Abraham’s Chiastic Journey

For my discussion of the difference between these covenants, and how this effects the opening of Exodus, see, Yoel Bin-Nun, “'הארץ' ו'ארץ כנען' בתורה” [“The Land” and “The Land of Canaan” in the Torah], ybn.co.il; idem, “ברית המילה וברית בין הבתרים ביציאת מצרים” [The Covenant of Circumcision and the Covenant Between the Parts in the Exodus from Egypt], HaTanakh.com.

The two texts have another literary parallel beyond the ten noted by Rendsburg, namely, the use of seeing in the sense of choosing:

^{בראשית יב:א} ...אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ.

^{Gen 12:1} …to the land that I will show you/choose for you.

^{בראשית כב:ח} ... אֱלֹהִים יִרְאֶה לּוֹ הַשֶּׂה לְעֹלָה בְּנִי

^{Gen 22:8} … God will see to/choose the sheep for his burnt offering, my son.

This leads to the naming of the spot as יְ־הוָה יִרְאֶה, “YHWH will see/choose” (Gen 22:14).

One could offer a midrash here and say that the divine messenger released Abraham from his son and bound him to the ram.

Editors note: For a survey of traditional interpretations of where Moriah should be located, see TABS Editors, “The Mysterious Land of Moriah,” TheTorah (2013).

The latter clearly continues the former, though it is introduced with “after these things,” referring to the stories of the unusual births of Ishmael and Isaac, and the miraculous escape from death each boy experiences. At the same time, it should be noted that the account of Nahor’s sons also faces forward with the words (Gen 22:23) “and Betuel became the father of Rebecca,” since the genealogy of Terah’s family will hit its climax with the marriage of Isaac son of Abraham son of Terah to Rebecca, daughter of Betuel, son of Nahor, son of Terah. This unit ends only with the list of the sons of Keturah and their being sent east before the death of Abraham.

This thinking is expressed strongly in the letter of Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) to Obadiah the proselyte, who asked whether he can refer to Abraham as “our father” in Jewish prayers, given that he was not born Jewish. Maimonides answers in the affirmative, and writes:

Abraham our Father, peace be with him, is the father of his pious posterity who keep his ways, and the father of his disciples and of all proselytes who adopt Judaism.

The Hebrew Text is found in Isaac Shailat, ed., אגרות הרמב”ם [The Letters and Essays of Moses Maimonides], 3rd ed., (Maaleh Adumim: Shailat, 5755) 1.231–241. An English translation appears on Sefaria here.