The Seed of Abraham (Part Two)

(For part one of this study, click here: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-seed-of-abraham-part-one.html)

Among the ecclesias that Paul referred to collectively as ”all the ecclesias of the nations” in Rom. 16:4 were the ecclesias of Galatia to whom Paul wrote (Gal. 1:2). And as was the case with the other ecclesias referred to in Rom. 16:4, the majority of the saints who comprised the ecclesias of Galatia were uncircumcised converts from paganism (Gal. 4:8).[1] Keeping this fact in mind, Paul wrote the following toward the end of his letter to the saints in Galatia:

”For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation. And whoever shall observe the elements of this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, also on the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:15-16). 

The very fact that Paul denied that either circumcision or uncircumcision was anything for those “in Christ Jesus” indicates that Paul wasn’t referring to the believing remnant among God’s covenant people, Israel. For circumcision is, of course, the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants through the line of Isaac and Jacob (Israel). In Genesis 17:9-14 we read the following:

Then Elohim spoke to Abraham: As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you, throughout their generations. This is My covenant that you shall keep between Me and yourselves and your seed after you: Every male among you is to be circumcised. Namely you will be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and this will be the covenant sign between Me and yourselves. Throughout your generations, every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, anyone born in the household or acquired with money from any foreigner’s son who is not of your seed. He shall be circumcised, yea circumcised, the manservant born in your household or acquired with your money. Thus will My covenant be marked in your flesh as an eonian covenant. As for the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, this soul will be cut off from his people; he has annulled My covenant. 

In the ordinary course of things, circumcision was to be performed on eight-day-old male descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There were, of course, exceptions to the more regular practice of circumcising male infants; God himself declared that newly-acquired male servants had to be circumcised as well. And any male Gentile who chose to become a member of God’s covenant people (i.e., a proselyte) would’ve had to undergo circumcision in order to do so. Moreover – and as is evident from the above passage – circumcision was (and, I believe, continues to be) no trivial or inconsequential matter to God. He himself instituted circumcision as the covenant sign between himself and Israel, and the covenant of circumcision is said to be “throughout [their] generations” (i.e., Israel’s) and “an eonian covenant.” Thus, it cannot be said that “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything” for Israel. In Paul’s day, circumcision remained the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, and everything that we’re told God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:9-14 was just as true and authoritative when Paul wrote to the saints in Galatia as it was when God first spoke these words to Abraham.[2]

When Paul wrote “for in Christ Jesus,” he had in mind the status of every saint who, having been called by God through the evangel which Paul heralded among the nations (Gal. 2:2, 7), belongs to the body of Christ. But what did Paul have in mind when he referred to “the Israel of God?” Although many Christians (and even some believers in the body of Christ) want to understand “the Israel of God” as just another reference to the body of Christ, this interpretation is not tenable. In order to understand the Israel of God as another reference to the body of Christ, one must not only understand the word “Israel” in a way that Paul never used the word elsewhere in his letters, but they must ignore Paul’s use of the word “also” (which indicates that Paul is now referring to a category of people distinct from those whom he had in view previously).

According to the most natural and straight-forward meaning of the expression “Israel of God,” we can conclude that Paul was simply referring to the chosen, believing remnant among God’s covenant people, Israel. That is, it refers to those chosen and believing Israelites who, having been called by God through the “evangel of the Circumcision” (Gal. 2:7), will share in Israel’s covenant-based expectation, and will be among the “all Israel” that will be saved when Christ returns (Rom. 11:26-27). It is these who will receive an allotment in the kingdom of God on earth (i.e., the kingdom that’s going to be restored to Israel; cf. Acts 1:6).

Notice, also, how “the Israel of God” is referred to as a distinct category of people on whom Paul desired God’s mercy in connection with what he’d just said concerning the observance of “the elements of this rule” (the “rule” being that which was expressed in v. 15). Why would Paul specify “mercy” as being that which he desired would be “on” this distinct category of people (instead of simply “peace,” as he desired would be on everyone else referred to)? Answer: Because, while some within this category of believing Israelites correctly acknowledged and respected the fact that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mattered for those belonging to the company of believers that constitutes the body of Christ, not all did. In fact, some within this company of saints were very much opposed to what Paul called the “elements of this rule.” Hence – for the sake of those who did “observe the elements of this rule” – Paul expressed his desire for God’s mercy on the entire category of Jewish believers constituting the “Israel of God.”

