Read Genesis 24 at Bible Gateway.
Today’s reading is a wonderful example of another teaching tool of Scripture: God’s paragraph divisions. When the Torah, Old Testament, and New Testament was written, the chapter and verse divisions were not in the narrative that we have in our Bibles. But in Torah, at least, when Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and nights, writing down every word that proceeded from the mouth of God, God included certain markers and characters which are not translated into our English Bibles, but which remain in Hebrew language Bibles. Two of the markers are paragraph divisions.
There is a strong paragraph division which may be found at the end of passages, which indicates the completion of a topic or theme. When this marker is seen in the text, that is our teaching tool that the next passage begins a completely new topic or a new theme. The strong paragraph division has a Hebrew name that begins with a “p” in English transliteration, so I just mark the place where it occurs in my Bible with a “p”.
Then there is a weak paragraph division which may be found at the end of passages, which indicates the completion of a paragraph, but within the same topic or theme of marked out between two “p’s”. When this marker is seen in the text, that is our teaching tool that the next passage begins a new facet of the same topic or theme we are currently in. The weak paragraph division has a Hebrew name that begins with an “s” in English transliteration, so I just mark the place where it occurs in my Bible with an “s”.
Strong paragraph division = completely new topic = {p}
Weak paragraph division = new facet of the same topic = {s}
The fascinating thing about this is, sometimes the paragraphs divide right where we, as English readers, would expect them to. And sometimes, the paragraphs do not divide where we expect them to. Sometimes, God includes two or more, what to our minds seem like unrelated elements, in the same paragraph. He does this because He is trying to teach us something by showing us, that to Him, all these things are of the same topic, so what is it? What is the common thread that ties everything together? Often the answer is elegant, astounding, and reveals the Gospel, the Messiah, the Father’s heart of Love, His mercy and grace, His wisdom and plan!
Back to Gen 24. At the end of Gen 22:24, there is a “p” paragraph division. Gen 23:1 about the death of Sarah, begins a completely new topic. Now we would expect there to be a “p” paragraph division at the end of Gen 23:20, for to us, it seems that Gen 24 begins a completely new topic. Not so. The paragraph division at the end of Gen 23:20 is an “s” paragraph division, a weak paragraph division. There isn’t another paragraph division until the end of Gen 24:67, where there is a “p” paragraph division.
This means that God considers Gen 23:1-24:67 to be a single strong theme, teaching a single topic. Knowing this, that God considered these two chapters to be one paragraph, helped me see that there is a chiastic structure encompassing these two chapters:
1A: Gen 23:1-2a, the death of Sarah;
1B: Gen 23:2b, Abraham mourned;
1C: Gen 23:3-20, Sarah’s grave;
1D: Gen 24:1-9, the master told his servant to take an oath;
1E: Gen 24:10, the servant departs to find Isaac’s bride;
1F: Gen 24:11-14, arrival; prayer to YHVH for success;
1G: Gen 24:15-22a, Rebekah draws for the camels;
1H: Gen 24:22b-25, servant gives jewelry, lodging asked;
CENTRAL AXIS: Gen 24:26-27, “Then the man bowed low and worshiped YHVH. He said, “Blessed be YHVH, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, YHVH has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”
2H: Gen 24:28-33, brother sees jewelry, lodging provided;
2G: Gen 24:34-49, servant tells of Rebekah drawing for the camels;
2F: Gen 24:50-61, departure; since YHVH has granted success;
2E: Gen 24:62-65, the servant arrives with Isaac’s bride;
2D: Gen 24:66, the servant told his master all that he had done to fulfill his oath;
2C: Gen 24:67a, Sarah’s tent;
2B: Gen 24:67b, Isaac was comforted;
2A: Gen 24:67b, after Sarah’s death.
Just seeing some of the intricacies of these things should lay to rest for everyone whether every word, every jot and tittle (Mat 5:18), that we have in our Bibles today is IN FACT the unaltered, unchanged, complete and whole Word of YHVH. No man, no JEDP editors, no human mind can encode everything that is elegantly hidden within God’s living and active Word like this. This is why I prefer the KJV and NKJV, by the way, for English translation, because the modern translations have words and phrases taken out and added in, based on subjective human logic applied to questionable manuscripts.
Did you see what God put neon flashing lights around so that we wouldn’t miss it? God has NOT forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward Abraham, and I would venture to guess, toward Abraham’s seed as well!
For further study: The Hebrew Bible in English uses a {p} and an {s} to indicate all the strong and weak paragraph divisions in the Hebrew Old Testament, so that anyone can know where these divisions occur. If you put these marks in the previous chapters we have read, what surprises do you find? What can you learn about the message God is trying to convey?
Finding Messiah: We have already seen that Isaac, as the son of the promise, is an Old Testament type for Messiah, the Promised Seed. In Gen 24, Abraham (the Father) sends his servant (a.k.a. the Holy Spirit) to search for the bride (the Church) of Isaac (the Promised Seed, the Son). This event occurs AFTER the “death and resurrection” of the Promised Seed in Gen 22. In the end, the Holy Spirit, I mean, the servant, brings the Bride to the Son, as the Son goes out to meet them.
For further reading:
The Camels and the Well (Brad Scott)
Eliezer and Ruach HaKodesh (Hebrew 4 Christians)
The Wealth and Power of Biblical Patriarchs (Assoc. for Biblical Research)
<– 23 genesis 25-26 –>
genesis index ::: ::: ::: one year reading schedule
Leave a Reply