Genesis 15: The Vision, the Covenant, and the Land Grant
Genesis 15:1–6
After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” And the Lord took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (BSB)
Says After the events of chapter 14, “the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.” BSB has “After these events”; the Hebrew is “after these things.” Genesis 14 is pointed to, not taken up again; 14:24 and 16:1 are context only. The word is, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” BSB apposes the reward to “I am.” The Hebrew may be read as two clauses, “I am a shield to you; your reward is very great,” or with the reward in apposition to “I.” The wording is in “I am a shield to you”: the vision and the reward. The Greek has a verb, “I shield you,” and a separate clause for the reward, as recorded in LXX Gen 15:1–6: “I shield you,” the son of Masek, and the passive “was reckoned”.
Implies The Lord answers Abram’s fear with a pledge in his own first person. The persons are real; the event is real (pointed to in Persons and history in Genesis 7). Protection and reward rest on the speaker himself.
Uncertain The form of the revelation is read in more than one way, and no verdict is given. Keil writes that “The expression 'in a vision' applies to the whole chapter.” Jubilees reads “the word of the Lord came to Abram in a dream, saying: 'Fear not, Abram; I am thy defender, and thy reward will be exceeding great.'” Driver calls the opening “A loose formula of connexion:” and the form “A common form of prophetic intuition:” Those views are attributed; they do not close the sense of “in a vision.”
Uncertain The syntax of 15:1b is open. The Hebrew can be read as two clauses, or with the reward in apposition to “I,” as BSB takes it. Both readings are set out in the language note; no lean is taken here. Early readings of Abram’s fear and of the reward are gathered in The vision, the promised heir, and the reckoning, in early reading. The Targum has Abram say, “Woe to me, because I have received the reward of my appointments in this world, and have no portion in the world to come.” and has the answer that “the reward of thy good works shall be kept, and be prepared before Me in the world to come, great exceedingly.” Josephus writes, “And God commended his virtue, and said, Thou shalt not however lose the rewards thou hast deserved to receive by such thy glorious actions.” Driver takes the promise as attaching to a “presumed state of anxiety with regard to the future.”, and the reward as “The reward, viz., for obeying my call.” Calvin writes that “this vision might seem to be superfluous;” yet “But since there is no warrant for such conjecture in the words of Moses, I think the cause was different.” These are their readings; they do not fix the syntax of the verse.
Says Abram replies, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” The Hebrew has Damascus first and Eliezer second (דַּמֶּשֶׂק אֱלִיעֶזֶר); BSB reverses them. Verse 3 restates the complaint: “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” The hard phrase of verse 2, “the son of the mesheq of my house,” is treated in Childless, and “the son of the mesheq of my house”. The Greek takes mesheq as a name, “the son of Masek,” and keeps Damascus before Eliezer.
Uncertain The exact sense of that phrase is not settled. Driver writes, “The Heb. is very peculiar:” and “There seems to be some corruption in the text.” He also writes that the wording “is Damméseḳ (the usu. Heb. for Damascus) of Eliezer,” Skinner holds that the phrase “is absolutely unintelligible”, “but the text is so corrupt that even the proper names are doubtful,” The Targum has “and Eliezer the manager (bar pharnasath, the son of sustenance) of my house, by whose hands signs were wrought for (or to) me in Darmasek, expects to be my heir?” Jubilees has “the son of Mâsêq, the son of my handmaid, is the Dammasek Eliezer: he will be my heir, and to me thou hast given no seed.” Those readings are attributed; no ruling is given on the crux. Driver holds of verse 3 that “The verse repeats the substance of v. 2, and reads as though it were introduced from a parallel narrative.” Skinner writes that “there is a clear division between the promise of a son and heir”. Questions of sources, stated as a parallel narrative or as a division in the chapter, are pointed once to Reading Genesis 2:4–25 alongside Genesis 1: from Josephus and Philo to Keil, Driver and Skinner and are not argued again here.
Implies The Lord answers, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” He takes Abram outside and says, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able,” and “So shall your offspring be.” God promises Abram an heir from his body and offspring like the stars. The verbal links with the dust of 13:16 and the stars of 22:17 are in Gen 15:5 → Gen 13:16 and Gen 15:5 → Gen 22:17; Rom 4:18 → Gen 15:5 is pointed to, not taken up again. Josephus writes, “And God promised, that he should have a son, and that his posterity should be very numerous; insomuch that their number should be like the stars.” The persons are real.
