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Genesis 17:1-16
With thanks to page sponsor 2015:
The Reverend Julia B Dunbar

• Reading the Text:
  • NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
  • Hebrew Interlinear Bible, WLCv, WLC5, CHES, AV.
  • The Bible Gateway: NRSV, RSV, NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
  • The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Hebrew text with concordance, commentaries.
  • The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary, exposition and sermons.
  • Bereshit 17: Massoretic, Hebrew, Aramaic, JPS.
• Historical References, Commentary and Comparative Texts:
  • Navigating the Bible: Text/Rabbinic commentary and Divrei Torah.
  • Chapter XIII of the Epistle of Barnabas. (ca. 130)
  • I.XVIII.3, Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons. (c. 180)
  • I.7, Paedagogus, Clement of Alexandria (c 200)
  • I.29, Stromata, Clement of Alexandria (c 200)
  • Chapter VI, On Monogamy, Tertullian (c. 215)Rashi's Commentary, c. 1075. chabad.org.
  • From Calvin's Commentary on Genesis.
  • From the Geneva Notes.
    • "Not only physical descendants, but of a far greater multitude by faith"
  • From Matthew Henry's Commentary.
    • "In token of this covenant his name was changed from Abram, "a high father," to Abraham, "the father of a multitude." All that the Christian world enjoys, it is indebted for to Abraham and his Seed."
  • From Wesley's Notes.
    • "...all believers, in every age, should be looked upon as his spiritual seed, as the father of the faithful."
  • "Consecration to God Illustrated by Abram's Circumcision: Genesis 17:1-2," Charles H. Spurgeon, 1868.
    • "Every believer who serves his God doth, as it were, give refreshment to the divine mind."
  • From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
• Contemporary References, Commentary and Comparative Texts:
  • Commentary, Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Cameron B.R. Howard, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.
    • "Laughter may seem a little uncouth during Lent; after all, this is a season of spiritual practices, of discipline, forty somber days in which we pack up our Alleluias and put them in storage. Even so, we do well to remember every year that the promises of the Gospel are foolishness in the eyes of the world. "
  • The Center for Excellence in Preaching, Scott Hoezee, resources from Calvin Theological Seminary: Comments & Observations, Textual Points, illustration ideas, 2015.
    • "Somehow it's all saying the same basic thing: God loves us. God desires our nearness, our intimacy, our love returned back to him."
  • "Lenten Faith on the Lunatic Fringe," Dan Clendenin, Journey with Jesus, 2015.
  • "God makes something out of nothing. He creates ex nihilo. In the words of Paul's epistle this week, he 'gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.' He's a God worthy of our lunatic faith in this Lenten season."
  • "From Generation to Generation," Adam Copeland, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2015. Video: Wisdom.
    • "God's good blessings always call for faithful response."
  • "A Covenant for All," John C. Holbert, Opening the Old Testament, 2015.
    • "With a God like this, none of us is past our day; this sort of God still has something for each of us, in spite of our doubts and cynicism, despite our biting laughter of despair."
  • "The Politics of Abraham's Foreskin," Alastair Roberts, Political Theology Today, 2015.
    • "In our own day, although marriage and family may never have been more vexed as political issues, there is a steady movement towards the privatization and deinstitutionalization of sexual relations and marriage. Marriage is being shorn of a telos that exceeds the private ends of the parties within it, increasingly rendering the actual form of the union as a bespoke one and the conformity of society's behaviour to its moral norms an entirely optional matter."
  • Pulpit Fiction, plus podcast. Reflections of lectionary text, pop culture, current events, etc. Robb Mc Coy and Eric Fistler, 2015.
  • "Abraham, Sarah and Laughter," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
  • "Sarah and her husband had had plenty of hard knocks in their time, and there were plenty more of them still to come, but at that moment when the angel told them they'd better start dipping into their old-age pensions for cash to build a nursery, the reason they laughed was that it suddenly dawned on them that the wildest dreams they'd ever had hadn't been half wild enough."
  • "The Promise Is The Thing," poetry by Scott Barton, 2015.
  • Commentary, Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Elizabeth Webb, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
    • "Whoever we may think we are (dirty, shameful, broken), God knows who we really are, and frees and calls us to live into the name that God has given us."
  • "YHWH the Amazing," John C. Holbert, Patheos, 2012.
    • "It is frankly inconceivable that anyone reading Genesis 17, a text right at the heart of the long struggle for Abram and Sarai to find fulfillment with the promise of YHWH for them to have a child, could possibly leave out the quite hilarious, and yet tragic, irony to be found between Genesis 17:3 and Genesis 17:17. These two verses are nothing less than the lynchpin of the entire chapter, and the lectionary collectors have apparently missed the crucial connection."
  • "What's In a Name?" Caspar Green, Scarlet Letter Bible, 2012.
    • "So, even though the promise is made to a single individual, it takes on a universal scope. It's not meant to be restrictive, but expansive."
  • "How Abe Became a Ham," Tim Good, The Naked Alien, 2012.
    • "What happened in Genesis 16?"
  • "God's Promises," FaithElement discipleship system "setting the Bible free," 2012.
  • Comments (commentary) and Clippings (technical notes for in-depth study), Chris Haslam, Anglican Diocese of Montreal.
  • Commentary, Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
    • "God's promises are the central feature of the Abrahamic story."
  • Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Lent 2B, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.
    • "In selecting only vv. 1-7, 15-16 to be read in worship they have given this text a new meaning, one influenced heavily by the fact that we read it in Lent and in anticipation of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is not entirely inappropriate, we just need to be aware that we are seeing the text differently to any ancient writer, reader or hearer."