“Consequently you are of Abraham’s seed”

Now, keeping in mind the fact that, in his letter to the saints of Galatia, Paul was writing to ecclesias that belonged to “all the ecclesias of the nations” (and was not writing to those whom God considered members of his covenant people, Israel), let’s consider what Paul wrote in Galatians 3:5-9. In these verses we read the following:

He, then, who is supplying you with the spirit, and operating works of power among you-did you get the spirit by works of law or by the hearing of faith, according as Abraham believes God, and it is reckoned to him for righteousness? Know, consequently, that those of faith, these are sons of Abraham. Now the scripture, perceiving before that God is justifying the nations by faith, brings before an evangel to Abraham, that In you shall all the nations be blessed. So that those of faith are being blessed together with believing Abraham.”

And in verses 27-29 we read the following:

“For whoever are baptized into Christ, put on Christ, in Whom there is no Jew nor yet Greek, there is no slave nor yet free, there is no male and female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus. Now if you are Christ’s, consequently you are of Abraham’s seed, enjoyers of the allotment according to the promise.”

Was Paul revealing that the saints of Galatia to whom he wrote (and who were among the “ecclesias of the nations” referred to in Rom. 16:4) were included among the “seed” referred to in passages such as, for example, Genesis 13:14-17 and 1 Chronicles 16:12-18? Here, again, is what we read in these passages:

And Yahweh Elohim says to Abram after Lot was parted from him, “Lift your eyes, pray, and see. From the place where you now are, northward and toward the south-rim and eastward and seaward, for all the land which you are seeing, to you am I giving it, and to your seed, till the eon. And I make your seed as the soil of the land. Could a man count the soil of the land, moreover, then your seed shall be counted. Rise, walk in the land, its length and its width, for to you am I giving it, and to your seed, for the eon.”

Remember His marvelous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments of His mouth, O seed of Israel, His servants, sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is Yahweh, our Elohim; His judgments are in all the earth. Remember His covenant for the eon, the word he enjoined on a thousand generations, that He contracted with Abraham, and by His oath to Isaac. He ratified it to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as a covenant eonian, saying, “To you shall I give the land of Canaan, the region of your allotment.”

In these and other related passages, the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (i.e., Israel) who are going to be enjoying their eonian allotment in the land that God promised them are Jewish with regard to their ethnicity/lineage (i.e., they’re descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), and are in a covenant-based relationship with God that involves the required circumcision of every male (Gen. 17:9-14). That is, the believers who constitute the offspring of Abraham to whom the land of Canaan has been promised by God belong to the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 49:28; Ez. 47:15; Matt. 19:28; Acts 26:7; James 1:1; Rev. 7:4-8; 21:12), and – in accord with what we read in (for example) Malachi 4:4 – can validly be considered saints who are “of the law” (Rom. 4:16).

So was Paul saying that the saints who comprised “all the ecclesias of the nations” were identical with (or belonged to) the seed of Abraham referred to in passages such as Gen. 13:14-17 or Gen. 17:7-10? No. Had Paul been doing that, he would’ve been contradicting what God himself declared and promised in these and other passages. In contrast with the saints whom Paul referred to as “Abraham’s seed” in Gal. 3:27-29, the offspring (plural) referred to in passages such as Gen. 13:14-17 and Gen. 17:7-10 consists of people who belong to the twelve-tribed nation to which the exhortation found in Mal. 4:4 was given. But how, then, can a company of saints that could be referred to elsewhere by Paul as “the nations” be considered “sons of Abraham,” and Abraham be considered our “father” (as he is said to be in Romans 4:12, 16)?

According to one view (which is a view I’ve defended elsewhere), Paul’s father/sons terminology involving Abraham and those to whom he wrote expresses the same idea that is found elsewhere in Scripture when certain people are figuratively referred to as a “son” (or “sons”) of someone or something else. For example, James and John were figuratively referred to by Christ as the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), Satan is said to have been the “father” of the unbelieving Jews (John 8:38, 44), Judas is referred to as the “son of destruction” (John 17:12), and Christ’s disciples were commanded to love their enemies “so that [they] may become sons of [their] Father Who is in the heavens...” (Matt. 5:44-45).  Christ also both In these examples, a literal father-son relationship is not in view. Rather, what’s being emphasized is a certain resemblance or shared characteristic between two or more individuals (or, in the case of Mark 3:17, two individuals and a certain force of nature), with the “son(s)” in view exemplifying some particular characteristic or quality that is shared with the “father.”