Says “Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” BSB supplies “Abram.” The Hebrew verb of believing is a waw with a Hiphil perfect, “and he believed in the Lord.” The next verb is active, “and he reckoned it to him, righteousness,” with a feminine “it” and no preposition before “righteousness.” BSB has the passive “it was credited to him as righteousness”; the Greek has the same passive, “was reckoned to him for righteousness.” The wording is in The heir, the stars and “he reckoned it”. The same verb later appears in the Niphal in Ps 106:31; see Gen 15:6 → Ps 106:31.
Implies Abram’s believing answers the word just spoken in 15:5. The Lord has been the speaker, and is the nearest subject of the active verb: that is a grammatical observation, and it matches the held view that the Lord reckoned Abram’s believing as righteousness. God promises an heir from Abram’s body; Abram believed the Lord; the Lord reckoned that believing as righteousness. Calvin writes that “In the first place, the faith of Abram is commended, because by it he embraced the promise of God;” and that it is commended, in the second place, “because hence Abram obtained righteousness in the sight of God, and that by imputation.” The Targum reads “And he believed in the Lord, and had faith in the (Memra) Word of the Lord, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness”. Jubilees has “And he believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Skinner writes that Yahwe “counted it (his implicit trust in the character of Yahwe) as righteousness”. Those are their readings. Early writers who join 15:6 to tested faithfulness and law-keeping are pointed to in Abraham the tested law-keeper (4:2) and 'heir of the world' (4:13) and are not taken up again. The later use of the verse in Romans 4, Galatians 3, and James 2 is treated in the xrefs of this chapter and in Rom 4:3: Gen 15:6 in the MT, the LXX, and Paul and Doctrinal note: God credits righteousness, and faith is the instrument (Romans 4:3–8).
Genesis 15:7–11
The Lord also told him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” And the Lord said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.” So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. (BSB)
Says The Lord also says, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” The Greek has “from the land of the Chaldeans,” with no word for Ur, a box line recorded in LXX Gen 15:7–11: three-year-olds, the halves, and Abram “sat down with them”. The bringing out from Ur is already pointed to from Gen 11:31 → Gen 15:7 and Gen 12:1 → Gen 15:7; those records are not reversed here. The land promise of chapters 12 and 13, and of 13:14–17 after Lot departs, is pointed to in Genesis 12: The Call, the Land, and the Sojourn in Egypt, Genesis 13: The Return, the Separation, and the Land Promise, and The land promise after Lot departs, and is not taken up again.
Says Abram asks, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” The verb “possess” links the heir and the land: it stands in 15:3, twice in 15:4, and in 15:7 and 15:8, as the language note records. The question comes after Abram has believed (15:6). Driver calls what follows “The second assurance, sealed solemnly by a covenant.”
Implies The question asks how Abram will know, and the Lord answers with the rite of 15:9–21. Believing and asking how he will know stand together in the narrative; the one does not cancel the other.
Says The Lord says, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.” The heifer, goat, and ram are each meshullash, a form from “three.” It can mean “three years old” or “threefold”; BSB has “each three years old,” and the Greek takes it as age. Abram “split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.” “The birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.” The Hebrew has “them” before Abram (אֹתָם אַבְרָם); BSB has “Abram drove them away.” The wording is in Three-year-old animals, halves and birds of prey. The Greek has “and Abram sat down with them,” a box line; no Hebrew is reconstructed from it, and no explanation of how the Greek arose is offered here.
Says Josephus notes that “he divided the three former, but the birds he did not divide.” Skinner calls 15:9–10 “The preparations for the covenant ceremony;” Early readings of the animals, the birds, and the fire are gathered in The animals, the birds, and the fire, in early reading and are not restated as a verdict. Jubilees says, “And he built there an altar, and sacrificed all these; and he poured their blood upon the altar, and divided them in the midst,” and, “and Abram offered the pieces, and the birds, and their fruit offerings, and their drink offerings, and the fire devoured them.” Calvin reports, “Many suppose that a sacrifice was consumed with this fire; but I rather interpret it as a symbol of future deliverance,” Keil writes, “In the case before us, they were meant to typify the promised seed of Abram.” Those readings are theirs. The meaning of the passage between the pieces is taken up at 15:17.
