Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

16:1-16 GENESIS
well to have, or course, the various presentations of this
“domestic drama” so that it may be studied from all points
of view.)
Does the legal background reflected here cmforwz to
actual chronology? The Nuzi archives, we are told , gve i us
some of the most intimate pictures of life in an ancient
Mesopotamian community. Note well the following
(NBD, 69) : “The remarkable parallels between the customs
and social conditions of these peoples and the patriarchal
narratives in Genesis have led some scholars to argue from
this for a similar ljth-century date for Abraham and his
sons; but there is evidence that many of these customs had
been observed for some centuries, and that the Hurrians
were already a virile part of the population of N. Mesopotamia
and Syria by the 18th century B.C. These parallels
provide useful background information to the patriarchal
age, and are one of the external factors supporting
the historicity of this part of Genesis.”
The stories of Ishmael and Isaac also have to do, of
course, with the law of inheritance. Indeed this is at the
very root of the entire narrative, one might well say, of all
the patriarchal narratives. The problems also involves, as
we have already learned, the status of Abraham’s steward,
Eliezer of Damascus. Fortunately, the Nuzi archives make
clear the legal aspects of this matter which is stated as
fallows (NBD, 69) : “Normally the estate passed to the
eldest son, who. received a ‘double portion’ compared with
’ the younger. Should a man (or woman) have no sans,
he could adopt as a son a person from outside the family,
even if he was a slave. Such an adopted son was expected
to care for the man in his old age, to provide proper burial
and the maintenance of religious rites (including the pouring
of libations), and to continue the family name in return
for the property. This may explain Abram’s adoption of
Elieier as heir prior to the birth of Isaac (Gen. 1 :2-4).
Such agreements were legally void if the adopter subse-
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