Most relevant to the subject with which this study is concerned are the examples of this figure of speech being used found in John 8:37-44 and 1 Pet. 3:6. In 1 Pet. 3:6 we read that Peter – who (like James and John) wrote to believing Israelites (1 Pet. 1:1) – told the female recipients of his letter that they had become the children of Abraham’s wife, Sarah. The sense in which they “became” her children is not the same sense in which they already were her descendents with regard to their ethnicity/lineage. Rather, they “became” her children in the sense that they had become like her through their faith in God and their God-honoring subjection to their husbands.

In John 8:37-38 we read that Christ declared the following to a group of unbelieving Jews:

“I am aware that you are Abraham’s seed. But you are seeking to kill Me, for My word has no room in you. What I have seen with My Father am I speaking. You also, then, what you hear from your father are doing.”

Notice that Jesus affirmed the fact that these unbelieving Jews were, in fact, “Abraham’s seed” (for with regard to ethnicity/lineage, this was the case). However, after they tell Jesus that Abraham is their father, Jesus responds to their claim as follows:

“If you are children of Abraham, did you ever do the works of Abraham? Yet now you are seeking to kill Me, a Man Who has spoken to you the truth which I hear from God. This Abraham does not do.”

Because of their wicked conduct and murderous disposition, Jesus went on to rebuke these unbelieving Jews by stating that they were the children of the Adversary rather than children of Abraham (vv. 41-44). Literally, of course, it was not the case that the Adversary was their “father” (and they his “children”); the “father/children” terminology used by Jesus was meant to emphasize a shared conduct/disposition-based resemblance.

According to this understanding, then, the believers to whom Paul wrote – in contrast with the unbelieving Jews to whom Christ spoke – can be considered “sons” of Abraham (and Abraham can be considered our “father”) because of a certain distinguishing characteristic that we exemplify and share with Abraham (and which is expressed in the following words of Romans 4:12: “…those also who are observing the elements of the faith in the footprints of our father Abraham, in uncircumcision”). But was Paul emphasizing this fact when, in Gal. 3:29, he referred to the saints to whom he wrote as being “of Abraham’s seed” (and when he referred to “all the seed” in Rom. 4:16)?

I believe that Paul had something more in mind in these verses. And I also believe that, in Gal. 3:16, Paul provides us with the key to understanding how those in the body of Christ can be considered “Abraham’s seed” without being identical with, or included among, the seed of Abraham to whom God has promised (and will be giving) the land of Canaan as an eonian allotment. In this verse we read the following:

“Now to Abraham the promises were declared, and to his Seed. He is not saying ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of One: And to ‘your Seed,’ which is Christ.”

Which promises from God concerning Abraham and his “Seed” did Paul have in mind here? Since Paul clearly had in mind a promise in which the term “Seed” refers to a single individual (i.e., Christ), any of the promises in which a plurality of Abraham’s descendants are being referred to (e.g., the ones in which we’re told Abraham’s seed will become numerous, and are promised the land of Canaan as an eonian allotment) can be discounted. But is there a promise in which both Abraham and his seed/offspring are referred to, and in which the seed/offspring in view can be understood as a single descendent of Abraham (rather than a multitude of descendants)? Yes, there is.

In Genesis 22:16-18 we read the following:

By Myself I swear, averring is Yahweh, that, because you have done this thing and have not kept back your son, your only one, from Me, that, blessing, yea, blessing you am I, and increasing, yea, increasing your seed am I as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the sea shore. And your seed shall tenant the gateway of its enemies, and blessed, in your seed, shall be all the nations of the earth, inasmuch as you hearken to My voice.

In these verses, the term “seed” (zera) occurs three different times. In its first occurrence, the term clearly refers to a multitude of descendants. However, in its second occurrence (”And your seed shall tenant the gateway of its enemies”), the term is being used to refer to a single descendant of Abraham. This can be reasonably concluded based on the following two grammatical considerations:

1. The term “seed” is the subject of a third person masculine singular verb (“shall tenant”).

2. The direct object (“enemies”) is qualified by a pronominal suffix that is also in the third person masculine singular (and which refers back to the seed/offspring in view).

