How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis

By Qiang Fu and Richard E. Averbeck

This book aims to understand God's interactions with Abraham in relation to God's command that Abraham "be a blessing" (Gen 12:2d), which is directly tied to God's goal that "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Gen 12:3b). The book proposes a formative narrative approach to examine interactions between character and plot, the movement of plot, and the connection between sequential plots. An analysis of thirteen Abrahamic narratives (Gen 12-22) suggests a classification based on four different types of interactions between God and Abraham, which indicate how cooperation and conflict between God and Abraham advance the narrative's plot. The book then proposes a narrative discourse analysis to examine how Abraham evolved through different stages of the narrative by moving from deviation to cooperation. Detailed analysis of this transformation process reveals three turning points in Abraham's life. The formative narrative approach and narrative discourse analysis proposed in this book can contribute to the analysis of two important aspects of Old Testament narratives: the formation of plot and the cause-and-effect structure in narrative discourse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Feb 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666755466

Book preview

Introduction

Scholars view the Abrahamic promise in Gen 12:1–3 as God’s promise of blessing to counter the persistent alienation of humankind from God.

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Wolf states that the primeval history (Gen 1–11) elucidates in advance why all the families of the earth need the blessing in Gen 12:3b.

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Von Rad views the call of Abraham in Gen 12:1–3 as an answer to the unsolved problem of God’s relationship to humankind.

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In particular, Rendtorff points out that the curses of the primeval history (3:14–19; cf. 8:21) are countered with God’s promise of blessing, which is a bridge from the primeval history to the patriarchal history.

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Israel is thus presented as God’s instrument to bring blessing to a world under curse (cf. 3:14–19; 4:11–12; 9:25).

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Wenham argues that the placement of the Abrahamic promise at the beginning of the patriarchal history emphasizes its fundamental importance for the history of Israel and the world.

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Moreover, the five major toledot divisions in the book of Genesis exhibit a progressive narrowing from all of creation to Adam, Noah, Shem, and Jacob.

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This structure suggests a development of God's purpose to bring blessing to the world through a narrowing line of descendants.

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The narrowing focus on Abraham in Gen 12:1–3 is located at a point a transition that binds together the two macro-divisions of the book of Genesis: the primeval narratives (Gen 1–11) and the patriarchal narratives (Gen 12–50). The toledot for two linear genealogies (5:1 and 11:10) establish the main line of descendants from Adam as a chosen line of hope that leads to Abraham, through whom all the families of earth will receive the blessing of God (Gen 12:3b). The toledot for three segmented genealogies (10:1; 25:12; 36:1, 9) highlight those families (משׁפחת, Gen. 10:5; cf. 10:18, 20, 31, 32) whom God intends to bless through the chosen line (see משׁפחת in 12:3; 28:14).

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The toledot of Shem (Gen 11:10–26) thus introduces the chosen line from Shem to Abraham within its global context, and leads to the key turning point of the book of Genesis: the Abrahamic promise (Gen 12:1–3).

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In the book of Genesis, the theme of blessing unfolds in three important phases. First, in the creation accounts (Gen 1–2), all creation and humankind experience God’s blessing (1:22, 28). Second, after humankind and the rest of creation fall under God’s curse (Gen 3–8), God’s original blessing remains and is re-stated after the Flood (9:1, 7).

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Third, at the beginning of the patriarchal narrative (Gen 12–50), God promises not only to bless Abraham but also to bless all the families of the earth through him. This blessing is God’s reconciliatory initiative to an alienated humankind.

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The three elements of the Abrahamic promise presented in Gen 12:2–3—seed, land, and blessing—provide a controlling thematic pattern for the plot of Abraham’s narrative, and they appear again in Gen 13:14–17; 15; 17; and 22:16–18.

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In fact, Gen 12:1–3 and 22:16–18 form an inclusio frame around Abraham’s narrative, which is confirmed by the usage of לך־לך in reference to God’s calling on Abraham in both 12:1 and 22:2.

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Further, Gen 22:16–18 is a renewal of the blessing of 12:2–3, and the whole narrative of Abraham’s encounter with God is framed by those promises of blessing.

