ABRAHAM, THE PATRIARCHAL LEADER

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ABRAHAM, THE PATRIARCHAL LEADER
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Introduction

• ABRAHAM, THE PATRIARCHAL LEADER
• Did Abraham really live? Was there actually a
  man in history, son of Terah, who was known as
  Abram, then later Abraham? Could his story have
  been a myth? Was this a tradition passed down
  orally through the generations about a supposed
  man of history?

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• Were the stories of Adam, Noah, Methuselah, and
  Abraham simply the work of a mixture of stories
  from early cultures handed down from parents to
  children?

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• One cannot deal properly with the topic of
  Abraham without answering some of the problems
  with the text of the book of Genesis.
• Gensis yields some puzzling textual problems that
  will help us understand topics of the patriarchs
  like Abraham.
• So, take a look at some of the interesting
  textual studies involved.

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The Documentary Hypothesis

• Some 18th Century Bible scholars thought the
  stories to be mythological. As a result of the
  emergence of the Documentary Hypothesis, the
  world has been subjected to a maze of ideas about
  how our Bible came to be. And, this hazy
  misinformation has continued to be touted by all
  the postmodern scholars of our day.

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• The Documentary Hypothesis, and its step-children
  with all their variations, have tainted the
  thinking of most of the modern scholars. Hardly
  a current commentary, dictionary, or encyclopedia
  is published today untainted by this infidel
  assumption.

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• Briefly, the DH began with challenges offered by
  H. B. Witter, a protestant priest in 1711. Jean
  Astruc, a French physician, enlarged on Witters
  queries about supposed contradictions in Genesis
  in 1753.

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• Later, J. G. Eichorn added more ideas in 1783,
  while Heinrich Eward in 1823 published another
  early work with the same channel of thought.
  Karl Graf picked up on these postulations in
  1860, and Julius Welhausen in 1876 gave some of
  the crowning thoughts and is often thought of as
  the father of the hypothesis.

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• All of these men studied and wrote, one building
  upon the other until today there is the
  full-blown modernistic assault upon the veracity
  of the Bible.

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• Briefly, the theory assumes there were 4 major
  records in the Old Testament by a series of
  authors that were later edited by a Redactor to
  produce the five books of the Pentateuch. The
  major documents are called J-E-D-P.

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• The J document is supposed to be the account
  where the name Jehovah (YHWH) is found in
  Genesis. The E document is where Elohim is
  used in Genesis. Because sections of Genesis
  switch back and forth in the use of these words
  for God, the assumption is that there were
  different authors.

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• The D document is supposedly written by the man
  who gave the Deuteronomic codes and laws, while
  the P document concerns the priestly functions
  and laws,

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• A Redactor is essential to this theory as he
  must have been the one to take the four major
  works and blend them together into what is now
  known as the first five books of the Bible.

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• This theory is an attempt to give a human reason
  behind the writing of the Bible. It denies any
  idea of inspiration.
• The unity of the 66 books of the Bible is one of
  the strongest arguments to defeat the hypothesis.

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• How could forty men over a period of 1600 years,
  all living in different countries, separated by
  centuries, come up with such a unified story of
  redemption accomplished through the seed of
  Abraham?
• How does one account for such blended history of
  the promise?

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• There just were too many years, too much distance
  from each other, for the oral traditions of myths
  to produce the Bible.

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• (See Josh McDowell, More Evidence That Demands a
  Verdict, Campus Crusade for Christ International,
  Arrowhead Springs, San Bernadino, CA, 1975, pp.
  25-178 for a condensed look at the Documentary
  Hypothesis and its refutation.)

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• As for the actuality of Abraham and the other men
  of the Old Testament, one has to deny many other
  things to come to such a conclusion.

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• The prophets uniformly spoke of these early
  patriarchs, as did Jesus and the writers of the
  New Testament. If these men were only
  mythological persons, then Jesus and host of
  others were surely misinformed!

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Genesis as a book

• Genesis (the LXX used Ge/nejiß or generation)
  is simply the oldest book in the world. It is
  the oldest history in the world. There are
  scattered mss found that may be earlier, but for
  any definitive composition known as a history
  book, Genesis is it.

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• The first part of the book is a history of the
  world, the latter part contains the history of
  the Hebrew race and the unfolding of the promise
  of God.

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• Genesis a Book of Beginnings

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• Outline of the Genesis

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• The Importance of Genesis

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• The Voice of Jehovah at the Opening of Great Eras

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The Days of Creation

• Were they 24-hour days?
• Does it make any difference whether they were
  24-hour days or eons?
• Was there a gap between Genesis 11 and 12?

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• Genesis and the Nature of God

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• the angel of the LORD

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• Abraham a Real Historical Person?

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• Digest of Life

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• Four Pericopes

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• Significant Voices of Jehovah

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• Inspired Outline of Abrahams Life

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• Successive Theophanies

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• Highest Trials Highest Blessings

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• Abrahams Character

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• And there builded he an altar unto Jehovah

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• Abrahams Worship

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• Role As a Leader

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• Independence As a Leader

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• Important Texts in the NT About Abraham