(BA) Notes on Genesis 17

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Between the last verse of Genesis 16 and the first verse of 17, thirteen years pass. Ishmael is now a teenager when Abram receives word that he will have his (more) legitimate heir, Isaac. At this point the practice of circumcision is introduced. Abram and Sarai have their names changed, to Abraham and Sarah. While God rules that Ishmael cannot be Abraham's true heir, he does include Ishmael in a degree of blessing and in the covenant of circumcision.

Driver and Friedman both assign this whole chapter to the Priestly source.

(17:1) "ninety-nine". That is, thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael.

(17:1) "El Shaddai". This name is of uncertain origins. Traditionally translated "God Almighty", but the precise meaning of the term is not known. "El" is the name of the Canaanite high god, which in biblical use becomes a synonym for "God" or "Yahweh". Shaddai is a bit more mysterious, and a variety of proposals have been made. Where the Masoretic Text reads, "I am El Shaddai", the Septuagint has simply, "I am your god", while the Vulgate reads just "I am God" (Kittel).

According to the Priestly source, the patriarchs knew God as "El Shaddai", and the name Yahweh was revealed in time of the Exodus (Driver).

(17:1) "Walk before me". Following a common biblical idiom which takes "walk" as the way one lives one's life. Abram is called to "walk before" or, "walk in the presence" of Yahweh, which means something roughly synonymous to "be blameless".

(17:5) "Abram". The ASV reads this as "exalted father".

(17:5) "Abraham". The ASV reads this as "father of a multitude", apparently on the hypothesis that raham means "multitude". But I am not sure this is true. Alternately, perhaps there is a stretched pun here related Abraham in some way to ab hamon goyim, "father of a multitude of nations".

(17:6) "kings". According to Skinner, "The promise of kings among Abraham's descendants is again peculiar to P (35:11). The references is to the Hebrew monarchy: the rulers of Ishmael are only 'princes' ([nesiim], v. 20), and those of Edom (36:40) are styled [aluph]."

(17:6) "come out from you". Some manuscripts of the Peshitta read, "come out from your body" (Kittel).

(17:7) "seed". A common biblical expression for "descendants".

(17:10) "between me and you". The "you" is plural.

(17:10) "and your seed after you". Kittel thought these words were a later addition to the verse. The Septuagint reads, "and your seed after you for their generations" (Brenton, Kittel).

(17:12) "eight days old". As Skinner notes, this is connected by the declaration in Leviticus that producing a male child makes a woman "unclean" for seven days. A female child produces fourteen days of uncleanness (Leviticus 12:1-5).

(17:14) Kittel says that here we should follow the Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint by inserting "on the eighth day" after the word "foreskin".

(17:14) "cut off". One of the verbs for solemnizing a covenant is "cut": one "cuts a covenant". In the Genesis 15 episode, the cutting is done literally to animals. In this covenant ratification, the cutting is done directly to the flesh of the covenant people. There is something elegant about the idea that anyone not cut into the covenant will be cut off from the people.

What exactly is means to be "cut off" from one's people has been the topic of quite a bit of discussion.

(17:14) "people". Instead of the usual singular, the word is in the plural, which according to Driver means it must have another meaning. Driver, on the basis of a cognate expression in Arabic, asserts that the correct meaning is "father's kin". Driver simply gives the gloss "kin".

(17:15) "Sarah". The ASV marginal notes read the name as "Princess". The name can be read as Hebrew for "princess", but nothing explicit is said about why the name is changed. Even more strangely, while in the Masoretic Text the name change is of a final y to a final h, in the Septuagint her name is changed instead from Sara to Sarra. I have not yet been able to find an explanation of why the name change varies in this way between the Septuagint and Masoretic Text. And the difference is not limited to this verse. Throughout the parts of Genesis where Abraham's wife is called Sarai in Hebrew, the Greek reads Sara, and likewise where Sarah appears in Hebrew, the Greek has Sarra. A change has occurred systematically throughout Genesis.

(17:16) "I will bless her" (second occurrence in verse). The Septuagint, Peshitto, and Vulgate read, "I will bless him" (Kittel).

(17:16) "she will become nations". The Septuagint, Peshitto, and Vulgate read, "he will become nations" (Kittel). Skinner thinks the correct reading is "she will become nations"; likewise with the other similar variants of this verse.

(17:16) "Kings". According to Kittel, fifteen medieval Hebrew manuscripts, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targums Onkelos and Pseudo-Jonathan, the Septuagint, and other witnesses read, "And kings".

(17:16) "come from her". The Septuagint, Peshitto, and Vulgate read, "come from him" (Kittel).

(17:17) "fell on his face". We read in verse 3 that Abram fell on his face, so presumably he has gotten back up again at some point in the meantime.

(17:17) "laughed". A verb which appears frequently in narratives related to Isaac, whose name is similar to Hebrew words for laughing and laughter.

(17:18) Abraham doubts the promise of a child, and instead suggests to God that Ishmael could be his heir.

(17:19) "Isaac". ASV marginal note: "From the Heb[rew] word meaning to laugh."

(17:19) "everlasting covenant for his seed after him". Kittel says we should read, "everlasting covenant, to be his god and that of his seed after him", and cites for support about ninety medieval Hebrew manuscripts, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, the Peshitto, and other witnesses.

(17:20) "I have heard you." A play on words with "Ishmael", meaning, "God hears" (Driver).

(17:23) "Ishmael". Skinner says, "The circumcision of Ishmael, however, is inconsistent with the theory that the rite is a sign of the covenant, from which Ishmael is excluded".

(17:25) "thirteen years old". Says Driver: "The circumcision of Ishmael at the age of 13 is probably intended as an explanation of the corresponding custom among the Ishmaelite tribes. Circumcision has for long been practised by the 'Arabs'; but it is commonly performed among them at a much later age than was customary with the Jews: the age varies in different places from 3-4 years to 13-15 years". Skinner cites Josephus and Origen as attesting to an Arab practice of circumcising thirteen-year-olds, and Ambrose as attesting to an Egyptian practice of circumcising fourteen-year-olds.

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