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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Children of Abraham
Jews called Abraham our father, and many believed that being his descendants all but guaranteed a place among God's saved people. The Gospels and Paul argue over who his true children are.
Our family has been in this church for six generations, so of course we belong. Every Jew traced his people back to Abraham, the man God called and made promises to. Being his children meant being God's chosen people, and in popular belief it nearly guaranteed a share in the world to come. Calling someone a father could also mean the person whose ways you follow. So an argument about who your father is could turn into an argument about how you live.
In popular Jewish belief, Keener notes, being born of Abraham's line all but assured a person of salvation, unless he was among the very wicked, since Israel was chosen in Abraham. Abraham was also the model convert. He was a Gentile until his circumcision and was said to have destroyed idols, and traditions held that his merit sustained Israel in later generations. Father could mean ancestor. It could also mean the one whose ways a person imitated, often a teacher, or whose character a person showed. In Jewish literature children of Abraham was equal to children of God, because God had adopted Abraham's descendants (Exodus 4:22). To suggest that someone had one father by law and another by nature was to accuse his mother of adultery. Tradition said God showed Abraham, the model of hospitality in Genesis 18, the kingdoms that would oppress Israel and the messianic age beyond them. Samaritans claimed descent from Jacob too, which Jews denied. Wright says the argument in John 8 turns on confusing two family memberships, children of Abraham and children of God. John the Baptist, Jesus and writers like John and Paul insisted they were not the same. The ESV Study Bible reads John 8:39-40 with Romans 2:28-29 and 9:6-8: Abraham's true children are those who believe, as he believed God (Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). Jews called themselves Abraham's offspring and heirs of his covenant. They applied the title occasionally to the outstandingly righteous but never to Gentiles. When later rabbis applied Abraham's seed to one person, they meant Isaac. Jews of Paul's day saw the Nabatean Arabs as Ishmaelites, Hagar's descendants.
An analogy: an old family firm where the founder's name on the door is supposed to guarantee the work. A grandson who cheats the customers can still claim the name, but people start asking whether he is really a son of the house.
When people say Abraham is their father, as in John 8:39, they are claiming a place among God's people, and a reply about deeds turns descent into likeness. John the Baptist's warning in Matthew 3:9 makes the same move, and Paul argues in Romans 9:6-8 that not all who descend from Abraham are his children.
Not a bloodline closed to outsiders. A family firm passes only to the founder's own descendants. Reading Paul, the ESV Study Bible counts as Abraham's true children those who believe as he did, so the house takes in Gentiles, a use of the title Jewish writers of the day never allowed.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-8-31-59\/","n":"John 8:31-59, Abraham's children, and before Abraham, I am","s":"Jesus tells Judeans who had believed him that the truth will make them free. They answer that they are Abraham's children and were never slaves, and the argument ends with Jesus saying before Abraham was, I am, and stones in their hands.","r":"John 8:31-59"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-4-1-25\/","n":"Romans 4:1-25, Abraham, father of the uncircumcised too","s":"Paul argues from Genesis 15:6 that Abraham was counted righteous by trusting God before he was circumcised, so he is the father of all who believe, circumcised or not.","r":"Romans 4:1-25"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-9-1-5\/","n":"Romans 9:1-5, Israel's privileges","s":"Paul grieves for his own people and lists what belongs to Israel: the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs and the Messiah.","r":"Romans 9:1-5"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-11-11-24\/","n":"Romans 11:11-24, The olive tree","s":"Israel's stumbling has brought salvation to the Gentiles. Paul pictures Gentile believers as wild olive shoots grafted into Israel's tree and warns them not to boast over the natural branches.","r":"Romans 11:11-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-11-25-36\/","n":"Romans 11:25-36, The full number of the nations","s":"Paul reveals a mystery: a partial hardening has come on Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved. He ends in praise of God's wisdom.","r":"Romans 11:25-36"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-3-1-14\/","n":"Galatians 3:1-14, Who bewitched you? Abraham's blessing and the law's curse","s":"Paul asks the Galatians who has bewitched them, since they received the Spirit by believing, then argues from Abraham that those who believe share his blessing, while Christ took the law's curse by being hung on a tree.","r":"Galatians 3:1-14"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-3-15-22\/","n":"Galatians 3:15-22, A will no one can change, and a law given through angels","s":"Paul argues from the way a ratified will cannot be altered that the law, coming 430 years after the promise to Abraham and his seed, cannot cancel it, and says the law was added because of transgressions, put in place through angels by a mediator.","r":"Galatians 3:15-22"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-3-23-29\/","n":"Galatians 3:23-29, The law as a guardian until faith came","s":"Before faith came, Paul says, we were held in custody under the law, which served as a guardian until Christ; now all who have been baptized into Christ are God's children, one in him, Abraham's seed and heirs.","r":"Galatians 3:23-29"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-4-21-5-1\/","n":"Galatians 4:21-5:1, Hagar, Sarah and Sinai in Arabia","s":"Paul reads the story of Abraham's two sons as a figure of two covenants: Hagar the slave stands for Sinai and the present Jerusalem, Sarah the free woman for the Jerusalem above, and he calls the Galatians to stand firm in freedom.","r":"Galatians 4:21-5:1"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-11-8-16\/","n":"Hebrews 11:8-16, Strangers looking for a city","s":"By faith Abraham left home without knowing where he was going and lived in tents in the promised land as a foreigner, waiting for a city with lasting foundations that God himself designed and built. He and Sarah and their family died still waiting, admitting they were strangers on earth and longing for a better, heavenly country.","r":"Hebrews 11:8-16"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/james-2-14-26\/","n":"James 2:14-26, Faith that shudders, Abraham and Rahab","s":"Faith without deeds is dead, James argues. Wishing a hungry brother well helps no one, the demons believe that God is one and shudder, and Abraham and Rahab were counted righteous by what they did.","r":"James 2:14-26"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1peter-3-1-7\/","n":"1 Peter 3:1-7, A wife who does not share her husband's gods","s":"Wives are to submit to their husbands so that husbands who do not believe may be won without a word, by their conduct. Their beauty should be a gentle and quiet spirit rather than braided hair and gold, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him lord. Husbands must be considerate and honor their wives as co-heirs of the gracious gift of life.","r":"1 Peter 3:1-7"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 8:36-37, 8:38-39, 8:40, 8:41 and 8:56
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 4:12, 8:37, 8:39 and 8:56
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 8:39-40
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 15, The Woman at the Well, section 2
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, comment on John 8:37-47
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 4:1-22 and 4:2
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Galatians 3:6, 3:7, 3:8-9, 3:16 and 4:25
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Galatians 3:6, 3:7, 3:29 and 4:25