  • Join the Feast, Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Becky Purcell, Union PSCE, 2009.
    • "God capital letter GIVES a covenant of not rules and rituals that circumscribe but an everlasting relationship continuously, steadily--with a lot of back and forth and many ebbs and flows--calling into existence new life."
  • Desert Scribblings, Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Geoff McElroy, 2009.
    • "Our identity matters.  Ignoring whether or not this should be the case, people with recognizable identities are treated differently, either positively or negatively."
  • Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Studies on Old Testament texts from Series B, Ralph W. Klein, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
  • "How Muslims See Us," study guide for adults, Robert B. Kruschwitz, (other resources at) "Christianity and Islam," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2005.
  • "Grasping the Great Truth of God," from the Biblical Studies Foundation.
    • "If it took Abraham a lifetime to grasp three verses of Scripture, how long will it take us to fathom the depth of the riches of His grace?"
  • Parshah Lech-Lecha, text, commentary & articles from Chassidic Masters, sermons, etc from Chabad Lubavitch.
  • Parshas Lech Lecha, Divrei Torah from The Project Genesis Torah Study. Index to numerous Orthodox articles and studies on Genesis 12:1 - 17:27.
  • Parshat Lech Lecha, articles and commentary by the Jewish Community of Atlanta, at The Torah From Dixie.
  • "The Legacy of Sarah and Abraham," by Prof. Eliezer Segal, University of Calgary.
    • "A longstanding Jewish tradition sees the career of Abraham as a sequence of trials, commencing with his call to leave his homeland for an unidentified destination, and culminating in the command to sacrifice his son. Perhaps we are justified in seeing the present episode as a trial of a different sort: Had Abraham and Sarah not reacted to God's promise with irrepressible laughter, then they would have failed the test! They would have been declared unworthy bearers of God's covenant."
  • "A Family Affair," program highlights, discussion & reflection questions and more from the Bill Moyers PBS series Genesis: A Living Conversation.
    • "Why doesn't the experience of being oppressed make it impossible for us to oppress others?"
  • "Mission among Muslims: Another Chosen People," Herbert Zorn, Word & World Texts in Context, 1996.
  • "Between the Fires," Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center.
  • Abraham and Sarah, from And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible.
  • Circumcision: "Sign of the Covenant," from And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible by Ronald L. Ecker.
• Recommended articles from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are linked below. ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices. Annotated list of "starting place" articles at ATLAS for this week's texts (includes direct links).
  • Bautch, Richard J., "An Appraisal of Abraham's Role in Postexilic Covenants," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2009.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Brueggemann, Walter, "Genesis 17:1-22," Interpretation, 1991.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Essex, Keith H., "The Abrahamic Covenant," Master's Seminary Journal, 1999.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Klein, Ralph W., "Call, Covenant and Community: The Story of Abraham and Sarah," Currents in Theology and Mission, 1988.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Martin, Troy W., "The Covenant of Circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14) and the Situational Antithesis in Galatians 3:28," Journal of Biblical Literature, 2003.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Roehrs, Walter R., "Divine Covenants: Their Structure and Function," Concordia Journal, 1988.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Umansky, Ellen M., "God's Covenant with Israel: A Midrash on Genesis 17 and 21," Reconstructionist, 1998.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Townsend, Jeffrey L., "Fulfillment of the Land Promise in the Old Testament," Bibliiotheca Sacra, 1985.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Warning, Wilifred, "Terminological Patterns and Genesis 17," Hebrew Union College Annual, 1999-2000.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Wirzba, Norman, "The Dark Night of the Soil: An Agrarian Approach to Mystical Life," Christianity and Literature, 2007.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
  • Zorn, Herbert, "Mission among Muslims: A Sermon Series," Word & World, 1996.
      EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
      EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
• Sermons:
• With Children:
  • Worshiping with Children, Lent 2B, Including children in the congregation's worship, using the Revised Common Lectionary, Carolyn C. Brown, 2015.
  • "Storypath Lectionary Links: Connecting Children's Literature with our Faith Story," February 8, 2015, Union Presbyterian Seminary. 2012.
  • "Abraham - Father of Many Nations," Illustrating the Story (lessons, children's sermons), coloring pages, activity sheets, crafts, children's songs. MSSS Crafts.
  • The Story of Abraham and Sarah, activities & crafts for children, DLTK's Printable Crafts for Kids.
  • "Surprise Company!" Linda Edwards, The Children's Chapel.
  • "God Promises Abraham a Son," Sunday School Lessons: Family Bible Study, art projects, music, stories, etc.
  • "Journey to Faith," Jim Kerlin, childrensermons.com.
• Drama:
  • "We Are on Our Way," A Children's Drama Based on the Abraham Story, by Helen Walter, Reformed Worship.
  • "One Foot in the Future," Andy Lund, dramatix.
  • "Lot" monologue, Ross Olson.
• Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
  • Images for this week's readings, Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive.
• Hymns and Music:
  • Hymnary.org, hymns, scores, media, information.
  • “Old Abram Was Blest,” Carolyn Winfrey Gillette’s hymn celebrating God’s covenant with Abram and Sari; Tune: LYONS 10.10.11.11 (“O Worship the King, All Glorious Above!”). New hymn available with music from The Presbyterian Outlook magazine for Lent 2011.
  • “Long Ago, God Reached In Love,” an original hymn by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, celebrating the covenants in the Bible.  Tune: JESUS LOVES ME 7.7.7.7 (“Jesus Loves Me”).
• Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
  • Abraham
• Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
  • Covenant
  • Abraham
• Study links and resources for the Book of Genesis

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