Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH 12:7
of man. Abram felt impelled to give personal public
testimony to God’s inercy displayed in this appearance.
So he built an altar. . This statement is misconstrued by
criticism in its attempt to find as many distinctions as
possible between so-called sources. This passage, ascribed
to J, is said to mean that J never records instances of actual
sacrifices by the patriarchs. This is the argument from
silence, and it is inconclusive because the word for altar is
inizbeach, meaning ‘a place for slaughter.’ The manifest
intention of the author must be that ‘a place for slaughter’
was made in order to slaughter a victim. Altars becarrte
altars when the victinz is slaiiz. A mere altar of stones
would have been a formalistic gesture on Abram’s part-a
gesture like falling on one’s knees to pray but omitting
the prayer. The soul of the patriarchal religiom was sacrifice,
The critics find matters, which no one before their
iime dreamed of. The altar is said to be built ‘unto
Yahweh’ to emphasize the undeserved mercy of His
promise.” (Italics ours-C. The fact seems to be that
the critics are for the most part motivated by zeal to
destroy the integrity of the Bible and so to destroy its
influence on mankind.) (HSB, 22): “Abraham’s altar at
Shechem implies animal sacrifice which was common to all
Semites.”
Oiz to Bethel.
From the oak of Moreh Abram now
moved to the hill east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with
Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (localities that are
still recognized-the former as Beiten, the latter as Tell-
er-Rigmeh, the mount of the heap). Obviously Abram
was still predominantly nomadic and apparently was still
seeking better pasture land. It could well be also that
the “Canaanites” did not view with too kindly eyes the
appearance of this patriarch’s tents and floclcs and herds;
that Abram had neither the power nor the inclination to
resort, like Jacob, to “his sword and his bow” (Gen. 48:22,
Smith-Fields, OTH, 99). Abram was now on the heights
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