NIDNTT vs NIDNTTE

Rick Ausdahl

The NIDOTTE can be bundled with either the NIDNTT or the NIDNTTE.

The NIDOTTE/NIDNTT bundle is $236.  The NIDOTTE/NIDNTTE bundle is $360.

If you're familiar with both the NIDNTT and the NIDNTTE, do you feel the bundle with the NIDNTTE is worth the extra $124?

Beloved Amodeo

The NIDOTTE can be bundled with either the NIDNTT or the NIDNTTE.

The NIDOTTE/NIDNTT bundle is $236.  The NIDOTTE/NIDNTTE bundle is $360.

If you're familiar with both the NIDNTT and the NIDNTTE, do you feel the bundle with the NIDNTTE is worth the extra $124?

You ask hard questions. At this juncture I would lean toward the lesser of the two and wait for a better sale on the newer one, but you decide. Here's a taste from both:

Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac

Ἀβραάμ G11 (Abraam), Abraham.

^OT The name derived either from the Babylonian Abam-rāmā, he loves the Father, i.e. God, or from the Aram. lengthening of the Canaanite name âb-rām, the Father, i.e. God, is exalted. The popular etymology of the Heb. ’aḇrāhām (Gen. 17:4f.) makes the name signify “father of a multitude”.

1. The tradition of Gen. 11:27–25:11 (18) depicts Abraham as the first of the so-called patriarchs, the ancestor of the later people of Israel. Admittedly, he continues to have the second place in the OT behind the patriarch Jacob, as is already indicated by the name Israel which Jacob received and which was applied to the nation (→ Israel, arts. → Ἰσραήλ, → Ἰακώβ). But a profound and far-reaching significance was attached to Abraham.

(a) Abraham stands for the extreme prophetic experience of Israel. He is not only called a → prophet (Gen. 20:7; cf. 15:13–16) and as such was wrested from all personal security (20:13). He was also tested as a prophet (22:1), to see whether in his person the people of God would esteem God enough to be willing to offer human sacrifice. Abraham held to the word of his God almost to the point of killing his only son. God then released him and the people of Israel, because he loves faithfulness and not sacrifice.

(b) Abraham was the recipient of a promise of land which steadily grew despite the extremely scanty beginnings. His life constantly appeared threatened by the lack of a son and heir (15:2ff.), and the latter was only born when Sarah was past the age of child-bearing (18:1–15). But this stands in contrast with the promise of the land which was extended from its simplest form (12:8, Shechem), through 13:14–17 (Hebron) to the kingdom of → David (15:18). In the panoramic perspective of the Pentateuch the theme of the land is not brought to fulfilment, but looks towards fulfilment with the dying → Moses (Deut. 34). In so far as the land was never merely a physical possession, but was constantly seen as a spiritual heritage (representing freedom, peace and well-being in and with God), later Israel remained profoundly conscious of the fact that it still looked for the ultimate fulfilment of the promise to Abraham.

(c) The making of the → covenant in Gen. 17 develops this theme and ensures that the land promised as a possession to Abraham and his posterity is not understood in a nationalistic way as personal property, but as the place of worship appropriate to the creator of the world (Gen. 1). In Gen. 17 the message is formulated which enabled Israel to survive even the terrible situation of the national collapse and the far from glorious period of reconstruction under Persian rule. The people of God received the commission amidst the world powers to serve the creator in a way commensurate with his being.

(d) This insight was decisively influenced by the age-old declaration that Abraham was called, so that “the families of the earth wish blessing for themselves in his name” (12:3). It stands in the context of the promise of the land which looks forward to the kingdom of David (15:18), relating these words with their ring of power politics to an anti-nationalistic perspective. Mankind, including Israel and the patriarchs, had fallen prey to the desire to be like God (3:5), to the mysterious couching of sin before the door of the heart (4:7), and to the need to establish a name for oneself in a single kingdom (11:1–9). But the Lord of the world made a new beginning with Abraham, the man who unconditionally remained true to the promise (of the land) despite the extremely meagre fulfilment, so that the prospect of blessing for the families of the earth does not fail on account of the meagre fulfilment in the time of the OT.

