was Abraham chosen?

Question 1

Gen 15:6

Answer 1

“he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6).

Question 2

SACKS

Answer 2

was he even chosen? Abraham’s father was already on the move?
Sacks put forward that Abraham’s spiritual foresight was descended from his father, Terah, who had ‘already made the first tentative move towards monotheism.’

Question 3

GUNN

Answer 3

default choice? choice of convenience (David Gunn)?

‘how much faith does it take to do what one has already decided to do?’

Question 4

stepping stone

Answer 4

Abraham as first stepping stop to monotheism- henotheism

Question 5

williamson

Answer 5

Abraham’s special status is evident from the initial form of his name. The patriarch’s name ‘Abram’ is a combination of the noun ‘father’ and the Jewish verb ‘to be high, exalted’. His singular position is further denoted through his association with Melchizedek, the high priest of Salem, which may refer to Abraham’s descendants as being distinct as referred in Ex 19:6 by “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation”. Williamson

Question 6

Goldingjay

Answer 6

Alternatively, it could simply be that Abraham is essentially chosen by God to fulfil a task (Gen 17:1) and should thus be seen not as a person of inherent integrity himself. The verb to ‘choose’ (bahar) used in Genesis is just the ordinary verb used for ‘choose’ or ‘select’, thus potentially undermining Abraham’s election by God. Furthermore, because God ‘loved Israel’ he chose her through Abraham. The word love (‘aheb) used is ambiguous in that it denotes love for food (27:4) for one’s children (Gen 37;3) and love for foreigners (Deut 10:19). This type of love implies something more like a practical commitment than a distinctive and unique love attributed to a special person. It’s use in Genesis and Exodus shows how choosing someone or something is not resulting from the concern for the one chosen but out of self-interest or a wish to achieve some plan; the election in question resembles choosing which pan to cook with (Acts 9:15).
Goldingay

Question 7

LEVENSON

Answer 7

Perhaps Abraham was chosen not because of his inherent worth but for instrumental purposes

Question 8

HERBERG

Answer 8

This is best expressed by Herberg who expresses that a truly rational and universal God, could not do anything so arbitrary as to “choose” one particular group out of mankind as a whole (…) God is the God of all alike and therefore cannot make distinctions between nations and peoples.

X: gen 12.2-3 wider sig

Question 9

KAMINSKY AND ROWLEY

Answer 9

3 categories of people: the elect (Abraham and those who are part of his covenant), the non-elect (gentiles who have a place within the divine economy even while they remain of a different status than Israel, like the prostitute in Josh 2 who actively affirms the God of Israel and comes to the aid of his chosen people) and lastly the anti-elect (broadly the enemies of Israel and her God who are “beyond the place of divine mercy and instead are doomed for destruction”).

Question 10

Deuteronomy 10:17-18

Answer 10

clearly presents a God who, ‘shows no partiality and accepts no bribes’, and yet God’s ‘electing call of Israel’ implies a singling out of a specific group to be placed in a privileged position. Brueggemann

• wider covenant sig?
• not bias just practical because of past failings

Question 11

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Answer 11

points to the demonstration of freedom and responsibility in the Abraham story.

Question 12

patter of rebellion

Answer 12

LEVENSON
change was needed

‘the first eleven chapters are marked by a pattern of human rebellion followed by divine punishment, which is then tempered by divine forbearance’

‘the high hopes that God had held for the human race seem dashed. He had created them in his image and charged them with worldwide dominion under his sovereignty, yet they had repeatedly disobeyed him – in the Garden of Eden, with Cain’s murder of Abel, with the evil that had bought on the great flood, and now with the Tower of Babel, with which they arrogantly hoped to reach the heavens.’

Question 13

language of rectificaiton

Answer 13

God promises to grant Abraham a great name (Gen 12:2) which is something that the builders of the Babylonian Tower failed to do when they arrogantly hoped to reach the heavens and ‘make a name for [themselves]’ (Gen 11:4).

Similarly, Cain’s murder of his own brother and his refusal to accept moral responsibility (SACKS), is overturned by Abraham who actively saves his own nephew (brother) from the enemies at Sodom.

‘he does not try to build a tower to heaven; his task is to obey the will of heaven,’ (SACKS)

Question 14

what does abrahama represent

Answer 14

“new epoc”

wenham

Question 15

active

Answer 15

Genesis 18 when Abraham hears God’s plan to destroy Sodom and is bold enough to speak out and plead with God to save the city if there are even ten righteous people within it (18:32).

Kaminsky suggests that this commendable rationality is ‘one way in which Abraham, and later Israel, becomes a blessing for the nations’ as well as emphasising how ‘human deeds seem to be involved in actualizing a promise that once appeared to be based solely on God’s unconditioned and seemingly unwarranted gracious action.’

bilateral covenant

• ritual action 15
• circumcision 17
• aqedah 22

Question 16

paradigmatic

Answer 16

Bruggemann goes as far as saying that such a miraculous birth is paradigmatic of the incarnation