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In addition, the genealogy of Nahor (22:20–24) echoes the genealogy of Terah (11:27–31). Due to these facts, this book considers the narratives in Gen 12–22 as Abraham’s narrative.

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A verb or noun derived from ברך occurs five times in Gen 12:2–3.

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Two uses of a verb with God as subject are associated with the promise of blessing to Abraham (12:2b) and the assurance of this protection (12:3a). One use of a verb with all the families as subject is associated with the extent of God’s promise of blessing to the world (12:3b). One use of a noun is associated with the imperative be a blessing in 12:2d, which is especially significant because it is located between the promise of blessing to Abraham and its extension to all families on earth. Although scholars have proposed different interpretations of the word ברכה,

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these alternatives do not lead to a satisfying understanding of Abraham’s role in God’s plan for blessing all nations. In any case, scholars generally agree that the Abrahamic promise of God’s blessing in Gen 12:2–3 is not limited to Abraham himself but includes the goal of reaching all the families of the earth.

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Williamson observes that Gen 12:1–3 clearly presents two aspects of the recipients of God’s blessing. Genesis 12:1–2c concerns the national blessing promised to Abraham, while 12:2d–3 spells out the international blessing promised to Abraham.

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Genesis 15 and 17 present two distinct and related covenants to reinforce the promises given in 12:1–3. Genesis 15 emphasizes the national blessing in terms of the promise of descendants and land to Abraham, while Gen 17 emphasizes the international blessing in terms of Abraham’s role as father of many nations.

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Finally, Gen 22:16–18 integrates the national and international aspects of God’s blessing while focusing on Abraham’s obedience and Abraham’s seed.

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Averbeck points out that descriptions of the Abrahamic promise of seed, land, as well as blessing to all the peoples of the earth accumulate as the text progresses from the Book of Genesis onward.

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In summary, within the context of the Abraham narratives, we see that some texts focus on one or two of the promises, while others consider all of them.

Research Problem

With regard to God’s blessing plan, Abraham’s role in the narratives between Gen 12 and 22 is not always an obedient one: it is occasionally marked by disobedience.

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In particular, Deroche points out that the narrative places Abram in a series of situations which make the realization of the blessing increasingly difficult.

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Referring to the narratives of Gen 12, 20, and 26 as the wife/sister stories, Kang argues that throughout the three wife/sister stories, the patriarchs’ weakness and unfaithfulness repeatedly place the promises in jeopardy, but God faithfully keeps His promises to the patriarchs.

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Cassuto points to two sins committed by Abraham in Gen 12:10–20: lack of faith and a crooked way.

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As Westermann points out, however, God’s loyalty continues to be emphasized, despite being linked to a reprimand of Abraham.

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Wenham concludes that Abraham’s waywardness and moral weakness in Gen 20:1–18 occur under the assurance of God’s promise.

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He further states that Ishmael’s birth in Gen 16 is a diversion from the longer perspective of Genesis.

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God’s bonded relationship with Abraham, established in Gen 12:1–3, has secured Abraham and his future through God’s intervention in spite of Abraham’s mistakes.

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Nonetheless, we still need to understand the complex interplay between God’s initiatives or interventions and Abraham’s actions, which will ultimately lead to Abraham’s complete obedience, such that "in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice" (Gen 22:18).

As will be shown in the below, while much work has been done on the theme of blessing in the Old Testament, the meaning of Gen 12:1–3, and literary analysis of the Abraham narratives, very few scholars have analyzed the Abraham narratives from the perspective of Gen 12:1–3. None have attempted to understand God’s interactions with Abraham in relation to God’s command that Abraham be a blessing (Gen 12:2d), an instruction that is strongly tied to God’s goal that in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen 12:3b). According to Turner, the individual narrative blocks of Genesis have a coherent plot development, but the outcome of individual episodes, and of the book as a whole, depends on the complex interplay between divine actions and pronouncements on the one hand, and human initiatives on the other.

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This prompts us to ask: what really happens between God and Abraham? What was Abraham’s life truly like? How did God form Abraham to be a blessing—and, in particular, what steps were taken to conform Abraham to God’s promises?

