A progressive faith

The elements of pagan religions are essentially static: nothing in them encourages evolution towards an increasingly lofty moral idea, however much desired or however desirable. When ancient religions developed in any way they owed their evolution to codifications carried out by the priests, to the fancies of the popular imagination and, most of all, to the influence of neighbouring nations. From this resulted in some cases a theological development which is easily explicable on historical grounds.  

Nothing comparable occurred in Abram's spiritual experience. His jealous attachment to his one YAHWEH, a Sovereign Ruler of justice and purity, enabled the Hebrew to set out on the path leading to an ever nobler moral, set apartness and social life. That is not to say that from time to time falls did not occur, as we shall have occasion to observe. But each time YAHWEH's faithful people rose again, increased in stature by their remorse, with a clearer idea of their duty and a burning desire to go higher still. This thirst for hope and diligence in the pursuit of virtue will be sought for in vain among the pantheist mythologies of the ancient world. Such spiritual dynamism only existed in Yisrael and constituted the internal strength, originality and spiritual power of the Chosen People. All the great materialist empires which, down the course of history, seemed to crush and annihilate Yisrael, have perished. They have literally been reduced to ruins. Many of them have fallen to dust and knowledge of their existence has only come through the archaeologist's spade and the lens of the decipherer of manuscripts, and yet the soul of so tiny a people as Yisrael still lives. Indeed the idea of moral perfectibility, which is the very basis of the YAHWEH of Abram, had borne fruit in the western world, and influences it at every moment (modern social laws are but its living continuation); and it never ceases to produce new developments for the future.   

The name of Abram's Sovereign

YAHWEH who revealed HIMSELF to Abram is frequently designated in the Book of Bereshith by the term 'YAHWEH'. In Shemoth we are told how YAHWEH re-afirmed HIS name of YAHWEH to Mosheh on Mount Sinai (Shemoth 3: 13-15). EXODUS 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Yitschaq, and unto Yacob, by El Shadday, But by my name YAHWEH was I not known to them? Yes because of this scripture in BERESHITH - GENESIS 4:26 "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh: then began men to call upon the name of YAHWEH." This occurred in about 1230 B.C. As was mentioned above, Abram's period was in about 1850. They say that since Abram lived more than six hundred years before Mosheh he cannot have known the name YAHWEH. Not true as men began to call on the name of YAHWEH in the time of Enosh: And yet this name crops up continually in the story of the patriarch. This apparent contradiction arose from the way in EXODUS 6:3 which the stories reached the written form in which we now have them.

It is important to have a clear idea of how the Pentateuch was formed from the primitive compositions. 3 The following resume traces the formative process of the first five books of the Scriptures, which were the works of several collaborators. Historians nowadays are almost unanimous in recognizing three successive stages in the development of the text of the Pentateuch.

The first stage consists of the early 'history' of the clan and then of the Hebrew tribes, which was first preserved in oral form. On summer evenings the chief, or some story teller with a sonorous voice, recited in an unchanging, stereotyped form the adventures and exploits of famous ancestors. It is well known that in the East, even nowadays, these traditions are handed down from one generation to another in a fixed verbal form.

In the second stage these accounts, regarded as sacred, were carefully transmitted by word of mouth, and sometimes also in writing, in the circles of priests or scholars attached to certain sanctuaries.

The third and last stage was when the various cycles current in different places were gathered together to form the text of the Pentateuch as it has come down to us today. 

'Various cycles' were mentioned in the last paragraph. Hebrew scholars, by examination of the vocabulary and the literary genre peculiar to each, have succeeded in discovering and separating four different compositions. Each of these four versions was composed at different periods. They are distinguished by the following names: 

The Yahwistic tradition

In this account, for the Sovereign name the author almost exclusively uses the name YAHWEH. It is a vivid, colourful narrative, popular in conception and forcefully told. It seems to have originated in the south (kingdom of Judah) and the approximate date of this final version is that of the reign of Solomon  (970-935 B.C.). Scriptural historians designate this tradition by the letter J (YAHWEH). 

