Restoration Quarterly 2.1 (1958) 32-36.
Copyright © 1958 by
Restoration Quarterly, cited with permission.
Blessing
In the Old Testament:
A Study of Genesis 12:3
Paul Rotenberry
The Problem Stated
Since the appearance of the RSV of the OT, there
has been much
discussion of the section dealing with the blessing
of Abraham, Gen.
12:1-3.
The Hebrew text is rendered by the ASV: "and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed." The
RSV renders the
same text: "and by you all the families of the
earth will bless them-
selves." Many seem to fear that the rendering of
the RSV destroys
the messianic idea in the verse, and so they oppose
the rendering.
Interpreting
the Verse
Messianic. According to the messianic interpretation of
the verse,
"In
thee shall all families of the earth be blessed . . . (ASV)" is un-
derstood to refer to the
blessing received through Jesus the Messiah
who came of the seed of Abraham, so that truly all
families of the
earth were blessed through Abraham. The new
translation is just
as susceptible of a messianic interpretation as
the older translation,
though with reflexive action. "By you all the
families of the earth
will bless themselves . . . (RSV) " is thus
understood to mean that
in the Messiah of the seed of Abraham, all the
families of the earth
would avail themselves of the blessings. Thus far,
the new transla-
tion has really lost nothing
of the reference to Christ seen in the
verse by Christians from the early days of the
church.
Non-messianic. The non-messianic interpretation of both transla-
tions would see in the verse
only that the name of Abraham (or his
descendants, Gen. 22:18) would be used in
pronouncing a blessing.
Notice
the usage in Gen. 48:20 with the same Hebrew preposition
"by thee" or "in thee" taken as instrumental.
ASV "In thee will
RSV
"by you
as Ephraim and as Manasseh . . ." In this
sense, Gen. 12:3 would
be understood to mean that when one "blessed
himself" "in" or "by"
Abraham,
he would simply say, "God make me as Abraham" or one
would be blessed by having someone say, "God
make me as Abraham."
The
force of the words and the context of Gen. 12:3 alone would not
determine the interpretation. Both are equally
possible in the context.
The Early Christian Interpretation-Messianic
In the early church the messianic interpretation
was given by in-
spired men, thus Peter (Acts
3:25f) and Paul (Gal. 3:8). This we
accept without question. But this acceptance does not
depend upon
the passive translation of Gen. 12:3. The messianic
idea is just as
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Quarterly
clear whether the Hebrew be taken as reflexive or as
passive: whether
it be read "And . . . shall bless themselves
. . ." or "and . . . shall
be blessed . . ."
Some may wonder how one could accept the
messianic interpreta-
tion of the New Testament
quotations and yet admit the possibility
of the difference of translation. Why did the RSV
translators use
the expression "bless themselves" in Gen.
12:3 and the expression
"be blessed" in the NT quotations of this verse, whereas
the word
occurring in the Greek NT is the same form of the
same word that
occurs in the Greek translation (Septuagint) of Gen.
12:3? The so-
lution to this problem is
found in the text with which the translators
worked in each instance. In the NT they worked with
the Greek NT
text; in the OT they worked with the Hebrew text,
and presumably
our Hebrew text of Gen. 12:3. is
the same as that used by the trans-
lators who produced the
Septuagint.
One may well doubt that the grammatical
construction of a trans-
lation is to be regarded as inspired
merely because it is quoted in the
New
Testament when the writer or speaker is simply giving the
Septuagint
rendering.1 Now, if one should choose to make this an
argument that God inspired the translation of the
Niphal form as
passive, the discussion must end there, for we
accept Peter and Paul
as inspired men. (However, one is then faced with
more serious
problems of text and canon, if this is taken as
putting a divine seal
on all selections of words, texts, and
constructions in the Septuagint
translation.) If, on the other hand, one understands
that Peter and
Paul
were simply quoting the translation commonly used by their
hearers and readers, then we may investigate the
disposition of the
Niphal form made by the Septuagint translators.2
The Hebrew Verb, Niphal
Conjugation
In the Hebrew language, verbs are used in
different forms to ex-
press person, number, voice, mode, tense, and
extension of the root
idea. The extension of the root idea of a verb is
expressed by conju-
1 Editor's Note: Compare, for example, McGarvey's comment on Acts 7:14 where he
explains the apparent contradiction between the
figures 70 and 75 there and in Gen. 46:27 by
saying that the difference is a difference between the
Hebrew text of Gen. 46:27 and the
Septuagint which Stephen was quoting and which
was known by his hearers. New Commentary
on Acts of Apostles, p. 120.