Literature Review

Because this book focuses on God’s formation of Abraham’s life to be a blessing, the following literature review will survey two areas: the various scholarly approaches to the Abraham narratives (Gen 12–22), and the meaning of be a blessing in Gen 12:2d, which is tied to the meaning of blessing itself. This introduction will focus on approaches to analyzing the Abraham narratives; a review of literature on blessing will be presented in chapter 1.

Works on the Abraham Narratives

With respect to the Abraham narratives, we will first examine the three episodes of the wife/sister stories (Gen 12:10–20 [A]; 20:1–18 [B]; 26:1–11 [C]).

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Existing analyses of these narratives based on the Documentary Hypothesis can neither provide satisfying explanations of the text nor avoid contradicting other approaches undertaken using similar assumptions. In fact, current approaches to the wife/sister stories can be critiqued in several ways.

1. Source Criticism: Wellhausen focuses on the age of the variants, but does not provide insights about the differences among them.

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2. Form Criticism: Gunkel recognizes the differences among the three narratives, but does not adequately address the different manners of divine intervention or the divine purpose within the broader context.

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3. Tradition-Historical Criticism: Noth basically treats the differences between the three variants as source and accretion issues, and does not address form-critical analysis.

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4. New Supplementary Hypotheses: Van Seters and Westermann assign the different wife/sister stories to the Yahwist, but this leads to the question of which internal criteria can be used to accurately determine the sources for Genesis.

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5. New Fragment Hypothesis: Rendtorff rejects the existence of sources J and E but allows for independent literary units; his proposal is still speculative, however, because there is no way to know how editorial work related to these independent literary units.

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The thematic approach represented by Clines appears to be more promising.

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Clines views all three wife-sister stories as obstacles that the patriarchs place between themselves and the fulfillment of God’s promise.

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He proposes that the promise theme poses questions: first, will there be even one son, let alone a posterity? Second, once the son is born, will he survive to produce a posterity (Gen 22)?

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Thus, in this question lies the significance of the triple narrative of the ‘ancestress in danger’ (Gen 12, 20, 26).

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This approach provides a rational understanding of the triplet within the larger context of the patriarchal narrative.

Adopting Clines’s theme of promise for a detailed investigation of the triplet, Biddle confirms that the three versions relate to the blessing/curse to the nations element of the promise to the patriarchs.

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Biddle successfully locates the three successive versions in an interpretive framework provided by the promise articulated in Gen 12:1–3.

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As Biddle notes at the end of his paper, however, it is still necessary to reexamine the theme with additional refinement, new subtleties, and new emphases.

More recently, Kang applied a type-scene model to uncover the divine purpose for each wife/sister story in relation to its surrounding narrative through examination of characterization, theme, and plot.

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He shows that while the three wife/sister stories share a motif, each one is independent from the others within its own context.

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He then demonstrates how each wife/sister story is related to the others, and how the narratives develop their themes.

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He concludes that although all three stories expose crises in the lives of the patriarchs, they also show that God keeps his promises to the patriarchs in spite of their weaknesses.

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Some scholars who study the arrangement of individual stories within the Abraham narrative identify chiastic or parallel structures. Of the five chiastic or parallel structures proposed for Abraham’s overall narrative,

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the one proposed by Alexander and Wenham is the most promising due to its clear presentation of obvious parallels within Abraham’s narrative.

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It should be noted, however, that although this narrative structure can help illuminate the tension produced by the promise of Abraham’s heir, which drives the plot of the Abraham narrative,

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it fails to explain why the birth of Ishmael (Gen 16:1–16) is located at the center of structure while the climactic testing Abraham (Gen 22:1–18) appears at the end.

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Turner’s work traces Abraham’s narrative back to Gen 12:1–3 in order to assess the fulfillment or realization of the promise of nationhood, land, and blessing.

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This approach is based on his definition of the announcements of plot as statements which either explicitly state what will happen, or which suggest to the reader what the major elements of the plot are likely to be.

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The narrative is this driven by an expectation that the divine intentions described by the announcements of plot will be either fulfilled or partially fulfilled due to thwarting human action.