Alongside the instances where Abraham is mentioned in Gen., there is the particularly important and oft-repeated expression especially in Deut. “the land that Yahweh has sworn to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (cf. Deut. 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4). For amid the despair of the exile it denotes the fixed point on which election depended: a solemnly attested promise of God which made it possible for the Israelites after the loss of the land and in the anxiety of being remote from God (Isa. 63:15–64:11; cf. especially the complaint of 63:16!) to accept their sin as sin, because they understood God as the one who is dependable. Furthermore, there is the prophetic word from God, highly apt at the time of the exile, that calls Abraham “my friend” (Isa. 41:8; cf. Ps. 105:6; 2 Chr. 20:7). Thus Abraham is the forefather to whom the promise was the basis of his life (Gen. 15:6); God counted this to him as righteousness.

2. The special position of Abraham, already foreshadowed in this development, reached its highest expression in Judaism. There the belief is found that because of Abraham’s election all who confess themselves as his have a place in the coming kingdom of God, even though their sins have been many (SB I on Matt. 3:9). Rab. Judaism saw Abraham’s life as a series of acts of obedience. According to it, Abraham had kept the whole → law. By contrast, Hel. Judaism, especially Philo, stressed his trust in God’s promises, especially those about the final judgment and the kingdom of God, and attributed the beginnings of belief in a world to come to his time (SB III 194, 197; cf. Syr. Bar. 57:2). Jewish legends relate that he was the first to recognize monotheism, and as the first → proselyte Abraham also served as a missionary (TDNT I 8).

^NT 1 Since Abraham was the ancestor of Israel, the descent of Jesus from Abraham became of great importance for the proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah. It underlined the continuity in God’s saving activity both for his people and the world (cf. the genealogy in Matt. 1:1–17). Lk.’s genealogy (Lk. 3:23–38) mentions Abraham in v. 34, but stresses the descent from the first man → Adam.

2 (a) For the Jews in general it was a special title of honour to be known as “children of Abraham” (Matt. 3:9; Lk. 3:8), for according to the popular belief, Abraham’s merits guaranteed Israel a share in the kingdom of God. John the Baptist attacked this idea, as Luther attacked indulgences. To be descended from Abraham was in itself of no value. Only he who sets his heart and mind on the coming kingdom of God, brings forth the true → fruit of repentance (→ conversion), and by → baptism anticipates the final judgment has any right to hope for a place in the kingdom. God can raise up from stones children for Abraham. That is why Jesus considered it so important to search for the lost sheep of Israel. He healed a daughter of Abraham who had been excluded from the community, the woman with an issue of blood (Lk. 8:43–48), and caused salvation to come to the house of Zacchaeus as a son of Abraham, although he had been living outside the → Law (Lk. 19:9).

When Luke records that the apostles addressed their hearers as descendants of Abraham and mentions the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he intends his readers to understand how aware the apostles were of their loyalty to the faith of their ancestors and how strenuously they had sought to win Jesus’ people despite their unwillingness (Acts 3:12f., 25; 13:26).

The incident in Matt. 8:11f. and Lk. 13:28f. in which Jesus threatens “the sons of the kingdom” with being cast out into darkness, may have as its background the belief that Abraham was the first proselyte and the greatest maker of proselytes (see above OT 2). But it does not follow that he will be surrounded in the kingdom of God only by his physical and national heirs. There will also be those of his own type, i.e. proselytes.

(b) “Abraham’s bosom” (Lk. 16:22) means the pouch (ḥēq) above the girdle made by pulling up the garment slightly. This picture is relatively seldom found in Rab. writings (SB II 226). It may refer to special care, as that of a mother loving her child which she carries in the folds of her dress over her breast, or to the place of honour at table beside Abraham. When one reclined at table, one’s head came approximately to the level of one’s neighbour’s chest (Jn. 13:23, SB II ad loc.).

