Chapter 18 presents the most human of all the scenes in Genesis where God promises Abram. It opens with Abram in a mundane, recognizably human position: sitting outside his tent during the heat of the day. As Alter indicates, the narrator clues us into the divine character of the messenger by opening the chapter with "And the Lord appeared to him"(v.17:1). However, what Abram actually sees is "three men standing before him"(17:2). Abram has no trouble however recognizing that these three men are a manifestation of the lord and he runs to them and pays homage. Recognition is a key virtue in Genesis (as deception is a key sin) and here is an instance of Abram's keen ability to see the Lord. Such perception allows him to respond in a direct and appropriate way.
There is a touching humility in Abram's idiomatic request that his visitors "not go on past your servant"(v.17:4). There is a humanity and a modesty (as Alter points out) in Abram's under-promising and over-delivering hospitality; while he promises "a little water be fetched and...a morsel of bread"(v.17:5), he then runs off and hurriedly prepares a large meal for his guests.
The encounter has a mystery to it. The divine element is at once human and supernatural: God appears as three men who come to Abrams tent, presumably take him up on his suggestion that they "bathe [their] feet and stretch out under the tree"(17:5)and have a meal, yet these three most human strangers know Sara's name and that she laughs at their promise despite the fact that she's in the tent and does so "inwardly"(v.17:11).
Following Rashi, Alter notes the "variation in repetition" that occurs as the major voices in the narrative comment upon the promise: "'I will surely return to you at this very season and, look, a son shall Sarah your wife have'"(18:10). The narrative voice quietly expresses its incredulity, perhaps its wonder, by resorting to the factual: "Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, Sarah no longer had her woman's flow"(18:10). After laughing "inwardly"((18:11), Sarah questions in an earthier manner: "'After being shriveled, shall I have pleasure, and my husband is old'"(18:12). God the stranger reveals Sarah's incredulity to Abraham, editing and reporting her thoughts as "'Shall I really give birth, old as I am?'"(18:13).
I feel for Sarah in this exchange. Her private thoughts have not only been eavesdropped upon, but shared with her husband.
Between chapters 12 and 18, Abram is party to seven divine encounters where he receives a promise of some sort. Generally, Alter believes that repetition should not be read as redundancy, nor as a product of the texts having been put together from many sources offering different versions of significant events. He argues throughout his commentary for "the narrative integrity of the completed text, the ability of the biblical Arranger...to orchestrate his sources"(n. 11, p.167).
In the course of relating Abrams several encounters with the Lord, there are disjunctures in the narrative flow, as between the two encounters in chapter 15. As Alter indicates (n.7-21, p64),the first clearly takes place at night and the one that seems to directly follow it occurs at sunset.
Keeping with Alter's contention of the text's narrative integrity, I think the "Arranger" of the text clearly intends each of the seven to be read not only as variations commenting upon each other, but also conveying a message by virtue of their sequence. These very well may be versions from different sources, originally offering their own take on the same event. However, they have been arranged over time as a sequence of unique events. Thus, in the initial promises, Abram is silent. Next, he is questioning. Then, presented again with the promise, he flings himself on the ground and laughs, perhaps out of incredulity or frustration or anger or some mix of all these elements. Read as a sequence of unique events occurring over time, the text also gives the reader a taste of Abram's patience and endurance.
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