Covenants are sacred pacts between God and human beings. The covenant between God and Abraham described in the Hebrew Bible establishes a spiritual quid pro quo relationship. God promises Abraham that he will become a great patriarch; in exchange, Abraham's progeny promises to worship the one God. God's promise is fulfilled in procreative powers and land ownership. In exchange, the human beings must prove their merits with specific behaviors such as by performing rituals. The covenant with Abraham forms the root of the Hebrew Jewish faith, but is later reinterpreted by Christianity and then reinvigorated via Islam. As a social and political tool, the covenant has also carved serious ideological rifts among the people of the Book.
There are several historical aspects of Abraham's covenant with God that makes it unique. First, the covenant represented the birth of the world's most notable monotheistic faiths. Abraham's own father manufactured idols, and Abraham was raised in a polytheistic environment. Although Abraham was not the first monotheist, he did go on to become one of the most historically significant. Following from this, Abraham's covenant with God seeded not only the Israelites' faith; but also formed the foundation for the Christian and Islamic religions as well. The people of the Book can trace their religious history to the covenant of Abraham.
Abraham's covenant with God includes several core aspects of mutual trust and respect. The nature of the covenant is paradoxical and ironic, given that God is presented as a wholly transcendent being. God is at once transcendent and immanent in the Hebrew tradition. Abraham and subsequent Jewish patriarchs communed with God in ways that seemingly contradict with God's transcendence. The reconciliation of this central metaphysical paradox remains a defining feature of the Abrahamic religions.
The covenant with God was sealed by both parties,...
In Genesis 15, Abraham receives a vision of God. Abraham immediately tells God that his wife is barren and he has no heir. God then tells Abraham, 'Look up at the heavens and count the stars -- if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be,'" (Genesis 15:5). God therefore offers Abraham the opportunity to start a new religion and lineage, if Abraham proves his faith. Abraham completes God's first requested task via animal sacrifice.
After Abraham falls asleep and dreams, God draws up the contract with the future Israelites: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, 'To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates -- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites,'" (Genesis 15:18-21). Later, God clarifies the contract further: "You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you,'" (Genesis 17:4-7).
God also outlines what Abraham and his descendants must do to hold up their end of the bargain. God first demands ritual obligations including circumcision. Circumcision becomes a very real physical demarcation between the "chosen people" and all who are not descendants of Abraham. As a social contract, circumcision becomes one way that the early monotheists distinguished themselves from their idol-worshipping neighbors. The human parties to the Abrahamic contract fulfill their side of the bargain via the continuation…