Judaism frequently expected intercession by Abraham who lives with God (Lk. 16:22ff.). The same is true of Isaac and Jacob (→ Advocate). But this was not without conditions, as Jesus’ parable indicates. Intercession by those who already have eternal life for those who still await death is basic to the idea of the invocation of saints. The Jewish belief that those who have lived with God, e.g. the patriarchs, must remain alive after death was shared by Jesus, who justified it by saying that where God is there also must be → life (cf. Mk. 12:26f.; Matt. 22:32; Lk. 20:37f.). He who lives with God can die but cannot cease to live. It is from this angle that we must understand the → resurrection of Jesus.

3. When Paul explains the importance of Abraham, he is concerned above all with justification (→ righteousness) by faith. His exposition both in Gal. 3:6ff. and Rom. 4:1–13 is not a deductive proof in the strict sense. Paul’s method is the opposite. In the light of the revelation of Christ he recognizes that Scripture had long before spoken of it.

(a) The details of the apostle’s arguments about Abraham were partly determined by the ideas of his Judaizing opponents, who maintained that the → Law was the definitive revelation which brought salvation. It followed that Abraham must have lived by it, even before it had been revealed at Sinai. By contrast Paul maintained in Gal. that anyone who wishes to live by the works of the Law (Gal. 3:10) is under a curse, since it implies that men must earn their salvation by them. By so doing, such a person does not permit God to be the God who alone can give man that which is good without qualification and save him (Rom. 7; cf. Gen. 3). As Paul sees it, Scripture shows clearly that Abraham was justified not by works of the Law but by faith (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; cf. Gen. 15:6). Scripture even foresaw the placing on an equal footing of the lawless pagan and the pious Jew through faith (Gal. 3:6–9), because faith excludes every basis for human honour, even the precedence of the Jew. The Law did not have the function of making Abraham’s blessing inoperative. It was given to reveal that sin, in the last analysis, is directed against God and not against men. Thus it prepared men for the recognition that their only hope is in God (Gal. 3:24), and that Jesus is the promised offspring of Abraham (3:16f.). By abrogating the Law, God opened to all the possibility of living by faith and so sharing the heritage of Abraham in all its fullness.

(b) In Rom. 4 these thoughts are expressed with even greater clarity. What has Abraham found? Was it something to → boast about? Not in God’s presence, for it was faith that was reckoned to him for righteousness (vv. 1–3). A man cannot earn wages from God. Blessed is only he against whom the Lord does not reckon sin (vv. 4–8; cf. Ps. 32:1f.). Following the methods of Rab. argument, Paul now maintains that this blessing does not result from → circumcision, which Judaism regarded as a sign of the fulfilment of the Law and of turning away from transgression (Rom. 4:9–12). Abraham was after all justified before he was circumcised. Circumcision was simply a → seal of the righteousness by faith reckoned to the Gentile Abraham. Hence Abraham is the father of the believers who come from the Gentiles (v. 16). It will not be to the glory of Israel, as in Jewish expectation, that Abraham will be the father of nations and the inheritor of the world (v. 13).

In conclusion, Paul adds another example of Abraham’s faith (vv. 18–22). Just as we are dead before God and have nothing to hope for, so Abraham’s and Sarah’s procreative power was dead. But trust in God created and creates new life. The point of comparison is the deadness, the lack of any prerequisite conditions, not the willingness to yield oneself. That is probably the reason why the story of the sacrifice of Isaac which was popular in Judaism as an example of obedience is not mentioned here. Rom. 9:7; 11:1, 16ff. and 2 Cor. 11:22 fit easily into this fundamental Pauline scheme of interpretation.

Paul’s view of obedience in faith was not always readily accepted in the primitive church. Jas. 2:14–26 pointedly shows that Pauline concepts were misused even by Christians. For some only the relationship of the soul to God was important. The deeds of our transient bodies which belong to a fallen world were considered to be relatively unimportant. Against such a view it was necessary to stress that faith expresses itself in works, and that faith will be judged, as with Abraham, by its works, i.e. by the way it works itself out in life.