Genesis 15:12–21
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” (BSB)
Says “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.” The noun is the tardemah of 2:21, where the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man; here the sleep falls on Abram (see Gen 15:12 → Gen 2:21). The Greek has “ekstasis,” as recorded in LXX Gen 15:12–21: “nourished” in old age, a flame, and eleven peoples. Skinner writes that the sleep “is the condition most favourable for the reception of visions”. That is his reading. The Lord then says to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” BSB supplies “your descendants” at 15:16; the Hebrew is “and a fourth generation will return here.” Driver prefers “Sojourner would be a better rendering, a temporary resident being what is intended.” The verbal link with the 430 years of Exod 12:40 is in Gen 15:13 → Exod 12:40.
Uncertain How the four hundred years of 15:13 stand beside the 430 years of Exod 12:40 is read in more than one way, and no verdict is given. Calvin holds that “it seems more probable, that the intermediate time only is denoted”. He writes, “In short, God does not indicate how long the servitude of the people should be from its commencement to its close, but how long he intended to suspend, or to defer his promise.” The editor of the Calvin Translation Society writes, “Calvin evidently means the time which was to intervene between the giving of the oracle and the exodus from Egypt.—Ed.” Calvin also writes, “According to this mode of reckoning, Moses says, (Exod. xii. 40,) that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty years:” and that “it is neither a new nor unfrequent thing, where years are not accurately computed, to mention only the larger sums.” so that “the whole of that period is divided into four centuries.” Augustine writes, “Not that this people was to be in that servitude under the oppressive Egyptians for 400 years, but it is foretold that this should take place in the course of those 400 years.” He also writes, “The years are said to be 400 in round numbers, although they were a little more,” and that “there are reckoned 430 years,” and “So then these 430 years might be called 400, because they are not much more,” Those two writers treat the four hundred years as the period in the course of which the sojourn and the oppression fall, not as a statement that the servitude itself lasted four hundred years at full length. Their readings are set out here as early and later commentary; they are also pointed to in The sojourn, the fourth generation, and the land grant, in early reading.
Uncertain Other holders take the four hundred years as a round figure for the 430 of Exod 12:40, or as the time in Egypt after the descent. Keil writes, “The 400 years were, according to prophetic language, a round number for the 430 years that Israel spent in Egypt (Ex. xii. 40).” He also writes, “That these words had reference to the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt, is placed beyond all doubt by the fulfilment.” Driver writes that “The figure agrees substantially with that given by P (430 years) in Ex. xii. 40 (RV.), 41, for the sojourn in Egypt.” Skinner has the figure “agreeing approximately with the 430 years of Ex.” Charles, as editor, notes, “four hundred years: Gen. xv. 13; contradicts (a) Exod. xii. 40 (430 years);” Josephus places the affliction “when they should be in Egypt, for” “four hundred years; during which time they should be afflicted,” after which they “should conquer the Canaanites in war,”. Josephus’s and Augustine’s readings of the four hundred years are early readings, attributed with no verdict, and cross-referenced in the historical sojourn note. Keil’s and Calvin’s accounts, and the 430-year question, are set out here beside them. Those views are attributed; no ruling is given.
Uncertain The fourth generation of 15:16 is also read in more than one way. Skinner names “Levi, Kohath, Amram, Aaron (or Moses)”. Driver writes, “This statement agrees with the passages (P) which assign only four generations from Joseph to Moses (Ex. vi. 16—20, Nu. xxvi. 5—9), or five to Joshua (Jos. vii. 1).” The printed wording is given as it stands; it is not corrected silently. A long span for dor, including a reckoning of a hundred years to a generation, is treated in Deep sleep, four hundred years and the fourth generation and is not taken up again here. The Samaritan text, as logged from von Gall, p. 23 (leaf n538), has “ודור הרביעי ישוב הנה” at 15:16, with the article and a singular verb; that is a box line. Skinner holds that 15:15 “is a parenthesis, if not an interpolation, reassuring Abram as to his own personal lot”; that view is his, and source questions are pointed once to Reading Genesis 2:4–25 alongside Genesis 1: from Josephus and Philo to Keil, Driver and Skinner. Calvin, on the reason given in 15:16, writes that “yet the Lord not only bore with them for a short time, but granted them four centuries for repentance.” These readings are attributed; no ruling is given.
Says “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.” The Hebrew has “an oven of smoke and a torch of fire,” with a singular verb, “which passed between these pieces.” “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,” in the Hebrew “cut a covenant,” saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates,” and naming the peoples of 15:19–21. The grant is in the perfect, “I have given.” The wording is in The firepot and torch, the cut covenant and the borders. Calvin writes that “Again a new vision was added, to confirm his faith in the oracle.” and that “the covenant was ratified by a solemn rite, when the animals were divided into parts.” Driver writes, “Here the stress lies upon the former, the promise of the grant of Canaan” to Abram’s descendants.
