burnt offering (8:20). The burnt offering of animals is significant because it symbolizes the blessing of being given dominion over the animals in Genesis 1:28.107 In effect, Noah and his sons are also given the same blessings that Adam and Eve receive: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered” (Gen 9:1–2). God sets his “bow” in the sky, thereby establishing his promise of peace with every living creature (vv. 12–17).
The question nonetheless still remains as to how God will establish universal peace with his fallen creation. One must refer back to the promise of the coming “seed,” which will reverse the effects of sin and make the establishment of universal peace possible. More specifically, Genesis 9 posits that God’s promise of the “seed” for the restoration of universal dominion and life is given to Shem and his line (vv. 26–27). Shem will be blessed and Japheth will live in his tents. What this suggests is that Shem (the progenitor of the Semitic peoples) will finally reunite all creation in his universal reign and blessing. This includes the incorporation of the descendants of Japheth, who is the progenitor of the majority of the Gentiles.108 Throughout the Old Testament, this coming of the messianic reign is anticipated in both Joseph’s reign in Egypt (who has a coat of many colors like the rainbow and who reigns over both Egyptian Gentiles and Semites, see Gen 41–50).109 It should also be observed that Solomon reigns over a kingdom of Israelites and Gentiles (1 Kgs 1–11).110 That Japheth will dwell in Shem’s “tents” is suggestive of the participation of the Gentiles in the cult of the one God in the temple (originally a tent, the tabernacle) as is predicted in Isaiah 45.111 This identification seems to be deepened by the fact that “Shem” means “Name,” and the temple is a “house for My Name” (2 Sam 7:13).112 In the New Testament, this is finally realized in Christ the true Temple (John 2:19–22) and his body the Church, the eschatological temple of God (Eph 2:11). Revelation 4:3 places this rainbow behind Christ and therefore sees Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise of peace with creation.
Abraham’s covenant must be thought of as a continuation of this promise, in that it reverses the curses of the Fall by making him a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:3). Abraham is also told that “kings shall come from you” (17:6).113 We know from Genesis 49:10 that specifically an everlasting kingly line will come from Judah. This again represents a restoration of the promises made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1. Such promises of restoration are partially fulfilled in the Davidic monarchy and finally fully fulfilled in the universal dominion of Christ (Pss 2, 110).
This covenant is confirmed in Genesis 15:9, when God tells Abraham to cut a series of animals in two and arrange them in two columns while at the same time leaving space between them. As many scholars have noted, there is evidence of this same covenant ceremony in the other cultures in the Ancient Near East, as well as the Old Testament.114 According to many (but not all) of those who interpret the rite in this manner, the covenant ceremony referred to here consisted of the lesser party walking through the split animals and making an oath to the greater party (often a king) to the effect that they should be split in two just like the animals if they were to break the covenant. In contrast to how the covenant normally would have functioned, Abraham (clearly the lesser party) does not walk through the animals but rather falls asleep. God comes to him in a dream and promises him the land of Canaan. God’s presence then appears in the form of a “smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” (Gen 15:17) and passes through the split animals. The covenant is then confirmed by God’s own unilateral promise to die by being split in two if he fails to bless Abraham.115
This promise is confirmed again in Genesis 17 through the mark of circumcision. Circumcision is in sense a bloody sacrifice, insofar as it causes the male member to bleed.116 The LXX more strongly emphasizes the bloody aspect of circumcision by translating a later passage dealing with the subject, Exodus 4:25 (which describes God’s attempt to kill Moses for his tardiness in the circumcision of his son) in this way: “Behold the blood of the circumcision of my child.”117 This differs from the original Hebrew, which reads: “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” Since God’s anger is abated by Moses’s wife’s action of circumcision, it appears that many Jews (or at very least the translators of the LXX) associated this and the blood of circumcision with propitiatory sacrifice.118
This makes a great deal of sense in that the act of circumcision is s sign of the coming final redemption in the Old Testament. Abraham is informed earlier that the covenant involves his “seed” (17:7, as it is found in the more literal translation of the KJV). Being that the same term is used in the protevangelium, and Abraham and his descendants are clearly the chosen agents to carry out this plan of redemption, we are clearly dealing with the same subject.119 The coming seed will bless the nations by justifying and sanctifying them. Elsewhere in the Bible circumcision of the heart is a metaphor for the renewal of the mind and sanctification (Deut 10:16, 30:6; Jer 4:4). Therefore circumcision suggests new creation. It is performed on the eighth day (Gen 17:12). The eighth day is the day after the final seventh day of the original creation. Noah had eight people in the ark with him (6:9). Christ rose on the eighth day. Therefore the putting off of the flesh signifies a new and purified nature. For this reason, the sign of circumcision represents what the coming seed will accomplish.120
In an immediate sense, Isaac is the fruit of Abraham’s body and therefore his “seed.” While we might say that he does not represent the ultimate fulfillment (in light of Gal 3), Isaac still plays a role in the final confirmation of the Abrahamic covenant. In Genesis 22, after stopping Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, God speaks his promises to Abraham: “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (16–17). God then provides a ram caught in a bush as a sign that he will provide for the fulfillment of the promise of universal blessing: “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (v. 18).121 Again, the promissory sign represents the content of the covenant. God will bless all nations through Abraham’s seed being given over to death and returning to life (Heb 11:19). God will also work redemption by offering a substitute. This sign is also present in the Passover ritual where the lamb is substituted for the firstborn son (Exod 13:12–13).
Beyond these examples, the idea of the death and resurrection of a beloved son also carries over into the other narratives in Genesis and the story of the Passover. These historical events serve as signs to the patriarchs that God is faithful to his promises to preserve the holy seed. In this manner, these narratives serve the same function as the promissory signs. Jon Levenson has drawn attention to the fact that there is an overall pattern of death and resurrection of a beloved son throughout Genesis.122 Jacob goes to a far off land and returns to his family before his father’s death (Gen 35:27). Joseph is sold into slavery and believed dead, but then is returned to his father Israel (formerly Jacob) in his old age (Gen 45). Although Levenson does not mention