4. This false security with which Jews and Judaizers alike deluded themselves by appealing to Abraham (see above OT 2) contributed in great measure to this attitude. The way in which it hindered faith in Jesus is the background to the discussion about Abraham in Jn. 8:30–40, 48–59. The first section (vv. 30–40) makes it clear that the newly found faith of the Jews was not genuine but only superficial, for they were not doing the works of Abraham (vv. 39f.). Abraham relied solely on God’s liberating → word, but they wished to silence that word when it stood before them incarnate in Jesus. They thought that descent from Abraham guaranteed their freedom, whereas in fact only Jesus and holding fast to his word can give them true freedom.

The second section of the discussion (vv. 48–59) begins with the Jews’ suggestion that Jesus was demon-possessed, when he proclaimed his word, or rather, proclaimed himself as God’s word. For when Jesus promised eternal life to those who kept his word (v. 51), he was, according to Jewish ideas, blaspheming God. Only God’s word can guarantee eternal life, but Jesus was a mortal man like Abraham and the prophets who have died (v. 52). However, Jesus is greater than Abraham in the sense of being more than human, for according to Jewish ideas the Messiah and Moses were greater than Abraham. God has given him authority to grant eternal life. Jesus said that Abraham had called himself happy in that he should see the day of God’s word (Jesus). He saw it and rejoiced (v. 56). There is ample evidence for Jewish speculations that at the time of the making of the covenant (Gen. 15:12–21) Abraham saw the main lines of Israel’s future (SB II, ad loc.). Then comes the vital sentence, “Before Abraham was, → I am” (8:58). The Word of God was, is, and ever will be. Hence Jesus is truly eternal, but Abraham lived and died.

5. The descendants of Abraham in Heb. 2:16 are presumably all who live by faith as did Abraham, i.e. not only Jews but all who believe in Christ (so Westcott and Montefiore, ad loc.). In Heb. 6:13, as in Jewish tradition, Abraham is presented as a model of the believing patience and perseverance which obtain the promise. This trait is also stressed in 11:8–12, 17–19. Salvation, however, does not come from Abraham and his descendants (7:2, 4ff.). They are, and remain its recipients. Abraham recognized one greater than himself, → Melchizedek. In the same way, the Levitical priesthood is only temporary, for they too, as descendants of Abraham, gave tithes to Melchizedek. Hence the one who has been proclaimed a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek must be greater.

H. Seebass

 Seebass, H. (1986). Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac. L. Coenen, E. Beyreuther, & H. Bietenhard (Eds.), New international dictionary of New Testament theology (Vol. 1, pp. 75–80). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Ἀβραάμ G11 (Abraam), Abraham

Concept: Name, Proper

JL The derivation of the Heb. name אַבְרָהָם H90 is uncertain. Some relate it to Akk. Abam-rāmā (“he loves the father”); others consider it a simple Aram. lengthening of the Canaanite/Heb. name אַבְרָם H92 (“[my] father is exalted”). Abram is in fact the designation used up to Gen 17:4–5, and in this passage the name Abraham is interpreted to mean “father of a multitude” (either a play on words or a popular etym.).

1 The tradition preserved in Gen 11:26–25:11 depicts Abram/Abraham as the first of the so-called patriarchs, the ancestor of the later people of Israel (see Ἰσραήλ G2702). Some argue that the OT gives him second place behind the patriarch Jacob, since the latter received the name Israel, which was applied to the nation. But a profound and far-reaching significance was attached to Abraham.

(a) Abraham stands for the extreme prophetic experience of Israel. He is specifically called a prophet (Gen 20:7; cf. 15:13–16 and see προφήτης G4737), and he was tested as a prophet might be tested to see whether he, and his descendants through him, would esteem God highly enough to be willing to offer human sacrifice (22:1). Abraham held to the word of his God almost to the point of killing his only son. God then released him and the people of Israel, because he loves faithfulness and not sacrifice.

(b) Abraham received the promise of a nation and a land that steadily grew despite scanty beginnings (Gen 12:1–3). His life constantly appeared threatened by the lack of a son and heir (15:2–3), and the latter was born only when Sarah was past the age of childbearing (18:1–15); but behind that birth stood the promise of descendants so numerous that they could not be counted (13:16; 15:5). The promise of the land initially focused on the areas around Shechem and Bethel (12:6–8), but he was later told that it would extend from the borders of Egypt to the river Euphrates (15:18). In the panoramic perspective of the Pentateuch the theme of the land is not brought to fulfillment: it remains a future hope with the dying Moses (Deut 34:1–4). Insofar as the land was never merely a physical possession, but was constantly seen as a spiritual heritage (representing freedom, peace, and well-being in and with God), later Israel remained profoundly conscious of the fact that the nation still looked forward to the ultimate fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.

