An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapter Seventeen

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Abram is now aged ninety-nine and God again promises him that he will have a son to his wife, Sarai, thirteen years after he last made this promise in the previous chapter when Abram was eighty-six. God again promises Abram that he will become known as the father of many great nations and he tell Abram to change the spelling of his name from Abram to Abraham to reflect this expansionist program. God promise this Covenant with Abraham and his descendants will last forever, but the promise will be broken many times as the Bible will show. God frequently break his own oaths. Again, God offers Abraham the already occupied land of Canaan. In return for this, God insists on the circumcision of every man, and every male infant eight days after birth. This amounts to male genital mutilation. It applies to the boys born of the family of Abraham and any men bought from slave traders too. Any man or child uncircumcised is to be cast out of the community entirely , and in effect excommunicated. Abraham is also instructed to rename Sarai as Sarah, and recognized as the mother of all the coming nations to be descended from Abraham. Abraham laughs at the absurdity of himself becoming a father at a hundred, to a wife who is already ninety years old. Abraham asks about Ishmael, the wild boy he fathered with Hagar. God ignores the question and tell Abraham that Sarah will soon be pregnant with Isaac (the name again chosen directly by God). God now returns to the question about Ishmael and promises that he will spawn a family that will include twelve princes, so he to will be a father of nations. God adds that his covenant will be with Isaac, not with the nations of Ishmael. God leaves Abraham after this little chat and Abraham immediately starts circumcising all the boys and men in his household, including Ishmael. Abraham himself is also circumcised at ninety-nine (obviously painful without anaesthetic). Ishmael is thirteen when he is circumcised. To summarize, vague promises by God, again, the absurdity of people in their 90’s and older having children, God picking names for everyone (what if Abram wanted to be called Norman?), and the pointless barbarity of circumcision (for any non-medical reason). Arthur Chappell