1. - The patriarchal tradition (Gen 12-36, 38-39) is not the biography of Israel´s ancestors. In a so far away epoch, it is not possible to talk about history in the modern word´s modern sense. Setting aside the legendary elements (Gen 25, 7), its literary gender is the cultural tradition, the homily, which relives the pass in the present time events. In a simple form, these ancient narrations, oral first and then written, tell us who is God, how he acts in the history, what he expects from us.
2. - It is convenient to take it into account. From the oral traditions (about 1850-1300 b.C.) to the final redaction (about 400 b.C.) of the initial Bible books, a long process takes place. In the tenth century, a theologian from Jerusalem (south of the country) sees in David´s monarchy the accomplishment of the old promises. God is called Yahweh, the Lord. So, the redactor of these initial writings is known like yahwistic. In the eighth century, after the kingdom’s division in two (Israel, Judah), a theologian of the north updates the ancient traditions before the temptation that supposes the Canaanite way of life: like gods, without God. At the beginning, God is called Elohim, God. So, the redactor of these texts is known like elohistic. At the end of the seventh century the tradition deuteronomistic wants to explain how was possible the fall of Samaria, capital of the north: The Deuteronomy is the answer. In the sixth century, the Jewish priests exiled in Babylon interpret the old traditions to defend the believer identity in strange grounds. Their work is known like priestly. Finally, after the exile, a last redactor gathers the diverse texts and collects them in the five books (Pentateuch) that the Judaism calls the Law.
3. - In the general frame of a disperse humanity (Gen 3-11), we approach Israel´s origin. An emigration is the starting point of an immense adventure, not only of the Israelite people, but also of all the humanity that will be sitting to the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s table (Mt 8, 11). Then something new begins. Behind rest the man’s original pretension, with its repercussions in the family, in the work, in the death (Gen 3). Abraham listens God´s word and establishes a relationship, a covenant with the living God who manifests in the history, an emigration history: Leave your country, your family, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation and I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curse you I will curse and in you all peoples of the earth will be blessed (Gen 12, 1-3; 15, 1-21).
4. - When departing, Abraham leaves behind his roots, that connect with the Babel´s disperse humanity, the Hebrew name of Babylon, a symbol city, idolatry mystery, incommunicativeness and dispersion (Gen 11). Abraham leaves his grounds, his people, his clan. He renounces to the safety that those offer him, but his departure means a liberation to initiate a new people, born from God´s hands. Like in a beginning.
5. - Abraham figure belongs to the frame of a known history. His names, his movements, his uses, his way of life, place him into the context of the Aramean migrations of Mesopotamia, Babel grounds. Abraham follows the route of the caravans looking for pastures for his flock. They are nomad tribes. They want to establish themselves in cultivating soil. They cannot read or write, but they transmit from children to grandchildren the ancestors’ experience. The narrations are easy to remember, since they are tied to places that the caravan finds in its movement: the well, the oak, the mount, the steppe.
6. - Abraham´s tradition gathers diverse experiences. Abraham does not have the Bible, he listens God´s word in the ordinary circumstances of life; God introduces himself in everything. For instance, in the work. Abraham and his nephew Lot increase their flocks and they have room problems so that they have to part away: Don´t let there be a dispute between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and yours, since we are brothers. Isn’t the whole land there before you? Let us part company. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left. (Gen 13,8-9). Abraham gives Lot the opportunity to choose the region he prefers. Lot takes the best part, the Jordan meadow, the grounds of Sodom, fertile like God´s garden, like the country irrigated by the Nile. Abraham stays in the grounds that he did not choose, but that God chose for him. By the way, are we in the grounds that God chose for us?
7. - The meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek has a deep religious meaning of ecumenical range. Besides, it presents a model of priesthood, which is not really Leviticus. Melchizedek (King of Salem, priest of God the Highest) perceives God´s action in Abraham´s favour. He offers him bread and wine in a hospitality gesture and he blesses him saying: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hands! (Gen 14,19). The Christ´s new priesthood in the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110) will have its precedent in it: You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings…. Here I am. I will do your will, O God (Heb 10,5-7).
8. - In Mamre´s oak wood, in the hottest part of the day, Abraham is sat in front of his tent and he sees three pedestrians. He perceives in them the Lord´s presence and makes this prayer: Do not pass your servant by (Gen 18,3). He offers a meal to his guests and talks with them. The Lord says his word: At the same time next year I will return and Sarah by then will have a son (Gen 18,10). The pedestrians (two now) arrive to Sodom. Lot receives them at his home, where they should be respected. Sodom´s inhabitants attempt against them. The city is completely destroyed, but Lot escapes the catastrophe. The zone is of volcanic type. The pedestrians leave him this message: Don´t look back and don’t stop anywhere in the plane. Flee to the mountain. (Gen 19,17). Lot´s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt (Gen 19,26).