(c) The making of the covenant in Gen 17 (see διαθήκη G1347) develops this theme and ensures that the land promised to Abraham and his posterity is not understood in a nationalistic way as personal property, but as the place of worship appropriate to the Creator of the world (Gen 1). This covenant message enabled Israel to survive even the terrible situation of the national collapse and the far from glorious period of reconstruction under Persian rule. The people of God received the commission amidst the world powers to serve the Creator in a way commensurate with his being.

(d) This insight was decisively influenced by the age-old declaration concerning the purpose behind Abraham’s call: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). The context of this declaration is the promise of the land—a promise that looks forward to the kingdom of David (15:18) and relates these words, with their ring of power politics, to an antinationalistic perspective. The human race, incl. Israel and the patriarchs, had fallen prey to the desire to be like God (3:5), to the mysterious crouching of sin before the door of the heart (4:7), and to the need to establish a name for oneself in a single kingdom (11:1–9). But the Lord of the world made a new beginning with Abraham, the man who unconditionally remained true to the promise despite its extremely meager fulfillment during his lifetime. Thus the prospect of blessing for the families of the earth does not fail on account of a limited fulfillment in the period of the OT.

Alongside the instances where Abraham is mentioned in Genesis, there is the esp. important and oft-repeated expression, “the land that Yahweh has sworn to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (cf. Deut 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4). Amid the despair of the exile, this expression denotes the fixed point on which election depended (see ἐκλέγομαι G1721): a solemnly attested promise of God that made it poss. for the Israelites after the loss of the land, and thus in the anxiety of being remote from God (Isa 63:15–64:11; cf. esp. the complaint of 63:15), to acknowledge their sin as sin, because they understood God as the one who is dependable. Furthermore, there is the prophetic word from God, highly apt at the time of the exile, that calls Abraham “my friend” (Isa 41:8; cf. 2 Chr 20:7; Ps 105:6 [LXX 104:6]). Thus Abraham is the forefather to whom the promise was the basis of his life; such faith God credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6).

2 The special position of Abraham, already foreshadowed in this development, reached its highest expression in Jud. There the belief is found that because of Abraham’s election all who confess themselves as his have a place in the coming kingdom of God, even though their sins have been many (cf. Str-B 1:116–20 on Matt 3:9). Rabb. Jud. saw Abraham’s life as a series of acts of obedience. According to it, Abraham had kept the whole law. By contrast, Hel. Jewish writers, esp. Philo, stressed his trust in God’s promises, partic. those about the final judgment and the kingdom of God, and attributed the beginnings of belief in a world to come to Abraham’s time (Str-B 3:194, 197; cf. 2 Bar. 57.2). Jewish legends relate that Abraham was the first to recognize monotheism, and that being the first proselyte he also served as a missionary (TDNT 1:8).

NT 1 Since Abraham was the father of the Israelite nation, Jesus’ descent from him became of great importance for the proclamation of the gospel. His name occurs more than 70× in the NT, esp. in Luke (15×), John (11×), Hebrews (10×), Romans (9×), and Galatians (9×). That Jesus was the Messiah descended from Abraham underlined the continuity in God’s saving activity both for his people and for the world (cf. the genealogy in Matt 1:1–17; the genealogy in Luke 3:23–38 mentions Abraham as well [v. 34], but stresses the descent from the first man Adam).

2 (a) For the Jews in general it was a special title of honor to be known as “children of Abraham” (Matt 3:9–12; Luke 3:8–9), for according to the popular belief, Abraham’s merits guaranteed Israel a share in the kingdom of God—an idea attacked by John the Baptist. According to John, descent from Abraham is in itself of no value. Only those who bring forth the true fruit of repentance (see μετανοέω G3566) and by baptism anticipate the final judgment have any right to hope for a place in the kingdom. God can raise up from stones children for Abraham. That is why Jesus considered it so important to search for the lost sheep of Israel. He healed “a daughter of Abraham” who had been crippled for eighteen years (Luke 13:16), and caused salvation to come to the house of Zacchaeus as “a son of Abraham,” although he had been living outside the Mosaic law (Luke 19:9).

