(BA) Notes on Genesis 18

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We now backtrack, in a way. In chapter 17, from P, God announces that Abraham will have a child. In this chapter, now from J, the announcement is made again and again met with laughter.

Yahweh appears to Abraham and Abraham is told that he will have a son by Sarah. This is chapter were Sarah, famously, laughs. Abraham's visitors reveal that he is investigating allegations of wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham's nephew lot lives. Abraham pleads with God not to destroy the city, and they reach an arrangement of sorts.

(18:1) "Yahweh". The Septuagint reads "God" (Skinner, Kittel).

(18:1) "oaks". The ASV marginal notes read, "Or, terebinths". The Septuagint reads "oak", singular (Kittel, Brenton, NETS), and the Peshitta agrees (Kittel).

(18:1) "oaks of Mamre". Driver identifies this as "the sacred grove at Hebron," which he explains further in his note on 13:18.

(18:1) "in the heat of the day". Skinner comments suggestively: "at the hottest (and drowsiest) time of the day.

(18:2) "and behold". On this phrase Skinner makes the following comment: "The mysteriously sudden advent of the strangers marks them as superhuman beings ([compare Joshua 5:13]), though this makes no impression on Abraham at the time. The interest of this story turns largely on his ignorance of the real character of his guests.

(18:3) "My lord". The ASV marginal notes read, "Or, O Lord". Driver prefers the lowercase "lord" here: "This is probably right, the word being a title of courtesy ... and one of the strangers, distinguished in some way from the other two, being addressed. The Massorites, however, point ... Adōnāi ('Lord'; so RVm), the form used when Jehovah is intended, implying thereby that Abraham recognizes Him from the beginning. But My lord is preferable: Abraham would scarcely have presumed to offer food and drink to one whom he recognized as Jehovah ... and the words in v. 5, 'after that ye shall pass on,' shew that he regarded the three men as ordinary travellers. The disclosure who they are is made only gradually".

While Driver only considers the possibility of "My lord" or "O Lord", it is grammatically possible to read the Hebrew text as "My lords", a possibility that Skinner considers.

Kittel recommends reading "My lords", and points to a variation between the Masoretic and Hebrew texts. In "your sight", "do not pass away", and "your servant", the Hebrew grammar in the Masoretic Text dictates that the "you" that Abraham is addressing is singular. However, these words are marked as plural in the Samaritan Pentateuch.

(18:4) "wash your feet". A more normal part of hospitality "in a country in which the feet are protected only by sandals" (Driver).

(18:4) "recline". Following Gesenius and Driver. Amos 6:4 contains a reference to reclining to eat, but according to Skinner this is a later practice, and in Genesis the guests would only be reclining prior to the meal. However, the whole question of dating Hebrew texts is in enough of a state of flux, and my knowledge of the particulars is weak enough, that I wouldn't venture a guess about whether Skinner has this right.

(18:5) "afterward". According to Kittel eight Masoretic manuscripts, along with the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targums Onkelos and Pseudo-Jonathan, read "and afterward".

(18:6) "measures". The Hebrew word translated here as "measure" is seʔah, and perhaps one day I will circle back and figure out how much it is and how accurately we know this.

(18:6) "fine flour". Oddly, the Masoretic Text reads qmḥ slt, in which two words for flour stand back to back. I'm not confident that I can distinguish clearly between the meanings of qmḥ and slt. Typically the KJV reads qmḥ as "meal", and slt as "fine flour", and Gesenius agrees. DCH partially agrees, but adds the glosses "wheat porridge" and "groats" for slt.

In any case, Kittel thought the slt was a later addition, missing in the Septuagint. The DCH (entry for slt) expresses puzzlement and suggests that the slt might be a gloss, and then references something written in German, which makes me wish I had bothered to learn German at some point. This is one more reason I'm not a expert in biblical studies.

(18:6) "cakes". According to Driver: "Rolls,--baked rapidly by being placed upon the 'hot stones' (1 [Kings 29:6] Rvm.),--i.e. stones heated by a fire having been made upon them,--and covered with the hot ashes."

(18:8) "curds". Driver explains this as a sort of curdled milk, pointing to Job 20:17, in which this substance is referred to as a liquid, as an argument against the traditional rendering "butter".