2 The translation of T. J. Meek in The
Bible, An American Translation, published by the
shall all the families of the earth invoke blessings
on one another." This is a force perfectly proper
to the Niphal
conjugation, but it is a highly specialized force. This translation would limit
the
meaning of the passage to the use of the name of
Abraham in pronouncing blessings
and would, in the judgment of this writer, unduly
restrict the action of the verb. New Testament
usage of this verse could not be justified if the
force of the Niphal in Gen. 12:3 be understood as
reciprocal.
Rotenberry/ Blessing in the OT 34
gations; thus, the Qal conjugation is the simple active or stative
form, the Niphal is the
reflexive or passive of the simple active,
the Piel is factitive or
intensive or denominative, the Pual is passive
of the Piel, the Hiphil is causative, the Hophal
is passive of the
Hiphil, and the Hithpael is reflexive. These are the basic meanings
of the conjugations. With reference to the word
"b-r-k" (translated
"bless"), the problem of translation in the RSV centers
in the Niphal
conjugation which form occurs in Gen. 12:3. The
earliest force of
the Niphal conjugation in
Hebrew was reflexive. Though in later
Hebrew
the Niphal came to be used more as a passive of Qal, the
reflexive force was still common. Thus, Gen. 12:3
would in its ear-
liest force be rendered
"and they shall bless themselves" (the perfect
tense occurring here with waw
consecutive). But with many Hebrew
verbs, the Niphal is used
to express the passive voice only; and in
many other verbs, the Niphal
is used to express both passive and re-
flexive voices. So the use of
the conjugation alone is not decisive. The
Septuagint
gives no help in this consideration for a Niphal is
translated
into Greek middle or passive voice as the translator
understood the usage
in the particular context. In the present and
imperfect tenses of the
indicative mode in Greek, the middle and passive
voices are not dis-
tinguished in form, whereas the
future middle is in a different verb system
from the future passive. In Gen. 12:3, there is no
possible confusion as to how
the translator understood the Niphal.
The Greek translated clearly the Niphal
as future passive, which translation was cited by
Peter and Paul in the NT.
The Niphal form of the
verb b-r-k occurs only three times in the
OT:
Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 28:14. The Niphal is used often as
a re-
flexive or passive of the Qal conjugation; however, the Qal
(with
the exception of the passive participle) occurs
only twice in the OT
and has the meaning "bend the knee" or
"kneel" (2 Chron. 6:13; Psa.
95:6).
The Qal passive participle does occur c. 72 times
with the
meaning "be praised" or "be
blessed." The Piel form is the regular
active form used in the sense "to bless";
the Pual form occurs as the
passive of Piel
"to be blessed." The Hiphil is the
causative form of
the root idea, "to cause to kneel" or
"to cause to bend the knee." The
Hithpael is properly reflexive "to bless
oneself," but may bear the
passive force "to be blessed." The Hithpael occurs only six times
in the OT; in each passage, the RSV translates as
a reflexive where-
as the ASV translates three occurrences as passive
(Gen. 22:18; 26:4;
Psa.
72:17) and three occurrences as reflexive (Deut. 29:19; Isa.
65:16;
Jer. 4:2). It should be noted that in each instance
in which
the text of the ASV translates the Hithpael as passive, the marginal
reading is reflexive: "bless oneself."
Also, one should note that
the marginal reading of the RSV of Gen. 22:18 is
passive: "be blessed."