Jesus’ statement that “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” whereas “the subjects [lit., sons] of the kingdom will be thrown outside” (Matt 8:11–12; cf. Luke 13:28–29), may have as its background the belief that Abraham was the first proselyte and the greatest maker of proselytes (see above JL 2). When Luke reports that after the resurrection the apostles addressed their hearers as descendants of Abraham (Acts 3:12–13, 25; 13:26), he intends his readers to understand how aware the apostles were of their loyalty to the faith of their ancestors and how strenuously they had sought to win the Jews, Jesus’ own people, despite their unwillingness.

(b) In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the expression “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22 KJV; NIV, “Abraham’s side”) clearly designates a position of affection, security, and honor. This picture (found relatively seldom in rabb. writings; cf. Str-B 2:226) derives from the custom of reclining on couches at a banquet so that the head of one person reached the chest of the next one. To lean one’s head against the breast of the host indicated an esp. close relationship with that person (cf. John 13:23–25; 21:20). Judaism freq. expected intercession by Abraham, who lives with God (the same was true of Isaac and Jacob). The Jewish belief that those who have lived with God (e.g., the patriarchs) must remain alive after death was shared by Jesus, who justified it by saying that where God is there also must be life (cf. Mark 12:26–27 par.; see ἀνίστημι G482).

3 When Paul explains the importance of Abraham, he is concerned above all with justification by faith (see δικαιοσύνη G1466). His exposition in both Gal 3:6–29 and Rom 4:1–13, where he appeals to Gen 15:6, is not, strictly speaking, a deductive proof based on the OT narrative. Rather, because of the subsequent revelation of Christ, the apostle recognizes that Scripture had long before spoken of justification by faith.

(a) In Galatians, the details of Paul’s arguments about Abraham were partly determined by the ideas of his Judaizing opponents, who maintained that the Mosaic law was the definitive revelation that brought salvation (see νόμος G3795). It followed that Abraham must have lived by the law even before it was revealed at Sinai. By contrast, Paul maintains that anyone who lives by the works of the law is under a curse (Gal 3:10) and that Abraham was justified not by works but by faith (Rom 4:2–5). Scripture even foresaw that the lawless pagan and the pious Jew would be placed on an equal footing through faith (Gal 3:7–9), because faith excludes every basis for human honor. The law did not have the function of making Abraham’s blessing inoperative; rather, it was given to reveal the true nature of sin (3:19) and to prepare us for the coming of Christ (3:24). Indeed, Christ himself is the promised seed or offspring of Abraham (3:16–17), and by faith we share the heritage of Abraham in all its fullness (3:29).

(b) In Rom 4 these thoughts are expressed with even greater clarity. What did Abraham discover with regard to justification? Was it something to boast about? Not in God’s presence, for it was faith that was credited to him for righteousness (4:1–3). A person cannot earn wages from God. Blessed are only those against whom the Lord does not reckon sin (4:4–8; cf. Ps 32:1–2). Paul then proceeds to show that this blessing cannot result from circumcision, which Jud. regarded as a sign of the fulfillment of the law and of turning away from transgression (Rom 4:9–12). Abraham was after all justified before he was circumcised (see περιτέμνω G4362). Circumcision was simply a seal of the righteousness by faith that had previously been reckoned to the “Gentile” Abraham. Hence Abraham is the father of all who believe, whether or not they are his physical descendants (v. 16).

Paul concludes his argument by adding another example of Abraham’s faith (Rom 4:18–22). Just as we are dead before God and have nothing to hope for, so Abraham and Sarah’s procreative power was dead. But trust in God created and creates new life. The point of comparison is not the willingness to yield oneself, but rather the deadness itself, the lack of any prerequisite conditions (that is prob. why the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, which was popular in Jud. as an example of obedience, is not mentioned here). Other passages fit easily into this fundamental Pauline scheme of interpretation (Rom 9:7; 11:1, 13–21; 2 Cor 11:22).

