Genesis 15 Footnotes

15:8-9 Although Abram’s question in v. 8 could be taken to reflect unbelief on Abram’s part (see Ex 7:17; Nm 16:28; Lk 1:18), Gn 15:6 shows otherwise. God responds to Abram by setting up a ceremony to reaffirm the covenant he is granting (vv. 9-10,17-18). This shows that Abram was simply seeking a sign of the divine promise that would bolster his continued confidence in God (see Is 7:10-14).

15:13-14 Some scholars hold that Moses, or a later editor of Genesis, is projecting knowledge of later history into the narrative in the guise of advance prophecy. The logic is that no one could possibly have known in Abram’s time (2000 BC) that Israel would be in Egypt for “four hundred years” and that they would be “enslaved and oppressed” for most of that period. Such a perspective is rooted in an anti-supernatural bias that flies in the face of the predictive biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled in amazing detail. Prophecy is real because God is real and speaks to his people.

15:19-21 In centuries past there was no historical or archaeological evidence for the existence of several of the peoples listed among these ten nations (“Kenites . . . Jebusites”). As a result, some scholars doubted the veracity of this list. In the past century, however, important archaeological findings have greatly strengthened the likelihood that all ten nations existed in the eras of Abram and Moses.