to 40 to 30 to 20 and eventually down to 10. Uh which is um as far as Abraham's willing to press his luck. Although then as we read the the total number of righteous in the city is in fact uh Lot and his family. And so the city isn't spared. Instead, um uh Lot and his family are made to leave as the city is destroyed.

(1:28:34) Um and this is u again set in the story of Abraham and Sarah offering hospitality. Of course, um the great crime of Sodom and Gomorrah is not only a refusal of hospitality, but as as the the visitors come, um the the city the city's custom is to you know gang rape everybody. And so this whole place uh then becomes destroyed and that's the uh the ideological myth that explains uh the Dead Sea.

(1:29:05) So as I say um you know these stories especially um the Yahwist and the Elois story but anyway the fact that there are multiple voices that are combining to make um these characters um interesting self-contradictory in some cases and well-rounded are one of the reasons I think um that they continue to resonate.

(1:29:26) if the uh if the priestly author had simply uh written their own version of the pentetuk instead of adding either adding the um their version or maybe if they did write their own version and they intended to have it replaced but then the redactor put ended up putting their text next to the others that ended up making the sum of the whole anyway um so much stronger than the individual parts.

(1:29:55) And you know this idea of trying to um rewrite and sanitize and fix stories um the deuteronomic histories that we have everything from Joshua to Kings um that was reworked and sanitized by the chronicler who reworked them as first and 2 Chronicles. And if that's all we had it would be a much um you know a much less rich rich story. And same thing is potentially possible if we only had uh the priestly version of the Torah.

(1:30:26) And so that is my look at what can we know about Abraham um all the way up through uh the character as a central figure in Genesis. What was the tradition that existed before then or whatever we can say of the remains of that tradition? And of course um what happens in terms of how Abraham gets understood by the different traditions uh that still look back to him um is a topic for another lecture.

Lectures Mentioned