Implies The Lord cuts the covenant, and the land is promised to Abram’s descendants. Abram prepares the animals at the Lord’s command, but only the firepot and torch pass between the pieces, so the text presents the Lord as the one who acts in the rite. The grant continues the land promise of 13:14–17, pointed to in Gen 15:18 → Gen 13:14–17 and The land promise after Lot departs, and is not taken up again. The eastern limit is named in full, as in Gen 15:18 → Exod 23:31. The persons and the event are real.
Uncertain The rite is read as a self-maledictory covenant in which the Lord alone binds himself, and it is also read otherwise; no verdict is given. Skinner holds that the chapter presents “a symbolic act in which the Almighty binds Himself by the inviolable ceremonial”, and that “Yahwe alone passes (symbolically) between the pieces, because He alone contracts obligation.” He also writes of a comparison “where a fate similar to that of the victim is invoked on the violators of the covenant.” Driver writes, “The promise is ratified by a covenant, in which the contracting parties pass between the divided victims, each thereby symbolizing that, in case he breaks the terms agreed to, he is willing to be parted asunder in like manner.” He also writes that “The stove, with smoke and flames issuing from the top, symbolized Jehovah: by passing between the divided pieces, it signified the ratification on His part of the terms of the covenant.” Keil writes, “But there is no sure ground in Jer. xxxiv. 18 sqq. for thus interpreting the ancient custom.” He writes that “the passing of the Lord between the pieces meant something altogether different from the oath of the Lord by Himself in chap. xxii. 16,” and that “From the nature of this covenant, it followed, however, that God alone went through the pieces in a symbolical representation of Himself, and not Abram also.” Jeremiah speaks of “the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces” (Jer 34:18; see Gen 15:17 → Jer 34:18–19). How far Genesis 15 matches that custom is open; the comparison stays here as an attributed question, and no dependence is claimed. No ancient Near Eastern treaty text is cited. Calvin writes that “That this method was practised by the Jews, Jeremiah bears witness,” Those views are attributed beside one another.
Uncertain The rite is also read, more generally, as a covenant-ratification or sacrifice-like custom. Keil writes that “The proceeding corresponded rather to the custom, prevalent in many ancient nations, of slaughtering animals when concluding a covenant,” Calvin writes, “In commanding the slaughtered animals to be cut in parts, it is probable that he followed the ancient rite in forming covenants,” and that “the covenant was ratified by a solemn rite, when the animals were divided into parts.” Driver writes, “The ritual is no doubt that by which a solemn covenant was actually ratified in ancient Israel:” Skinner writes that “its prevalence in antiquity is proved by many analogies in classical and other writers.” Jubilees makes the scene a sacrifice on an altar, as already quoted. Against a sacrificial reading, Driver writes, “The ceremony described is not a sacrifice (for there is no altar), but a sacred and solemn act.” Skinner has “Although not strictly sacrificial,” Those views are attributed; no ruling is given. The custom is given only as its holders state it, and is treated as background in The cut-animal rite and the river of Egypt: background in Genesis 15. Skinner also writes of the firepot and torch that they are “the two together making an emblem of the theophany,”
Uncertain Which stream “the river of Egypt” names is not settled by the verse. Keil writes, “of Egypt is the Nile, and not the brook”. He also writes that “the two large rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates, are mentioned as the boundaries within which the seed of Abram would possess the promised land,” Driver writes, “This can be only the Nile, or, at least, the easternmost (Pelusiac) arm of it,” Skinner holds that it “must be the Nile”. The Jerusalem Targum reads “To thy sons will I give this land, from Nilos of Mizraim unto the great river, the river Pherath,” Jubilees keeps “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates,” Augustine instead writes, “It is not then from the great river of Egypt, that is, the Nile, but from a small one which separates Egypt from Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is.” Driver notes that “The usual SW. limit is the 'Wādy (naḥal) of Egypt'” The lexical note records a proposed reading “brook” of Egypt; that proposal is not adopted here. Those views are attributed; no ruling is given. They are also treated as geography in The cut-animal rite and the river of Egypt: background in Genesis 15.