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He suggests a causal relationship between Abraham’s obedience to the imperatives in Gen 12:1–3 (go and be a blessing) and the stumbling progress of the fulfillment of the promise, and argues that the fulfillment of God’s promise in Gen 12:1–3 is contingent upon Abraham’s obedience.

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Recent Works on the Abraham Narratives

Humphreys stands out among recent scholarship on Abraham’s narrative, due to his view God as the central character in Genesis and his resulting effort to undertake a literary analysis of God’s characterization.

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Humphreys explores the coherence and consistency of God as a character throughout the narrative and emphasizes the role of God’s bonding relationship with Abraham in establishing a framework for their interactions. In his engagement with Abraham, God becomes Abram’s patron, promising him security and a future under his protection and also setting expectation for his behavior.

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Based on this bonded relationship, in some cases God’s voice dominates while Abraham responds with actions.

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In other cases, God shows particular concern for Abraham when he has trouble with outsiders.

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Genesis 22 is a climax of the story, marking the point at which the relationship between God and Abraham is fully bonded: God’s authority is fully recognized by Abraham, so God secures Abraham’s future.

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Humphreys concludes that Gen 12:1–3 marks the beginning relationship between God and Abraham, while the end of the Abraham narrative illustrates the successful outcome of this relationship.

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Fretheim, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the relationships between Abraham and the three kinds of outsiders specified in Gen 12:3 (those who bless you, the one who curses you, and all the families of the earth).

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Fretheim states that sometimes the chosen fulfill their responsibilities to the outsider in exemplary ways (Abraham’s intercessory activity on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah); at other times, they alienate the outsider and frustrate God’s purpose to be a blessing to all families (Abimelech in Genesis 20).

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Fretheim recognizes that Abraham’s faith (as seen in Gen 15:6; 22:15–18) is important for the effectiveness of God’s work in the world. At the same time, he also recognizes that God remains to committed to his promise when Abraham fails, and even works through Abraham’s failure to accomplish his purposed blessing for the world.

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In some cases, the narrative is shaped by Abraham’s trusting response God’s command;

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in other cases, the narrative is shaped God’s choice to work through complex situations caused by Abraham’s imperfection.

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Fretheim claims that Abraham, the chosen one, all too often brings trouble rather than blessings to outsiders. . . . Though the chosen may complicate and frustrate the divine work, they cannot finally stymie it. God will find a way to move around them and often through outsiders in working toward the divine goals.

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As such, he concludes that Abraham’s faithfulness in not an option if God is going to work out God’s purpose in and through him, but God’s promise and purposes for the world would not finally be stymied by Abraham’s resistance.

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Blenkinsopp focuses on the structure, shape, and inner coherence of Abraham’s life story.

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He recognizes that Abraham’s first encounter with his God in Gen 12:1–3 provides the key to the Abraham narratives as a whole. Importantly, he points out that the fulfillment of the blessing is contingent in the first place on obedience to the command: ‘Leave your country, your kin, and your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you’.

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At the same time, the promise of land and nation makes an important contribution to the Abraham narrative as a whole, which moves towards its terminus by way of the successive removal of obstacles to the fulfillment of commitments made to Abraham in Haran (12:1–3).

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Blenkinsopp argues that God’s providence and guidance permeate Abraham’s narrative from beginning to end.

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Grossmann argues that the stories of Abram and Sarai in the first half of the Abraham narratives (Gen 11:27—16:16) are parallel to the stories of Abraham and Sarah in the second half (18:1—22:24). The parallel stories pivot around the protagonists’ change of name in Gen 17. In particular, Grossmann observes that God is more heavily involved in Abraham’s life in the second part of Abraham’s narrative than in the first part.

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He also points out the theme of blessing correlates with the beginning and the end of the Abraham narratives: In the opening narrative Abraham was encouraged to pursue a blessed destiny, while in the culminating narrative he is given blessings he had earned by his own deeds.

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Grossmann further argues that while the blessings in Gen 12 accompanied the demand to ‘go forth,’ here the blessings were ‘appended’ to the main message of the text, instead of distracting from Abraham’s true and unadulterated intention. The blessing is not the main purpose of the narrative, but the realization of Abraham’s faith and loyalty.