Paul’s teaching on justification by faith was not always readily accepted in the primitive church. Statements made by James suggest that the Pauline concepts were misused even by Christians (Jas 2:14–26). For some of them, only the relationship of the soul to God was important. The deeds of our transient bodies, which belong to a fallen world, were considered to be relatively unimportant. Against such a view it was necessary to stress that faith expresses itself in works, and that faith will be judged, as in the case of Abraham, by the way it works itself out in life.

4 The false sense of security with which many deluded themselves by appealing to Abraham hindered faith in Jesus. This problem is the background to Jesus’ dialogue with the Jews in John 8:30–59. The first section makes it clear that the newly found faith of some was not genuine but only superficial, for they were not doing the works of Abraham (vv. 39–40). Abraham relied solely on God’s liberating word, but they wished to silence that word when it stood before them incarnate in Jesus. They thought that descent from Abraham guaranteed their freedom, whereas in fact only Jesus and holding fast to his word could give them true freedom.

The second part of the discussion (John 8:48–59) begins with the Jews’ suggestion that Jesus was demon-possessed when he proclaimed his word, or rather, when he proclaimed himself as God’s word. For when Jesus promised eternal life to those who kept his word (v. 51), he was, according to Jewish ideas, blaspheming God. Only God’s word can guarantee eternal life, but Jesus in their view was a mortal man like Abraham and the prophets who have died (v. 52). In fact, however, Jesus is greater than Abraham and has the divine authority to grant eternal life. Moreover, Jesus claimed that Abraham rejoiced at the prospects of seeing the day of God’s Word (Jesus), and that he did indeed see it with joy (v. 56). There is ample evidence for Jewish speculations that at the time of the making of the covenant (Gen 15:12–21) Abraham saw the main lines of Israel’s future (Str-B 2:525–26). Then comes the vital claim, “before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58; see εἰμί G1639). The Word of God was, is, and ever will be. Hence, in contrast to Abraham, Jesus is truly eternal.

5 The descendants of Abraham mentioned in Heb 2:16 are presumably all who live by faith as did Abraham, i.e., not only Jews but all who believe in Christ (so B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 2nd ed. [1892], 55; H. Montefiore, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews [1964], 67). In Heb 6:13, as in Jewish tradition, Abraham is presented as a model of the believing patience and perseverance that obtain the promise. This trait is also stressed in 11:8–12, 17–19. Salvation, however, does not come from Abraham and his descendants (7:2, 4–10). They remain its recipients. Abraham recognized one greater than himself, Melchizedek (see Μελχισέδεκ G3519). In the same way, the Levitical priests were only temporary, for they too, as descendants of Abraham, gave tithes to Melchizedek. Hence the one who has been proclaimed a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek must be greater.

Bibliography

TDNT 1:8–9; EDNT 1:2–4; TDOT 1:52–58; NIDOTTE 4:351–58; ABD 1:35–41; DOTP, 8–17. K. Berger, “Abraham in den paulinischen Hauptbriefen,” MTZ 17 (1966): 47–89; N. A. Dahl, “The Story of Abraham in Luke-Acts,” in Studies in Luke-Acts, ed. L. Keck and J. L. Martyn (1968), 139–59; J. Van Seters, Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); H. E. Lona, Abraham in Johannes 8: Ein Beitrag zur Methodenfrage (1976); A. R. Millard and D. J. Wiseman, eds., Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives (1980); R. W. L. Moberly, The Old Testament of the Old Testament: Patriarchal Narratives and Mosaic Yahwism (1992); P. R. Williamson, Abraham, Israel and the Nations: The Patriarchal Promise and Its Covenantal Development in Genesis (2000); J. K. Bruckner, Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative: A Literary and Theological Analysis (2001); K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (2003), ch. 7; N. Calvert Koyzis, Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity (2004); J. van Ruiten, Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14–23:8 (2012).

 Silva, M. (Ed.). (2014). New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (Second Edition, Vol. 1, pp. 87–91). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.