In other words, the use of the third person masculine singular verb and the third person masculine singular pronominal suffix that qualifies the word “enemies” indicates that a single descendant of Abraham (rather than a plurality of his descendants) is in view in the last clause of Gen. 22:17.

Here are some English translations that accurately reflect these grammatical facts:

American Standard Version

“…and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies…”

English Standard Version

“And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies…”

Orthodox Jewish Bible

“..and thy zera shall possess the gate of his enemies…”

Young’s Literal Translation

“…and thy seed doth possess the gate of his enemies…”

Moreover, because the immediately preceding reference to “seed” in v. 17 denotes an individual, this must also be the case in v. 18 (for there is nothing here to indicate a change in number or referent with regard to the offspring referred to in the second part of v. 17). Thus, the offspring in view in v. 18 (and in whom God said “all the nations of the earth” shall be blessed) should be understood as a reference to the same singular descendant of Abraham whom God promised “shall possess the gate of his enemies” (compare with Psalm 72:17, which connects an individual king – i.e., the Messiah – with the fulfillment of the “seed” referred to in Gen. 22:17-18). [3]

Having identified the “seed” of Abraham referred to in Genesis 22:17b and 18, let’s return to Paul’s words in Galatian 3:27-29:

“For whoever are baptized into Christ, put on Christ, in Whom there is no Jew nor yet Greek, there is no slave nor yet free, there is no male and female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus. Now if you are Christ’s, consequently you are of Abraham’s seed, enjoyers of the allotment according to the promise.”

The fact that Christ alone – and not a plurality of Jewish offspring (as referred to in Gen. 13:14-17 or 17:7-10) – is the “seed” or offspring of Abraham who is in view in Genesis 22:17b (and v. 18) explains how Paul could refer to a predominantly Gentile company of saints as “Abraham’s seed” in v. 29. For when Paul referred to being “baptized into Christ,” he had in mind the same spiritual “baptism” referred to elsewhere in his letters that is undergone by everyone who, through faith in the evangel of the Uncircumcision, becomes a member of the body of Christ. In 1 Cor. 12:12-13 and v. 27 we read the following:

“For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, thus also is the Christ. For in one spirit also we all are baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all are made to imbibe one spirit…”

“Now you are the body of Christ, and members of a part…”

Thus, in contrast with those who are among the promised offspring of Abraham referred to by God in Genesis 13:14-17 and elsewhere (and to whom God has promised the land of Canaan as an eonian allotment), our status as “Abraham’s seed” – and the related blessing of being “enjoyers of the allotment according to the promise” (i.e., the blessing referred to in Gen. 22:18, and which Paul identifies as justification by faith) – has nothing to do with our ethnicity/lineage or covenantal standing. Rather, as those who have been “baptized into Christ” (and who are thus members of his body and “one in Christ Jesus”), our status as “Abraham’s seed” comes to us directly through our inseparable, spiritual union with Christ, the singular Seed of Abraham referred to by Paul in Gal. 3:16 and prophesied in Gen. 22:17-18.

Conclusion

In contrast with the last two references to Abraham’s seed in Genesis 22:17-18, the seed of Abraham referred to in (for example) Genesis 13:14-17 and 17:7-10 – as well as the “seed of Israel” referred to in 1 Chronicles 16:12-18 – does not refer to an individual descendant of Abraham, and thus cannot be a reference to Jesus Christ, individually. But neither is it the case that the seed of Abraham/seed of Israel referred to in these verses was, in Paul’s day, constituted by the company of saints who belonged to “all the ecclesias of the nations” (Rom. 16:4). For the seed of Abraham/Israel referred to in these verses belong to the twelve-tribed people concerning whom God said, “Circumcise to yourselves every male” (Gen. 17:10), and who are distinguished from “the nations” (Gen. 26:4; 1 Chron. 16:24, 35; 17:21).

So who, in Paul’s day, constituted the seed of Abraham/seed of Israel referred to in these and other verses? Answer: the company of Jewish saints who, in the apostolic era, comprised the un-calloused, believing remnant among God’s covenant people (as referred to by Paul in Rom. 11:5-7). It was these whom Paul referred to as the seed of Abraham who are “of the law” (Rom. 4:16), and among whom were the “many tens of thousands” of believing Jews who were “all inherently zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20).

