Texts in Conversation
Philo describes God speaking with Abraham “as one friend with another,” echoing a Jewish tradition. James uses the same tradition when he calls Abraham “the friend of God,” the only place this title for Abraham appears in the New Testament.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo On Abraham 273
Classical
272 For in real truth the wise man is the first man in the human race, being what a pilot is in a ship, a governor in a city, a general of war, the soul in the body, or the mind in the soul; or again, what the heaven is in the world, and what God is in the heaven. 273 And God, admiring this man for his faith (pistis) in him, giving him a pledge (pistis) in return, namely, a confirmation by an oath of the gifts which he had promised him; no longer conversing with him as God might with man, but as one friend with another. For he says, "By myself have I Sworn," by him that is whose word is an oath, in order that Abraham's mind may be established still more firmly and immoveably than before. 274 Let the virtuous man both be and be called the younger and the last, since he only pursues such objects as may produce revolution and as are placed in the lowest rank.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
James 2:23
New Testament
22 You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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Notes and References
... When compared with the Jewish exegetical tradition that relates Genesis 15:6 to the Akedah, Abraham 273 seems to be idiosyncratic, in that it makes evident the correspondence between Abraham's conduct of trust in God with the conduct of God's trust / faithfulness in terms of the oath given to him in return from God. Moreover, as in Abraham 273 (‘He no longer talked with him as God with man but as a friend with a familiar’), the authors of 1 Clement 10:1 and James 2:23 have likewise employed the exegetical motif of calling Abraham God's ‘friend’. Thus, Abraham has been called a friend in order to indicate that Abraham's friendship is based on the faithfulness he shares with God. The concept of Abraham as God's friend then goes along with the exegetical motifs of Abraham's faithfulness and the oath granted to him in terms of God's corresponding conduct of faithfulness, probably because of the common exegetical tradition that combined Genesis 15:6 and Genesis 22 in various ways ...
Bekken, Per Jarle
Paul's Negotiation of Abraham in Galatians 3 in the Jewish Context: The Galatian Converts — Lineal Descendants of Abraham and Heirs of the Promise
(pp. 79-80) Walter de Gruyter, 2021
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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