In Genesis 15, God says that Abraham's seed shall be like the stars. Most people take this to mean a quantitative description, since there are many stars. But, evidence suggests Paul was referring to stars in a qualitative sense. I.E. that Abraham's Seed would become a deity.
Citations:
Link to podcast episode on this.
Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 5.2 (2015)
In commenting on Gen 15:5 in Who Is the Heir? 8687, Philo states: When the Lord led him outside He said "Look up into heaven and count the stars, if thou canst count their sum. So shall be thy seed." Well does the text say "so ( )" not "so many ()" that is, "of equal number to the stars." For He wishes to suggest not number merely, but a multitude of other things, such as tend to happiness perfect and complete. The "seed shall be ( )," He says, as the ethereal sight spread out before him, celestial as that is, full of light unshadowed and pure as that is, for night is banished from heaven and darkness from ether. It shall be the very likeness of the stars.
In a paraphrase of the Abrahamic promise as reiterated in Gen 22:17, the Greek text of Sir 44:21 states: "For this reason, God promised him with an oath to bless the nations through his seed, to make him numerous as the grains of dust, and exalt () his seed as the stars, giving them an inheritance () from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."
It is important to note that we may find something similar in Rom 4:68. In the middle of an argument framed by Gen 15, Paul introduces David saying that he "also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works." Paul portrays David as though he were, like Abraham, being "credited righteousness," quoting from Ps 32:12, which speaks of the forgiveness of David's sins. In a relationship similar, and quite possibly parallel, to that of Sir 47:11, David's forgiveness is connected to his receiving the promise of exaltation, almost interchangeably with that of Abraham.
A similar tradition linking the Abrahamic and Davidic promises in astral terms can be found in Jer 33:1922, which shares its rhetorical and theological shape with the promise to Abraham in Gen 15: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me." 14
In Apoc. Abr. 20.35, the Eternal Mighty One addresses Abraham: "'Look from on high at the stars which are beneath you and count them for me and tell me their number!' And I [Abraham] said, 'When can I, for I am a man.' And he said to me 'As the number of the stars and their power so shall I place for your seed the nations and men, set apart for me in my lot with Azazel'." 19 Here Abraham's seed is promised not merely the number of the stars, but their power, which is understood in terms of the rule over nations and men, which seem to have been allotted to the Eternal Mighty One or to Azazel and his company.
The aniconic discourse of Deut 4 surveys all the creatures under heaven, whose images Israel must abstain from fashioning into idols. After the creatures under heaven have been cataloged, the author directs Israel's attention to the heavenly beings. Deuteronomy 4:19 states: And do not lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven ( ), and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your god has allotted to all the nations under the whole heaven ( ). Here, the celestial bodies themselves are regarded as the "hosts (or ornaments) of heaven ( )" who have been allotted or assigned to () all the nations () under heaven.
The celestial bodies here are referred to as "gods ()." Likewise in 29:18 [17], 26[25], these beings are referred to as the gods of the nations: so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our god, to go and serve the gods of those nations ( ) . . . they went and served other gods ( ) and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them ( ).
In Philo's interpretation of the territorial law of Deut 19:14, we see an interesting explanation of the identity of the "fathers" () mentioned. In On the Posterity of Cain 89, he states: These boundaries were fixed not by the creation to which we belong, but on principles which are divine and are older than we and all that belongs to earth. This has been made clear by the Law, where it solemnly enjoins upon each one of us not to adulterate the coinage of virtue, using these words: "thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's boundaries (), which thy fathers () set up" (Deut. 19:14), and again in other words: "Ask thy father and he will show thee; thine elders and they will tell thee." When the Most High distributed nations ( ), when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set boundaries of nations ( ) according to the number of the angels of God, and Jacob His people became the Lord's portion, Israel became the lot of His inheritance () (Deut 32:79). (Philo, Posterity 89) Here, Philo sees the "fathers" () in Deut 19:14 not referring to human ancestral patriarchs but to the angels of God apportioned over the nations, citing Deut 32:79.
Here, Philo points out that every ruler () should act as a "father over his children ( )." Good rulers may be "truly called parents of the nations ()." 30 As the celestial bodies were called to mimic () the rule of the "Father of all ( )" in the cosmic government (; previously in Spec. Laws 1:1319), so too the human rulers must imitate () the rule of God and his "beneficent powers ()" (likely a reference the celestial bodies, or , referred to above in Spec. Laws 1:13) if they wish to be "assimilated to God ( )."