It was also those who belonged to this company of saints to whom Peter, James and John wrote their letters. According to the arrangement referred to in Gal. 2:9, Paul and his apostolic co-laborer, Barnabas, were to be “for the nations” while James, Peter and John were to be “for the Circumcision.” “The nations” refers to people who belong to a nation besides the nation of Israel. In contrast, “the Circumcision” refers to the people of Israel – i.e., the twelve-tribed descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose covenantal relationship with God is signified by circumcision.

In accord with this arrangement, we find that the letters of Peter, James and John were written exclusively to believers among “the Circumcision” (i.e., God’s covenant people, Israel). For example, we read that James wrote his letter “to the twelve tribes in the dispersion” (James 1:1). Similarly, Peter wrote “to the chosen expatriates of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia…” (1 Pet. 1:1). And in v. 7 of his third letter, the apostle John referred to “the nations” as a company of believers who were distinct from the saints on whose behalf he ministered. Although some have suggested that “the nations” to whom John made reference here were unbelievers, there’s no good reason to think that John – or any of the Jewish believers to whom he wrote – would’ve expected unbelieving Gentiles to provide financial assistance to any of the Jewish ecclesias. On the other hand, we know for a fact that, in accord with the agreement referred to by Paul in Gal. 2:10, the “ecclesias of the nations” to which Paul wrote had been doing just that (Rom. 15:25-31; 1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15). 

In contrast with those who we’re told were to be “for the Circumcision,” Paul – who referred to himself as the “apostle of the nations” (Rom. 11:13) – is the only inspired writer who wrote to believers who could be referred to collectively as “the nations” (Rom. 1:13; 11:13, 25; 15:16, 18), and who belonged to what we find referred to in Rom. 16:4 as ”all the ecclesias of the nations.” It was these believers who, in Paul’s day, constituted that company of saints that Paul (and Paul alone) referred to as “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27; Rom. 12:4-5; cf. 1 Cor. 6:15-19; 10:16-17; 12:12-27) and “the ecclesia which is [Christ’s] body” (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4, 12-16; 5:23-24, 30; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:19; 3:15). And since every ecclesia to which Paul wrote his signed letters was among the “ecclesias of the nations” referred to in Rom. 16:4, it follows that any believers of Jewish ethnicity who belonged to these ecclesias were NOT among the Jewish saints to whom Peter, James and John wrote.  

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[1] In Gal. 4:28 we find Paul referring to the saints who comprised “the ecclesias of Galatia” as “children of promise.” Many assume that, because Paul referred to these saints as “children of promise,” he believed that they belonged to the same company of saints as those whom he referred to in Rom. 9:6-8 as “children of the promise.” However, the use of these related expressions do not indicate or suggest that the two companies of saints to whom these expressions are applied share the same calling and eonian expectation. As is the case with Paul’s reference to the chosen Jewish remnant as “children of the promise” in Rom. 9:8, Paul referred to the saints who comprised the ecclesias of Galatia as “children of promise” to express the fact that their status was in accord with God’s gracious choice and promise. He wasn’t affirming (or denying) anything in particular about anyone’s calling or expectation through his use of either expression.

[2] Through the events described in Acts 10, Peter – the chief apostle of the Circumcision – learned that those among the nations who feared God and acted righteously could be saved (i.e., qualify for an allotment in the kingdom of God) apart from getting circumcised and keeping the law of Moses. That is, Peter learned that it was wrong for anyone to compel someone who wasn’t already a member of God’s covenant people (such as the uncircumcised Greek believer, Titus) to be circumcised. Circumcision was all about becoming a member of God’s covenant people, and this took place either involuntarily (as was the case for eight-day-old Hebrew babies), or voluntarily (as was the case for certain adult Gentiles who chose to become members of God’s covenant people). But to tell a believer from among the nations that they had to become a member of God’s covenant people in order to be saved was wrong.

[3] Moreover, as John Collins notes in his article on Galatians_3:16, Paul used the dative of the Greek noun “seed” (σπέρμα) when referring to Christ in Gal. 3:16. And of the several “blessings” texts from Genesis that Paul may have had in mind in his composite quotation in Galatians 3:8 (“In you shall all the nations be blessed”), Genesis 22:18 (LXX) is the only one in which the dative case of this noun occurs. It’s therefore likely that, in both Gal. 3:8 and 3:16, Paul had Gen. 22:18 in mind (and that Gen. 22:18 was likely the main verse to which Paul was alluding in Gal. 3:16).