The root idea of the verb b-r-k is "bend
the knee," and the root
is found throughout the Semitic family of
languages with this mean-
ing. In Hebrew, the Piel conjugation became specialized in the usage
35 Restoration
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"to bless." The Niphal and Hithpael conjugations are associated in
meaning with the Piel;
and the Qal passive participle is associated
with the Piel and not at
all with the active voice of the Qal. There
are other Hebrew verbs in which this phenomenon is
found, e. g. b-
s-r "cut off." The Piel
and Qal passive participle signify
"fortify,"
the Niphal means "be
restrained," the Qal active means "cut
off."
Of
course, the Piel meaning is an extension of the root
idea. (cf.
also the root n-t-q). Furthermore, the root b-s-r
also presents the
Niphal in closer relationship (reflexive or passive)
with the Piel than
with the Qal. This shows a
usage similar to that noted in the verb
b-r-k. Thus, the Niphal on
perfectly good linguistic grounds may
rather be taken as a reflexive or passive of Piel than of Qal. That
the Niphal need not be
understood as passive can be readily seen in
the verb d-b-r "speak" in which the Qal is active, the Niphal is mid-
dle-active, the Piel is active, and the Pual is
passive.
B-R-K; Bless
The root meaning of the Hebrew verb b-r-k as
already noticed is
"bend the knee." As this was done in worship, it
acquired the mean-
ing "praise" or
"bless" (give adoration to the deity). Since a "bless-
ing" was spoken, the
Greek translators uniformly render the verb by
"eulogeo" with the force
"praise" or "bless" (lit., to "speak well of,"
or to "speak good things"). The blessing
to the Hebrew mind, how-
ever, does not correspond exactly to the English
word "bless" as
shown in that '-s-r (lit., "go straight")
"to be happy" is translated
in Psa. 1:1
"Blessed is the man . . ." Even the English word "bless"
has acquired many connotations far removed from the
root idea "to
consecrate with blood." In the Hebrew idea of
blessing, there was
always the "pronouncement" of blessing. The
blessing was "some-
thing said." The word (blessing) spoken then
began its work to
effect that which was desired; thus, "God blessed
them (sea crea-
tures), saying, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the
seas . . ." (Gen. 1:22). The
"blessing" was what God "said," then
the word of God produced its effect. (This shows
also something of
the meaning of the curse by Jehovah in Zech. 3:2.)
We may see
further this idea of blessing in Gen. 48:20 as
Jacob says concerning
Ephraim
and Manasseh, "In thee will
make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh . . ."
Here again, the
blessing was something spoken, and the spoken
word was to effect
that which was desired. We may work our way in each
occurrence
of the word throughout the entire Bible with this
idea. There was
something of the force of the whole personality
involved in the bless-
ing, and once given, it
could not be recalled. So Isaac, having
blessed Jacob, cannot recall the blessing and
can give only a lesser
blessing to Esau (Gen. 27:18-40; esp. vv. 37-40).
A modern scholar
expressed the idea quite well: "In the Bible
blessing means primarily
Rotenberry/ Blessing in the OT 36
the active outgoing of the divine goodwill or grace
which results in
prosperity and happiness amongst men."3
Another said that ulti-
mately all blessing must
spring from God.4 For those to whom the
work is available, the psychological interpretation
of the blessing
from the Hebrew viewpoint is well expressed by Johs. Pedersen.5
Conclusion
It appears more likely, therefore, that Gen.
12:3 has immediate
reference to the use of Abraham's name in
pronouncing blessings, but
that this interpretation must include a tacit
recognition that through
this Hero of Faith the Messiah also would come to
pronounce new
blessings of His own upon His people, Acts 3:25f;
Gal. 3:8.
Abbreviations-
RSV-Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible
ASV-American Standard Version of the Holy Bible
OT- Old Testament
3 A
Theological Word Book of the Bible, ed. Alan Richardson, p. 33,
art. "Bless," by the editor.
4 Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament, G. Kittel,
Zweiter Band, ss.
751-763.
5
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