(18:8) "they ate". In distinction to the theological idea that God and angels do not eat. Compare, as Driver does, Tobit 12:19, "I seemed indeed to eat and to drink with you: but I use an invisible meat and drink, which cannot be seen by men" (Douay Rheims 1899 American Edition).

According to Skinner this verse and 19:3 are "the only cases in OT where the Deity is represented as eating".

(18:9) "to him". Hebrew ʾlyw. The word in the Masoretic Text is marked with one little dot above each letter, perhaps indicating some doubt about the authenticity of the spelling. Kittel thinks that perhaps the correct reading here is lw, which means the same thing.

(18:10) "comes round". The ASV marginal notes read, "Heb[rew] liveth, or reviveth". Driver explains when the season cometh round as meaning, " a year hence". Kittel thinks that the wording of the Septuagint and Peshitta indicate that they are likely translating from a Hebrew text that more clearly means "this time next year".

(18:10) "behold". The Septuagint and Peshitta are lacking this word (Kittel).

(18:10) "which was behind him". Following the Masoretic Text as it stands, a certain word is read aloud as hu, and thus means "it", the tent door, was "behind" Abraham. On the other hand, if the word is read as hi, feminine, then "she", Sarah, stood behind him. For reasons that I do not understand, in the Pentateuch, wherever "she" occurs, it is almost always spelled like the word "he", and this can lead at times to problems. This is very strange, and I don't know how this weird state of affairs could arise. Imagine if that in some English book the word "she" was always replaced with "she", but then a little asterisk was stuck by each word to indicate that "she" should be read. That's roughly the position we're in here with the Pentateuch.

(18:11) "well on in age". Literally, "entered into days" (Driver).

(18:11) "the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah". That is, Sarah was past menopause.

(18:12) "laughed". An explanation of the name of Isaac, which is written like a Hebrew root for laughter.

(18:12) "lord". A biblical synonym for "husband", however uncomfortable that may be for modern readers. The New Testament praises Sarah for referring to her husband as "lord" (1 Peter 3:6).

(18:12) "After I have worn out will I have pleasure, when my lord is old?" The Septuagint reads differently: "The thing has not as yet happened to me, even until now, and my lord is old" (Brenton, Kittel).

(18:14) "hard". Or, according to the ASV notes, "wonderful".

(18:14) "Yahweh". The Septuagint reads "God" according to Kittel and NETS, but "the Lord" according to Brenton.

(18:14) "comes round". As in verse 10.

(18:16) "Sodom". The Septuagint adds "and Gomorrah".

(18:17) "said". This is evidently one of the several uses in the Bible where "said" is used to describe something only thought, and not said out loud.

(18:17) "Abraham". The Septuagint reads, "my servant Abraham".

(18:19) "known". A number of translations read, "chosen". The NET notes suggest that you look at Amos 3:2 for another example of this Hebrew "known" meaning something like "chosen".

(18:19) "known him". The him is omitted in the Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, and Vulgate. According to Skinner, the Septuagint and Vulgate misunderstand the meaning of the Hebrew word for "know" here. The Vulgate reads, "For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgment and justice", etc. (Douay-Rheims). The Septuagint reads similarly to the Vulgate, and Skinner says that the Peshitta makes the same mistake.

(18:19) "what". The Septuagint and Vulgate read, "all that".

(18:20) "Because ... because". Or, "Surely ... surely" (ASV notes: "Verily").

(18:21) At least taken literally, this verse is add odds with later theological formulations about God's omniscience. I do not know whether the original author of this passage would have considered God to have "really" already known the truth of the situation.

(18:21) "against it." Kittel says we should read "against them", following the Severus Scroll, the Septuagint, and the Targum Onkelos, "against them".

(18:22) "Abraham still stood before Yahweh". According to Kittel, this is one of the Tiqqunei Sopherim, and the original reading is "Yahweh still stood before Abraham".

(18:24) "Will you sweep away and not spare the place ...". The Septuagint reads, "Will you destroy them? Will you not spare the whole place ..." (Kittel, Brenton).

(18:27) "the Lord". Hebrew Adonai. According to Kittel about twenty Hebrew manuscripts read "Yahweh".

(18:31) "the Lord". Hebrew Adonai. According to Kittel, nine or ten manuscripts read, "Yahweh".

ASV. The American Standard Version of the Bible, as printed in 1901 by Thomas Nelson and Sons.

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