Sirach also appears to share in the deuteronomic vision. Sirach 17:17, speaking in context of Yahweh's election of Israel, states: "He appointed a ruler for every nation ( ), but Israel is the Lord's own portion ( )." Though the term is used frequently in the LXX of human rulers, there seems to be a clear echo of Deut 32:9 here in Sir 17:17, "but Israel is the Lord's own portion ( )"
The Wisdom of Solomon, a text scholars have mined for parallels to Romans, speaks of the vindication of righteous dead in 3:78: "In the time of their visitation they will shine forth (), and will run like sparks () through the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever ( , )." 39 Later in 5:5, the unrighteous who are amazed at the unexpected salvation of the righteous say, "Why have they been numbered among the sons of God ( ), and their lot among the holy ones ( )?"
In early Judaism, it was widely accepted that in the resurrection or afterlife, the righteous were to in some sense become as the stars or angels. 41 In Dan 12:23, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." John Collins points out that the stars in Dan 8:10 are the host of heaven, which in comparison to Dan 12:3 implies that those raised from the dead in vindication will be associated with the angels
1 En. 104:26: "But now you shall shine like the lights of heaven, and you shall be seen; and the windows of heaven will be open to you . . . and you are about to be making a great rejoicing like the angels of heaven." In the Testament of Moses, we also find the affirmation of the astral immortality of the faithful, as it states in 10:9: "God will raise you to the heights. Yes, he will fix you firmly in the heaven of the stars."
When considering Paul's use of Gen 15:5 in Rom 4:18 in light of this early Jewish qualitative interpretation, we find fruitful and interesting exegetical results. When the evidence above has been taken into account, we are provided with a kind of narrative framework, out of which we arrive with a reading proposal that may provide a cogent answer to the interpretive problem this study sought to address. This proposal would provide us with a reading that links all the constituent parts (the inheritance of the cosmos, becoming a father of many nations, and the resurrection of the dead) of the one promise Paul understands to be given to Abraham in Gen 15:5 when he is told "so shall your seed be ( )," a reference to becoming as the stars.
Paul states in Rom 4:18, "In hope against hope ( ) he believed (), so that he might become a father of many nations ( ) according to that which had been spoken 'so shall your seed be ( ).'" When taken qualitatively, for Abraham's seed to become as the stars of heaven meant to become as the gods or angels, the celestial bodies, the "fathers () of the nations ()" who had been allotted to rule the nations (Posterity, 89; Spec. Laws 1.1319; 4.184188; Sir 44:21; Apoc. Ab. 20:35). "In hope against hope ( ) he believed ()" that he would attain the promise of astral glory (Rom 4:18; 4 Macc 17:56). For Paul, the faithful Abraham who had been credited righteousness was known now in astral glory as "the father of us all ( )," as it was written about him in Gen 17:5 (Rom 4:1617). As was common in Jewish expectation in Paul's day, he hoped in the god "who gives life to the dead," who would raise his seed in celestial glory, replacing the powers ( ), calling "into being that which did not exist ( )," or establishing a new cosmic polis (), a new creation (Rom 4:17; Spec. Laws 4.187; 2 Bar. 21:4; 48:8). This is what would be understood in Rom 4:13 when Paul states the promise to Abraham and his seed was to "inherit the cosmos ( )."
This reading may appear novel, but it has an ancient antecedent in one of the earliest commentaries on Romans. Origen believed that in Rom 4, Paul did in fact understand the Abrahamic promise of Gen 15:5 to become as the stars qualitatively. In his Commentary on Romans 4.6.4, he states: "Thus Abraham 'against hope believed in hope that he would become the father of many nations,' (Rom 4:18) which in the future would be like the stars of heaven, not only in terms of the greatness of number but also in splendor." 46 Here, Origen reads the quotation of Gen 15:5 in Rom 4:18 explicitly as qualitative. In 4.6.7, he speaks further on the nature of the Abrahamic promise, as he understands Paul's recounting of it.
In conclusion, it is necessary to restate the initial problem this paper sought to answer. Esler noticed the deficiency in the quantitative only interpretation of Paul's use of Gen 15:5, seeming far too unlikely that having numerous descendants would somehow be the equivalent of inheriting of the cosmos, becoming the father of nations, and the expectation of being resurrected from the dead. This paper proposes a possible answer to this problem. Reading Paul's use of Gen 15:5 in light of early Jewish deification traditions stemming from a qualitative as well as quantitative interpretation of the Abrahamic promise provides fruitful results. This proposal is supported by widely attested interpretive traditions from Paul's early Jewish historical context, whether Palestinian or Hellenistic (or diasporic), and is further received into the Patristic tradition, as seen in Origen, through Paul
Citations:
Link to podcast episode on this.
Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 5.2 (2015)
In commenting on Gen 15:5 in Who Is the Heir? 8687, Philo states: When the Lord led him outside He said "Look up into heaven and count the stars, if thou canst count their sum. So shall be thy seed." Well does the text say "so ( )" not "so many ()" that is, "of equal number to the stars." For He wishes to suggest not number merely, but a multitude of other things, such as tend to happiness perfect and complete. The "seed shall be ( )," He says, as the ethereal sight spread out before him, celestial as that is, full of light unshadowed and pure as that is, for night is banished from heaven and darkness from ether. It shall be the very likeness of the stars.
In a paraphrase of the Abrahamic promise as reiterated in Gen 22:17, the Greek text of Sir 44:21 states: "For this reason, God promised him with an oath to bless the nations through his seed, to make him numerous as the grains of dust, and exalt () his seed as the stars, giving them an inheritance () from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."
It is important to note that we may find something similar in Rom 4:68. In the middle of an argument framed by Gen 15, Paul introduces David saying that he "also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works." Paul portrays David as though he were, like Abraham, being "credited righteousness," quoting from Ps 32:12, which speaks of the forgiveness of David's sins. In a relationship similar, and quite possibly parallel, to that of Sir 47:11, David's forgiveness is connected to his receiving the promise of exaltation, almost interchangeably with that of Abraham.
A similar tradition linking the Abrahamic and Davidic promises in astral terms can be found in Jer 33:1922, which shares its rhetorical and theological shape with the promise to Abraham in Gen 15: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me." 14
In Apoc. Abr. 20.35, the Eternal Mighty One addresses Abraham: "'Look from on high at the stars which are beneath you and count them for me and tell me their number!' And I [Abraham] said, 'When can I, for I am a man.' And he said to me 'As the number of the stars and their power so shall I place for your seed the nations and men, set apart for me in my lot with Azazel'." 19 Here Abraham's seed is promised not merely the number of the stars, but their power, which is understood in terms of the rule over nations and men, which seem to have been allotted to the Eternal Mighty One or to Azazel and his company.
The aniconic discourse of Deut 4 surveys all the creatures under heaven, whose images Israel must abstain from fashioning into idols. After the creatures under heaven have been cataloged, the author directs Israel's attention to the heavenly beings. Deuteronomy 4:19 states: And do not lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven ( ), and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your god has allotted to all the nations under the whole heaven ( ). Here, the celestial bodies themselves are regarded as the "hosts (or ornaments) of heaven ( )" who have been allotted or assigned to () all the nations () under heaven.
The celestial bodies here are referred to as "gods ()." Likewise in 29:18 [17], 26[25], these beings are referred to as the gods of the nations: so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our god, to go and serve the gods of those nations ( ) . . . they went and served other gods ( ) and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them ( ).
In Philo's interpretation of the territorial law of Deut 19:14, we see an interesting explanation of the identity of the "fathers" () mentioned. In On the Posterity of Cain 89, he states: These boundaries were fixed not by the creation to which we belong, but on principles which are divine and are older than we and all that belongs to earth. This has been made clear by the Law, where it solemnly enjoins upon each one of us not to adulterate the coinage of virtue, using these words: "thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's boundaries (), which thy fathers () set up" (Deut. 19:14), and again in other words: "Ask thy father and he will show thee; thine elders and they will tell thee." When the Most High distributed nations ( ), when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set boundaries of nations ( ) according to the number of the angels of God, and Jacob His people became the Lord's portion, Israel became the lot of His inheritance () (Deut 32:79). (Philo, Posterity 89) Here, Philo sees the "fathers" () in Deut 19:14 not referring to human ancestral patriarchs but to the angels of God apportioned over the nations, citing Deut 32:79.
Here, Philo points out that every ruler () should act as a "father over his children ( )." Good rulers may be "truly called parents of the nations ()." 30 As the celestial bodies were called to mimic () the rule of the "Father of all ( )" in the cosmic government (; previously in Spec. Laws 1:1319), so too the human rulers must imitate () the rule of God and his "beneficent powers ()" (likely a reference the celestial bodies, or , referred to above in Spec. Laws 1:13) if they wish to be "assimilated to God ( )."
