Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

18 : 1-313 p . GENESIS
constant and faithful Friend. Acc
festation, on the occasion of which ’hp. b.ec3me a guest of
Abraham was not an isolated event in: the patriarch’s
experience, but one of a series, in whi ,Divine, Mediator
appeared, spoke, and acted, in cond ng ,accomodation
to the simple and childlike, feelings of ,Abraham,. and as a
preluding of the incarnation, when :God. mnaqifqt .in the
flesh’ would ‘tabernacle with man.’ . . , -Thewidea qf this
narrative being a myth, invented by Some Jewish wqiter
for the gratification of national pride, js ..uttgly. I groundless;
for, once admit the peculiar relatiqn in which Abraham
stood to God, and this visit is in. perfect accordance
with his position. As little ground,.is ,there ,for putting
this narrative in the same category as :the $teethen fable of
Philemon and Baucis, for, though manx of. the details in
that mythological fable are similar to those of the Scripture
narrative, it wants the covenant relations-the grand peculiarity
of the patriarchal story-which no poetic imagination
could have invented.” In a word, the Third Personage
in this narrative of Abraham’s Intercession was surely the
Angel of Jehovah who appears so frequently through the
old Dispensations, and who appeared as God’s Only Begotten
in the manger of Bethlehem (cf. Mic. 5:2, John
17:
peiser’s comment about the “Biblical process” becomes
pertinent here (ABG, Intro., 52) : “The question
has often been posed whether the course of recent history
would have changed much if on August 15, 1769, Letizia
Bonaparte had given birth to a girl instead of a boy. The
answer is obvious when limited to decades. But would it
still be true a hundred years later, or a hundred and fifty?
The chances are that it would not, and that the deviation
from ,the original course which the advent of Napoleon
brought about would have been righted in due time. Now
1et.u~ ask the same kind of question about the biblical
process and its presumed originator. The answer can be
316