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Interestingly, Dabhi’s application of formalist character analysis to Abraham’s eight encounters with God demonstrates that Abraham grows as a character from reticent believer to faithful God-fearer through these encounters with God.

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Dabhi concludes that the incremental development in his character is manifested through his obeying, accepting, questioning, doubting, taking initiative, pleading for the people, expressing distress, and giving priority to YHWH.

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In the end of the Abraham narrative, God commends Abraham’s character: Now I know that you fear God (Gen 22:12). Dabhi’s work makes a unique contribution to scholarship on the character development of Abraham in the these narratives. However, there remains a need to understand God’s role in this character development.

The literature discussed above provides a foundational understanding of Abraham’s narrative from the perspective of God’s interactions with Abraham’s life. This book views these interactions as an initial implementation of God’s plan for universal blessing (Gen 12:3b) through Abraham. By investigating these interactions, we will come to better understand how God formed Abraham to be a blessing in order to realize God’s plan to bless all the families on earth.

Thesis Statement

This book will investigate three questions. First, what is the theological meaning of God’s command that Abraham be a blessing? Second, which parts of Abraham’s life demonstrate his deviation from being a blessing, and which parts show his cooperation with God’s blessing plan? Third, how does God intervene in Abraham’s life when he deviates, and how does God work when Abraham is not deviating?

The book’s thesis is that the meaning of be a blessing (Gen 12:2d) is deeply rooted in God’s promises to bless Abraham (12:2a–c). God promises to bless all families of the earth through blessing Abraham (12:3a–b). In order to be a blessing, Abraham must engage in God’s program of blessing him and God’s plan to bless all families of the earth through him. God’s formation of Abraham to be a blessing can therefore be understood as God’s formation of Abraham to cooperate with God’s blessing plan.

Research Method

To understand the complex interactions between God and Abraham, as well as the cause of these interactions, I proposed two innovative narrative methods: the formative narrative approach and narrative discourse analysis. The formative narrative approach is designed to answer the research question: which parts of Abraham’s life demonstrate Abraham’s deviation from being a blessing, and which parts show his cooperation with God’s blessing plan? Narrative discourse analysis serves to answer the third research question: how does God intervene in Abraham’s life when he deviates, and how does God work when Abraham is not deviating?

The formative narrative approach aims to study the formation of a biblical narrative’s plot. In particular, the formative narrative approach offers opportunities to examine interactions between character and plot, the movement of plot, and the connection between sequential plots. The narrative approach currently used by scholars points out the important relationship between plot and character, but it does not offer a way to examine how plot and character interact. Therefore, I am proposing a formative narrative approach to investigate the formation of narratives at the levels of both the individual story and the whole narratives. First, this new approach begins with identifying the conflict. Second, it moves on to examine how conflict is solved or agreement developed. Third, it inspects how the current plot impacts the following plot. The proposed approach provides a concrete way to analyze the interactions between character and plot. A more detailed discussion of the formative narrative approach will be provided in chapter 2.

Narrative discourse analysis offers a way to analyze the cause-and-effect relationships between events that make up the plot, which are determined by the relationships between the characters—Good and humans—who enable the actions. Traditional discourse analysis approaches focus on the grammatical features of a text as indicators of discourse profile, but they cannot provide answers regarding discourse content. Narrative discourse analysis, on the other hand, can be used to examine discourse content. It starts with the recognition that the plot of a narrative discourse is formed by events that are related to each other through explicit or implicit cause-and-effect relationships. The events that make up the plot are in fact determined by the relationships between the characters who enable the actions. By investigating a main character’s behavior (or God’s action) in the context of these relationships, we can uncover the cause-and-effect relationship between events. A more detailed discussion of narrative discourse analysis will be provided in chapter 3.

