|
" Abraham in the canonical Hebrew Bible: A study of the Abrahamic narrative of Genesis with a view toward the reading of that text by the later canonical authors "
Gennady I. Pshenichny
J. Sailhamer
| Document Type
|
:
|
Latin Dissertation
|
| Language of Document
|
:
|
English
|
| Record Number
|
:
|
53908
|
| Doc. No
|
:
|
TL23862
|
| Call number
|
:
|
3268813
|
| Main Entry
|
:
|
Gennady I. Pshenichny
|
| Title & Author
|
:
|
Abraham in the canonical Hebrew Bible: A study of the Abrahamic narrative of Genesis with a view toward the reading of that text by the later canonical authors\ Gennady I. Pshenichny
|
| College
|
:
|
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
|
| Date
|
:
|
2007
|
| Degree
|
:
|
Ph.D.
|
| student score
|
:
|
2007
|
| Page No
|
:
|
282
|
| Abstract
|
:
|
The goal of this dissertation is a study of Abraham's portrait as well as an investigation of those Old Testament hopes that were anchored on God's promises given to Abraham as they are portrayed and interpreted in the canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament. The focus of the study is not only on the Abrahamic narrative in Genesis, although it is the primary source of information, but on numerous passages within and outside the Pentateuch, which mention Abraham/patriarchs and therefore, as it is argued, present an understanding and interpretation of the Abrahamic narrative by its earlier readers. The study argues that throughout the biblical history of Israel the way in which Abraham believed and obeyed God is shown to be the only way to become righteous before God. This is the message of the Pentateuch; this is the message of the entire Tanak in its final form. It is also argued that God's promises to Abraham form the core of all hopes that Israel exercised in the Old Testament. Eventually these promises became the foundation for the hope of a New Covenant, according to which people will "know" the Lord. God "will not forget His covenant with the fathers" (Deut 4:31) and therefore will not leave the people to perish in their own sins. A canonical-textual approach is taken as a basis for this study. Therefore the study is concerned only with the text of the Hebrew Bible in its final canonical form. It does not attempt to reconstruct events to which the given text is witness, earlier oral traditions, earlier written sources, or earlier forms of the given text; it does not turn to other ancient literary sources, which might provide some additional information to the biblical material. Rather the guiding interest of this approach is to understand the message of the canonical text of the Hebrew Bible. The study demonstrates that the Abrahamic narrative of Genesis is the result of diligent compositional work. By "composition" is meant the author's effort to select and arrange the individual textual units into a meaningful whole and so provide the reader with a guideline for interpreting the text. The Abrahamic narrative with its well-thought-through symmetrical structure clearly reveals the author's theological intentionality to provide the reader not simply with a story of Abraham, but with an interpretation of that story. On this basis it is argued that the theological meaning of the Abrahamic narrative can be found only in its final canonical form. The same is true of the Patriarchal narrative as a whole (Genesis 12–50), of which the Abrahamic narrative is a part. The entire Patriarchal narrative is bound by the five-fold repetition of the blessing formula. The structure formed by this five-fold repetition also reveals the compositional work of the author and therefore strongly suggest that this portion of Scripture be read as a single unit. It is the compositional structure of the Abrahamic narrative and then of the Patriarchal narrative as a whole that clearly emphasizes the two theological points mentioned above: (1) God's intention to bless Israel and eventually "all the families of the earth" and (2) faith as the only right response to God to obtain divine blessings. The research consists of three principal parts. The first part analyzes the internal structure of the Abrahamic narrative (Gen 11:27–25:10) and then investigates how the Abrahamic cycle relates to the bigger whole, the Patriarchal narrative (Genesis 12–50). This section provides not only a background for the study of the individual textual units of the Abrahamic narrative, but also reveals the overall theological message of the narrative. The analysis of the structure of the narrative provides a foundation and a good starting point for the study of the Abrahamic narrative in detail, to which the next, the largest section of the study is dedicated. The study of individual textual units, or segments, adds more color, or more substance to the message, but the message remains the same throughout the study. For the most part in tudying the segments of the Abrahamic narrative more attention is given to their structuring and inter-connectedness than to lexical definitions. The study also shows some connecting points in the narrative with the larger context (e.g., Abraham in the Negeb and the Garden of Eden story). The final chapter of the study consists of an exegetical examination of the key echo passages mentioning either Abraham or the "fathers," in which Abraham is most likely implied. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
|
| Subject
|
:
|
Philosophy, religion and theology; Abraham; Canonical; Genesis (Book of); Hebrew Bible; Bible; 0321:Bible
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
J. Sailhamer
|
| Added Entry
|
:
|
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
|
| |