The Elohistic tradition

Known as the E tradition by the exegetes, it is so called because in this text YAHWEH is designated by the name of YAHWEH. 4 This account was drawn up in the north of Palestine (the kingdom of Yisrael) at a slightly more recent period, it seems, than the Yahwistic tradition. It has a more sober, lofty moral style, and as Fr Roland de Vaux remarks 'is concerned to mark a sharper distinction between YAHWEH and man'. 

The Priestly cycle

Whereas the Yahwistic and Elohistic cycles do not concern themselves with legislative matters, the priestly tradition lays special stress on precise statement of the law regarding the organization of the sanctuary, festivals and sacrifices, and everything to do with ritual, Even the narrative portions betray a legalistic spirit. The style is abstract and rather formal. It is thought that a beginning was made with the collection of materials for the work during the Babylonic captivity (587-538); the definitive version followed shortly afterwards on the return to Palestine. Historians consider that the cycle was the work of the priests of the temple of Yerusalem; hence the letter P. 

Lastly, there is the Deuteronomic tradition, which was preserved by the prophets; it has a somewhat halting style with habitual reference to the love of YAHWEH for his people. The first written form of this tradition belongs to the seventh century, but its definitive form dates from the sixth century (the exile in Babylon); it constitutes the Book of Devarim. 

In the Pentateuch, and especially in Bereshith (the book with which we are specially concerned here) we find three of these 'traditions' -the Yahwistic, Elohistic and Priestly -placed together and reverently preserved in the Scriptural text, entailing on occasion a certain duplication ('doublets') and sometimes even different interpretations, at least of detail. 

In these circumstances, what was the name given by Abram to HIS Almighty? Was it Elohim, the God, or rather, YAHWEH? The term smacks a little too much of polytheism; it was used by all the idolaters to designate the mysterious beings who haunted springs, circles of standing stones or the 'high places' at the tops of mountains. 

Could it have been EI Shaddai the Rock? This name occurs on five occasions in Bereshith. The term, which is used in other books of the Scriptures, is translated in the Vulgate 5 by the expression 'God Almighty', as it is also in the Septuagint. 6 The Scriptural School at Yerusalem (the Dominican Ecole Biblique) has suggested 'God of the Mountain'. In this history of Abram, however, we cannot adopt EI Shaddai as the term for YAHWEH; it is far too restricted to this one period. 

During the period between Abram and Mosheh, as a general rule, for the purpose of being recognized by the sons of the patriarch, YAHWEH named himself as: 'I am YAHWEH the Sovereign of Abraham, Yitschaq and Yacob.' We can conclude, therefore, that at the time of the son of Terah -and even for several generations afterwards YAHWEH remained the ONE who speaks and commands, ONE whose existence and power are acknowledged but whose name is unknown. 

3 The Pentateuch, or the Five Books, known by the Yisraelites as the Law or Torah, is made up, as the name indicates, of five parts 1. Bereshith, in which after a brief coslnogony we have the religious prehistory and proto-history. 2 Shemoth, beginning with the flight from Egypt of the sons of Yisrael under the leadership of Mosheh 3 Vayiqra in which are the laws of the priests of the tribe of Levi. 4. Bemidbar, in which the census of the tribes is described. 5. Devarim, or the 'Second Law'.

4 EI is a term to be found in all the Semitic languages to express the idea of YAHWEH. Thus in Hebrew we find EI, in Babylonian Ilou, in Arabic, Ilah (Allah). The root is probably from the verb 'to be strong'. The Hebrew term Elohim is in the plural (the Gods, the Sovereign Powers); this is meant to exalt in some fashion the possessor of the title, just as modern sovereigns use the plural 'we'.

5 From the Latin vulgatum (in current use). It is the Latin translation of the Scriptures used by the Church in the West; its text was declared official by the Council of Trent

6 The version of the Scriptures known as the Septuagint is the first translation into Greek of the Hebrew text of the Old Covenant. According to tradition this work is supposed to have been carried out about 200 BC. at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, King of Egypt (284-47) by seventy-two Jewish learned men, hence its name of Septuagint. Nowadays, Scriptural specialists consider that we have here successive translations, but that their order and chronology is unknown. The work seems to have been concluded towards the end of the second century BC. It is a very accurate version.

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"Be not ignorant of the past, for they show the pattern of things to come."