Application and Summary

The three research questions listed above provide an organizing principle for the book. Chapter 1 will address the first research question: what is the theological meaning of be a blessing in Gen 12:2d? To answer this question, I will begin by systemically investigating the verb and noun data of blessing (berakhah) \ blessed (barukh) \ bless (brk) in the Pentateuch in order to draw conclusions about the conception and theology of blessing. I will also study the meaning of be a blessing based on the syntax and grammar of Gen 12:1–3, as well as its context. I will also explore the noun and verb forms of brk in 12:2–3. Connecting Gen 12:1–3 with data on the use of the verb and noun forms of brk in the Pentateuch will help explain the meaning of be a blessing.

Chapter 2 will propose a formative narrative approach and employ it to answer the second research question: which parts of Abraham’s life demonstrate Abraham’s deviation from being a blessing, and which parts show his cooperation with God’s blessing plan? I will apply synchronic narrative analysis to Abraham’s narratives (Gen 12–22) as a literary unit, with particular focus on how individual episodes or narratives are placed in relationship to their surrounding texts.

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This analysis is based on the assumption that the omniscience of the narrator is the unifying factor in the narrative progression.

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The juxtaposition of narratives will therefore help us draw conclusions based on the flow and unity of the overall narratives. The story’s overall narrative trajectory can therefore be understood to highlight the ways in which God guided Abraham throughout his life in order to make him a blessing. The detailed of the employment of narrative approach to thirteen Abrahamic narratives will be provided in chapter 2. A preliminary analysis of thirteen Abrahamic narratives suggests an approach to classification based of four different types of interactions between God and Abraham:

1. Abraham follows God’s command (Gen 12:1–9; 17:1–27; 22:1–24);

2. God intervenes during Abraham’s deviation (Gen 12:10—13:4; 16:1–16; 20:1–18);

3. Abraham solves a problem by being a blessing (Gen 13:5–18; 14:1–24; 21:22–34);

4. Abraham’s action has some influence, but God dominates the plot (Gen 15:1–21; 18:1–33; 19:1–38; 21:1–20).

The first and third types portray Abraham’s cooperation, while the second portrays his deviation.

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Careful exegesis will focus on specific two- or three-verse passages that isolate and account for Abraham’s acts of cooperation (which we will call cooperation steps) or deviation (missteps) within each narrative.

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This approach will give us a better understanding of the impact of these cooperation steps and missteps on God’s blessing plan, as well as shedding light on the progression of the narrative in Gen 12–22.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 will address the third research question: how does God intervene in Abraham’s life when he deviates, and how does God work when Abraham is not deviating? This book will concentrate on three deviation narratives—Abraham in Egypt (Gen 12:10—13:4), the begetting of Ishmael (16:1–16), and Abraham and Abimeleh (20:1–18)—and the cooperation narratives that follow them (Gen 13:5—14:24; 17:1–27; 22:1–24). Putting these two types of narratives together will allow us to examine how God intervenes when Abraham deviates, and how these interventions later lead to Abraham’s cooperation.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 will apply narrative discourse analysis in order to examine the relationships between deviation and cooperation narratives and shed additional light on the meaning of these texts. Narrative discourse analysis will also be used to identify any linguistic, semantic, or thematic connections among the episodes’ depictions of Abraham’s behavior. These connections are important because they can help us better understand how Abraham evolved through different stages of the narrative by moving from deviation to cooperation.

This discourse analysis will also incorporate Abraham’s own perspective in order to illustrate how his actions impact the plot. More specifically, it will evaluate Abraham’s inner life through his own words and actions, as well as through the judgment of the narrator. This will allow us to determine the cause of Abraham’s deviations. This cause will reflect the point of the view of Abraham, which is the true reason that Abraham impacts the plot of the narrative. We will also examine how Abraham changes after these deviations as a result of God’s interventions. As we will see, Abraham repeatedly renews his relationship with God and chooses to be a blessing again following God’s interventions.

Careful analysis of God’s formation of Abraham reveals three turning points of his life: from prioritizing his own life (12:9—13:4) to giving priority to others (13:5—14:24), from obeying humans’ words (16:1–16) to obeying God’s words (17:1–17), and from lacking the fear of God (20:1–18) to fearing God (22:1–24). The ultimate goal of this formation process is the true fear of God, which we see in the climax of Abraham’s