Sirach also appears to share in the deuteronomic vision. Sirach 17:17, speaking in context of Yahweh's election of Israel, states: "He appointed a ruler for every nation ( ), but Israel is the Lord's own portion ( )." Though the term is used frequently in the LXX of human rulers, there seems to be a clear echo of Deut 32:9 here in Sir 17:17, "but Israel is the Lord's own portion ( )"
The Wisdom of Solomon, a text scholars have mined for parallels to Romans, speaks of the vindication of righteous dead in 3:78: "In the time of their visitation they will shine forth (), and will run like sparks () through the stubble. They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever ( , )." 39 Later in 5:5, the unrighteous who are amazed at the unexpected salvation of the righteous say, "Why have they been numbered among the sons of God ( ), and their lot among the holy ones ( )?"
In early Judaism, it was widely accepted that in the resurrection or afterlife, the righteous were to in some sense become as the stars or angels. 41 In Dan 12:23, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." John Collins points out that the stars in Dan 8:10 are the host of heaven, which in comparison to Dan 12:3 implies that those raised from the dead in vindication will be associated with the angels
1 En. 104:26: "But now you shall shine like the lights of heaven, and you shall be seen; and the windows of heaven will be open to you . . . and you are about to be making a great rejoicing like the angels of heaven." In the Testament of Moses, we also find the affirmation of the astral immortality of the faithful, as it states in 10:9: "God will raise you to the heights. Yes, he will fix you firmly in the heaven of the stars."
When considering Paul's use of Gen 15:5 in Rom 4:18 in light of this early Jewish qualitative interpretation, we find fruitful and interesting exegetical results. When the evidence above has been taken into account, we are provided with a kind of narrative framework, out of which we arrive with a reading proposal that may provide a cogent answer to the interpretive problem this study sought to address. This proposal would provide us with a reading that links all the constituent parts (the inheritance of the cosmos, becoming a father of many nations, and the resurrection of the dead) of the one promise Paul understands to be given to Abraham in Gen 15:5 when he is told "so shall your seed be ( )," a reference to becoming as the stars.
Paul states in Rom 4:18, "In hope against hope ( ) he believed (), so that he might become a father of many nations ( ) according to that which had been spoken 'so shall your seed be ( ).'" When taken qualitatively, for Abraham's seed to become as the stars of heaven meant to become as the gods or angels, the celestial bodies, the "fathers () of the nations ()" who had been allotted to rule the nations (Posterity, 89; Spec. Laws 1.1319; 4.184188; Sir 44:21; Apoc. Ab. 20:35). "In hope against hope ( ) he believed ()" that he would attain the promise of astral glory (Rom 4:18; 4 Macc 17:56). For Paul, the faithful Abraham who had been credited righteousness was known now in astral glory as "the father of us all ( )," as it was written about him in Gen 17:5 (Rom 4:1617). As was common in Jewish expectation in Paul's day, he hoped in the god "who gives life to the dead," who would raise his seed in celestial glory, replacing the powers ( ), calling "into being that which did not exist ( )," or establishing a new cosmic polis (), a new creation (Rom 4:17; Spec. Laws 4.187; 2 Bar. 21:4; 48:8). This is what would be understood in Rom 4:13 when Paul states the promise to Abraham and his seed was to "inherit the cosmos ( )."
This reading may appear novel, but it has an ancient antecedent in one of the earliest commentaries on Romans. Origen believed that in Rom 4, Paul did in fact understand the Abrahamic promise of Gen 15:5 to become as the stars qualitatively. In his Commentary on Romans 4.6.4, he states: "Thus Abraham 'against hope believed in hope that he would become the father of many nations,' (Rom 4:18) which in the future would be like the stars of heaven, not only in terms of the greatness of number but also in splendor." 46 Here, Origen reads the quotation of Gen 15:5 in Rom 4:18 explicitly as qualitative. In 4.6.7, he speaks further on the nature of the Abrahamic promise, as he understands Paul's recounting of it.
In conclusion, it is necessary to restate the initial problem this paper sought to answer. Esler noticed the deficiency in the quantitative only interpretation of Paul's use of Gen 15:5, seeming far too unlikely that having numerous descendants would somehow be the equivalent of inheriting of the cosmos, becoming the father of nations, and the expectation of being resurrected from the dead. This paper proposes a possible answer to this problem. Reading Paul's use of Gen 15:5 in light of early Jewish deification traditions stemming from a qualitative as well as quantitative interpretation of the Abrahamic promise provides fruitful results. This proposal is supported by widely attested interpretive traditions from Paul's early Jewish historical context, whether Palestinian or Hellenistic (or diasporic), and is further received into the Patristic tradition, as seen in Origen, through Paul