Abraham, Blessing and the Nations: A Philological and Exegetical Study of Genesis 12:3 in Its Narrative Context

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source• a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses• the full-text is not changed in any wayThe full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. The meaning of Genesis 12:3 is much controverted. This study, considering the final form of Genesis, argues that it is in the first place a promise of security and greatness to Abraham and Israel, but that in its context, following Genesis 1-11, it also indicates a divine plan to extend blessing to all the earth's peoples. In receiving God's blessing, Abraham/ Israel act as models and/ or pioneers of blessing for others. God's actions remain free, but also invite appropriate human response.Examination of the near-parallels to Genesis 12:3a in Genesis 27:29b and Numbers 24:9bshows that they are concerned more with the security of the person blessed than with the possibility of others gaining blessing.Detailed discussion of the Hebrew niphal concludes that it normally has either passive or 'middle' force (and is very rarely reflexive). No 'middle' sense found elsewhere for the niphal plausibly fits '-'li:::l, and hence the niphal in Genesis 12:3 (and 18:18 and 28:14) is passive: analysis of these passages in their contexts supports this grammatical conclusion.The hithpael in general this study argues to be usually 'middle' in force, though sometimes passive and occasionally reflexive. The hithpael of '-'li:l when used outside Genesis is probably a 'speech action middle', meaning 'utter blessing', and this sense fits Genesis 22: 18 and 26:4: this is argued to be compatible with understanding the niphal as a passive.The semantics of '-'li:::l Rationale for this study 10 Method 12Chapter 2 Parallels to Genesis 12:3a 222. (v2b) 178 6.3.6 'I shall make your name great' (v2c) 179 6.3.7 'You shall be a blessing' (v2d) 183 6.3.8 'I will bless those who bless you, while the one 184 who abuses you I will curse ' (v3a) 6.3.9 'All the families of the earth shall be blessed 190 through you ' (v3b) Chapter 7 The Hithpael of ..Jl1~ it is only fitting to acknowledge the God who is at its source and who has sustained me in its pursuit. DeclarationNo part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree in any university. Material derived from the work of others has been acknowledged.The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Introduction Rationale for this studyThe importance of Gen 12: 1-3 -and especially v3 -was classically asserted by Gerhard von Rad. 1 For him, 12:1-3 is a free composition of the Yahwist, and therefore ...

Israel’s priority in Old Testament missiology

“…8. Flury-Schölch (2007); Grüneberg (2003); Jeppesen (2013); Lee (2012). Further bibliography can be found in Kaminsky (2012: 643 n16).…”