Uncertain On the reach of the borders named in 15:18, Driver writes that “The Euphrates, as the E. limit of Isr. territory, is an ideal limit, reached actually only once, in the palmy days of Solomon”. Skinner writes that the land “is described according to its ideal limits;” and that “The boundary was never actually reached in the history of Israel”. Those are their readings; no verdict is given. Early writers who widen the land promise to the whole earth are pointed to in Abraham the tested law-keeper (4:2) and 'heir of the world' (4:13) and are not taken up again; no ruling is given on the grant. Keil writes that “Ten tribes are mentioned between the southern border of the land and the extreme north,” Delitzsch, quoted in Keil–Delitzsch, takes the ten peoples “to convey the impression of universality without exception,” Driver writes, “here there are 10.” and that “These seem intended to represent the tribes of the Negeb (xii. 9).” The Greek adds the Hivites, eleven peoples for ten, and the Samaritan text, as logged from von Gall, p. 24 (leaf n537), has “ואת החוי” at 15:21; those are box lines. The Masoretic text remains the base.
The sojourn and the fourth generation
Minor variants
Says The printed text of this chapter is the Masoretic Text throughout. For 15:1–21 the English verse numbers agree with the Hebrew and with Swete; there is no versification-map row. There is no separate textual record in this chapter. Differences confirmed on the Swete page are Greek-note facts and box lines; no Hebrew is reconstructed from them. At 15:1 the Greek has a verb, “I shield you,” where the Hebrew has the noun “shield,” and a separate clause for the reward. At 15:2 it takes mesheq as the name Masek and keeps Damascus before Eliezer. At 15:6 it names Abram, has “God” for “the Lord,” and uses the passive “was reckoned” where the Hebrew is active. At 15:7 it has “from the land of the Chaldeans,” with no word for Ur. At 15:9 each animal is three years old. At 15:11 the birds come down, and Abram “sat down with them,” with no driving-off verb. At 15:12 the sleep is “ekstasis.” At 15:13 the years are four hundred. At 15:15 the Greek has “nourished” in a good old age where the Hebrew has “you will be buried.” At 15:16 it has “in the fourth generation.” At 15:17 a flame stands where the Hebrew has thick darkness, the oven is a furnace, and the torches are plural. At 15:18 the Greek has “there” for “on that day.” At 15:19–21 eleven peoples are named for ten, with the Hivites added. The Samaritan text, as logged from von Gall, p. 23 (leaf n538) and p. 24 (leaf n537), has “ודור הרביעי ישוב הנה” at 15:16 and “ואת החוי” at 15:21; only those two differences are noted, and other Samaritan readings are not used as a claim. The Masoretic text remains the base. These lines are recorded in the Greek and Hebrew notes and are not restated as a table beyond this box.
New Testament reading
Says Three New Testament passages are treated as cross-references in this chapter, each from the BSB; no Greek form is claimed. Rom 4:3 asks, “For what does the Scripture say?” and quotes, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Gal 3:6 has, “So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”” Jas 2:23 has, “And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.” Genesis 15:6 has “Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” with the Hebrew active “he reckoned it.” The later texts name Abraham and “God,” and use the verse in their own arguments.
Implies Read together, the later texts take 15:6 as Scripture and treat Abram’s believing as reckoned righteousness. That reading sits with the held view of this chapter, that the Lord reckoned Abram’s believing as righteousness, and with the grammatical observation that the Lord is the nearest subject of the active verb. It does not take up the notes already written on Romans 4 again.
Says The wording of 15:6, and the later use in Romans 4, are already treated in Rom 4:3: Gen 15:6 in the MT, the LXX, and Paul, Doctrinal note: God credits righteousness, and faith is the instrument (Romans 4:3–8), Abraham the tested law-keeper (4:2) and 'heir of the world' (4:13), Rom 4:3 → Gen 15:6, Rom 4:18 → Gen 15:5, and Rom 1:17 → Gen 15:6. Those records are pointed to, not taken up again. Acts 7:5–7 and Heb 11:8–12 stay as lookup and are not opened here.
Says The three xrefs of this chapter have distinct roles. Rom 4:3 is treated as a quotation of 15:6 in an argument about crediting righteousness. Gal 3:6 is treated as the same wording, used of those who are of faith. Jas 2:23 is treated as a quotation that reads the verse as Scripture fulfilled and adds that Abraham “was called a friend of God.” That last reading is the letter’s, and no later dogmatic verdict is added here. No form claims are made from the Greek of the letters.
Uncertain How far the later letters close other early readings of 15:6 remains open; the early readings already attributed in the historical note, including those who join the verse to tested faithfulness, are not overruled here, and no verdict is given.
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