9. - Let us see now a familiar problem. Abraham had two women, the free and the slave, Sarah and Agar. God´s word assumes Sarah desires and Abraham must do what his wife tells him: Send this slave girl and her son away (21,10). Abraham was sorry for this, but God told him: Don´t be worried about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to Sarah and do whatever she says…. From the son of your servant I will also form a nation, for he is also your offspring (Gen 21, 12-13).
10. - In mount Moriah´s passage, Abraham appears like the believer model. He is in disposition to sacrifice what he most loves, his own son, if God asks him to do it. It is only a test (22,1-2). Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush…. and sacrificed it in place of his son (22,13). That place will not be forgotten. He called him: The Lord will provide (22,14). On his part, the Lord confirms his promise: Because you have don this and not held back your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (22,16-17).
11. - God´s mediations are very diverse. Abraham wanted to look for a wife for his son Isaac, by means of his servant, between the girls of his own country. The servant goes to Mesopotamia and meets Rebecca near the well. He, actually, had just done a prayer to the Lord: I am standing at the spring while the girls of the city are coming to draw water. Now, I will ask them like this: “please tilt your pitcher so that I may drink, and the first girl who answers: Drink and I will water your camels as well, that will be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac (Gen 24,13-14). The servant said Rebecca: Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher. She let him drink. And added: I am going to water your camels as well, until they have had enough (Gen 24,17-19). The servant began to see very clear the whole thing. The young girl run to announce in her mother´s home what she just lived. The family reacts saying: This is God´s doing (Gen 24,50). They ask the girl’s opinion and she says: I will go (Gen 24-58). And she departed towards Isaac´s home, who was waiting in his country.
12. - Jacob´s vision is an important passage of his own tradition. Jacob stops in a place (Betel, God´s home) where the night comes over and he places some stones to put his head on. He has a dream. He sees a stair (perhaps a tower with stairs, a temple) that connects heaven and earth, with God´s messengers who go up and down. The communication comes from God, in the high, and reaches Jacob, in the ground. It is the promise’s word: I am Yahweh, the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you sleep, I give to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be numerous like the specks of dust of the earth (Gen 28, 13-14). Jacob´s dream is accomplished in Christ, true God´s temple: You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (Jn 1,51; 2,21). Truly, all nations will be blessed through him (Ps 72,17).
13. - The death’s fact is also reached by God´s word. The God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, says Jesus, is a God of the living and not of the dead, and all live for him, they are like angels, they are God´s children, being children of the resurrection. The Sadducees, members of the high priesthood, do no believe that the dead may resurrect and object citing the woman that marries seven times: to which of them will the woman be wife in the resurrection? Jesus answers: For those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Know that they are like angels and cannot die anymore. They are now children of God, for he raised them. Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses showed it to be true in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and all live for him. (Lk 20,35-38).
14. - The Sadducees are in error because they do not understand the Scriptures or God´s power (Mt 22,29). Everything is in relationship. The one who does not perceive God´s action, do not understand the Scriptures. Jesus refers the Sadducees to Moses vocation, who listens this word of God: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (Ex 3,6). Jesus tightly associates the knowledge of the living God, God of the living, and the actuality of the resurrection. People become astonished. It is not only the soul’s immortality. It is a new creation. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who live him (1Co2,9). It is written down, the just will judge the nations (Wis 3,8), they will shine forever like stars (Dan 12,3). It is to say, the Lord will take in his hands our destiny (Ps 126) to the end.
15. - The physical descend is not important, but the faith and the conversion, John the Baptist advises it: Do not think that it is enough to say: We have Abraham for our father. I tell you that God can raise children for Abraham from these stones (Mt 3,9). Jesus says something similar: If you were Abraham children, you would do like Abraham did. (Jn 8,39). On his part, Paul affirms that Abraham people is the people born from the faith: faith is the way and all is given by grace; and the promises of Abraham are fulfilled for all his descendants, not only for his children according to the Law, but also for all the others who have believed. Abraham is the father of all of us, like it is written: I will make you father of many nations. . He is our father in the eyes of Him who gives life to the dead, and calls the non-existent like if already existing, for this is the God in whom he believed. (Rom 4,16-17).
Dialogue:
* Does our experience coincide with that of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob?
· We belong to the disperse humanity
· We listen God´s word in the life’s circumstances
· We leave our earth, our people
· We receive a people, an earth, a promise
· We understand the Scriptures and the power of God
· He is not a God of the dead, but of the living.