38 the Covenant at Sinai1

The Covenant at Sinai1 Peter J. Gentry Peter J. Gentry is Professor of Old Introduction framing all ana lysis of the covenant at Testament Interpretation and Director of Central to the Book of Exodus—and Sinai as bookends.2 In between, attention the Hexapla Institute at The Southern indeed to the entire Pentateuch—is the will be given to the literary structure of Baptist Theological Seminary. He has covenant made between Yahweh and Exodus 19-24, and afterwards exegesis served on the faculty of Toronto Baptist Israel at Sinai comprised in chapters 19-24. will be focused on the divine purpose Seminary and Bible College and also The eighteen chapters preceding describe of the covenant in Exod 19:5-6, the first taught at the University of Toronto, Heri- the release of Israel from bond age and four of the Ten Com mandments, and the tage Theological Seminary, and Tyndale slavery in Egypt and the journey through ceremony of covenant ratification in Exod Seminary. Dr. Gentry is the author of the wilderness to Sinai. Chap ters 25-40 are 24:1-11. many articles and book reviews and devoted to the construction of a place of is currently preparing a critical text of worship as the appropri ate recogni tion of Exodus 19-24 within the Larger Proverbs and Ecclesiates for the Göt- the divine kingship established through Story of Scripture tingen Septuagint. the covenant. The biblical narrative begins with A much bigger claim, however, can be a creator God who is the maker of our made for Exodus 19-24. The “Book of the world and indeed, the entire universe. We Covenant,” as Moses himself entitles this humans are the crowning achieve ment of unit (Exod 24:7), along with the Book of his creative work. There is a difference, Deuteron omy as an addition or supple- moreover, between humans and animals, ment (28:69 MT, 29:01 EVV), forms the in fact, between us and all other creatures: heart of the old covenant. And it is in the we alone have been made as the image of inter pre ta tion of the con tent and rela tion this creator God and given special tasks of this covenant to the new covenant to perform on behalf of the Creator. that is the basis of all the ma jor divi sions According to Gen 1:26-28, the divine among Christians—i.e., all denomina- image defines human life, both ontologi- tional dif ferences derive ulti mately from cally and functionally, in terms of a cov- different under standings of the relation of enant relationship with the creator God the covenant at Sinai to ourselves today. on the one hand, and with the creation This brief exposition of Exodus 19-24 on the other. The former may be captured bases accurate exposition of this text on by the term sonship and is implied by (1) closer attention to the larger literary Gen 5:1-3: structure, (2) exegesis based on the cul- By juxtaposing the divine creation of tural, historical, and linguistic setting of Adam in the image of God and the the text, and (3) consideration of the larger subsequent human creation of Seth in the image of Adam, the transmis- story of scripture (metanarrative) and sion of the image of God through explicit indications of how this text fits this genealogical line is implied, as within this larger story. Where and how well as the link between sonship and the image of God. As Seth is a Exodus 19-24 fits into the larger story of son of Adam, so Adam is a son of Scripture will be briefly detailed at both God. Language is being stretched beginning and end of the present study— here as a literal son of God is cer- tainly not in view, but nonetheless 38 the writer is using an analogy to nations are lost and scattered over the face 3 make a point. of the earth. So, God made another new start, this The latter relationship, i.e., between time with Abraham. Abraham and his humans and the creation, may be reflected family, called Israel, is another Adam, in the terms kingship and servanthood. who will be God’s true humanity. God As Randall Garr has shown, it is interest- makes great promises to Abraham in ing to note that in the Ninth Century chapter 12. These promises are enshrined Aramaic Tell Fakhariyeh Inscription, eventually in a covenant made with him ṣalmā’ (“image”) refers to the king’s and his descendants in chapters 15 and 17. majestic power and rule in relation to Space permits here only a brief consider- his subjects, while demûthā’ (“like ness”) ation of how God’s promises to Abraham refers to the king’s petitionary role and carry forward the focus on kingdom relation to the deity.4 Thus, the ancient through covenant. Near Eastern data con firm, correspond The call of Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 to, and illustrate precisely the terms used consists of two commands (go in 12:1 and in the biblical text. Furthermore, as Gen be a blessing in 12:2). Each command is fol- 2:4-25 shows, the Adamic son is like a lowed by three promises. The first prom- priest in a garden sanctu ary. He must first ise is “I will make you into a great nation”, learn the ways of God in order to exercise and the last promise is “all the clans / the rule of God as God himself would.5 families of the earth will be blessed in The biblical narrative, then, is focused at you” (12:1, 3). We need to pay attention to the start on establishing the rule of God the terms used here to describe both the through covenant relationship: kingdom people of God and the other peoples of through covenant. the world. God promises to make Abram However, the first humans rebelled into a great nation; this is the word gôy in against the creator God. As a result, Hebrew. The other people groups of the there is chaos, discord, and death in the world are called clans or families; here the creation at every level. The destructive Hebrew term is mišpāḥâ. path chosen by the first humans led to First consider the term gôy or nation. a downward spiral of corruption and It is highly unusual for this term to be violence until divine intervention was applied to the people of God. There is required. God judged the human race by in the language of the Old Testament a a flood and made a new beginning with completely consistent usage: the word ‘am Noah and his family. Noah is presented is almost always re served for Israel. It is in the narrative as a new Adam. As soon a kinship term which expresses effectively as the dry land ap pears out of the chaos of the close ness of the family/mar riage the floodwaters, Noah is placed there and relationship between God and Israel commanded to be fruit ful and multiply established by the covenant made at Sinai (Gen 9:1); i.e., he is given Adam’s commis- (Exodus 24). On the other hand, the word sion or man date. The correspondence to gôy is the standard term for the commu- Genesis 1 is striking. Eventually, however, nities or other societies in the world the family of Noah end up in the same excluding Israel. So consistent is this use, chaos and corruption as the family of the that when we see something different, we first Adam. With the Tower of Babel, the 39 need to ask why. For example, a few cases The word in Hellenistic Greek which are found where the term gôy is applied best conveys this meaning is the term to Israel in a pejorative sense. Some times polis, normally translated “city.” In our Israel is called “nation” and not “people” modern world we tend to think of cities because the author may wish to com mu- as great centers of dense popu lation in nicate that because of her wickedness she contrast to rural areas which by definition is behaving as if she were not the people are sparsely populated. In the first cen- of God. Her actions and attitudes indicate tury, however, in contrast to our culture, she is like those communi ties who have the term “city” conveyed the idea of an no special status as the chosen people of organized community with governmental God (e.g., Judg 2:20). headship and appropriate political and Why, then, in Genesis 12 does God social structure—what we nor mally con- speak of Abram becoming a great gôy or vey by the English word state. Thus, the nation? The basic meaning of gôy is an promises of God to Abraham really did organized community of people hav ing entail the city of God as the author to the gov ernmental, political, and social structure. Hebrews puts it, accurately explaining This contrasts with the fact that the other for his readers the meaning of Genesis nations are derogatorily termed mišpāḥâ in 12. Abraham was to go to a country God Genesis 12. This word refers to an amor- would indicate to him and reside there— phous kin group larger than an extended even if as an alien and a stranger: he was family and smal ler than a tribe. await ing “the city that has foundations, The background of Genesis 12 is chap- whose architect and builder is God” (Heb ters 10 and 11.

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