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Abram to Abraham explores the Abraham saga (11:27-22:24) through a literary lens, following the legendary figure of Abraham as he navigates the arduous odyssey to nationhood. Rather than overlook the textual discrepancies, repetitions and contradictions long noted by diachronic scholars, this study tackles them directly, demonstrating how many problems of the ancient text in fact hold the key to deeper understanding of the narrative and its objectives. Therefore, the book frequently notes the classic division of the text according to primary sources, but offers an alternative, more harmonious reading based on the assumption that the narrative forms a single, intentionally designed unit.
The narrative's artistic design is especially evident in its arrangement of the two halves of the story around the protagonists' change of name. The stories of Abram and Sarai in the first half of the cycle (11:27-16:16) are parallel to the stories of Abraham and Sarah in the second half (18:1-22:24). A close reading of this transformation in the biblical narrative illuminates the moral and theological values championed by the figure of Abraham as luminary, soldier, family man, and loyal subject of God.
List of contents
Contents: The Line of Terah (11:27-30) - Abram's Journey to Canaan (12:1-9) - The Descent to Egypt (12:10-20) - The Separation from Lot (Gen 13) - War of the Four Kings - Lot's Liberation (14) - Looking to the Stars and the Covenant between the Pieces (15) - Hagar's Flight (16) - The Covenant of Circumcision (17) - Angels Eat and Sarah Laughs - The Debate over Sodom's Destruction (18:16-33) - Sodom's Destruction and Lot's Rescue (19) - Lot and his Daughters in the Cave (19:30-38) - Abraham and Sarah in Gerar (20) - The Birth of Isaac and Ishmael's Expulsion (21:1-21) - The Treaty of Abraham and Abimelech (21:22-34) - The Binding of Isaac (22) - The Sons of Nahor (22:20-24).
About the author
Jonathan Grossman is a faculty member of the Department of Bible at Bar Ilan University. His main field of interest is the Bible as literature. Among his previous books are Esther: The Outer Narrative and the Hidden Reading (2011); Ruth: Bridges and Boundaries (Peter Lang, 2015); Text and Subtext: On Exploring Biblical Narrative Design (2015).
Report
«[...] Grossman weaves a masterful synthesis, in which the conflicts and ambiguities in the Abraham narrative are shown to be essential elements in our understanding of the inherent complexity of the mission of the followers of Abraham.»
(David Curwin, TRADITION 50.1 2017)
«[...] on apprendra beaucoup de cette analyse très fouillée.»
(D. Luciani, Nouvelle revue théologique 140/1 2018)
«Insgesamt ist Abram to Abraham eine kompetent geschriebene Kommentierung der Abrahamgeschichte, die die Verbindungslinien betont und die vorhandenen Widersprüche ohne Zuhilfenahme von Quellenhypothesen zu erklären sucht [...]
(Benjamin Ziemer, Theologische Revue 5/2017)
