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LXX Genesis

Septuagint

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Chapter 12

1 And the Lord said to Abram, Go forth out of your land and out of your kindred, and out of the house of your father, and come into the land which I will show you.⁠ 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed. 3 And I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.⁠ 4 And Abram went as the Lord spoke to him, and Lot departed with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old, when he went out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot the son of his brother, and all their possessions, as many as they had got, and every soul which they had got in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and they came into the land of Canaan. 6 And Abram traversed the land lengthwise as far as the place Shechem, to the high oak, and the Canaanites then inhabited the land. 7 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, I will give this land to your seed. And Abram built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him. 8 And he departed from there to the mountain eastward of Bethel, and there he pitched his tent in Bethel near the sea, and Ai toward the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram departed and went and encamped in the wilderness. 10 And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there, because the famine prevailed in the land. 11 And it happened when Abram drew near to enter into Egypt, Abram said to Sarai his wife, I know that you are a fair woman. 12 It will happen then that when the Egyptians shall see you, they shall say, This is his wife, and they shall kill me, but they shall save you alive. 13 Say, therefore, I am his sister, that it may be well with me on account of you, and my soul shall live because of you. 14 And it happened when Abram entered into Egypt, the Egyptians having seen his wife that she was very beautiful, 15 that the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh and brought her into the house of Pharaoh. 16 And they treated Abram well on her account, and he had sheep, and calves, and donkeys, and menservants, and women-servants, and mules, and camels. 17 And God tried Pharaoh with great and severe trials, and his house,⁠ because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 And Pharaoh having called Abram, said, What is this you have done to me, that you did not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, She is my sister? and I took her for a wife to myself; and now, look, your wife is before you, take her and go quickly away. 20 And Pharaoh gave charge to men concerning Abram, to join in sending him forward, and his wife, and all that he had,⁠ and Lot with him.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Genesis 12:1 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 10:3

Septuagint · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Clement, the author quotes the call of Abraham from the Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis 12 almost exactly, but first describes the land, family and home Abraham left as small and weak, details Genesis lacks, to make him a model of humility.

Passages

LXX Genesis 12:1

Septuagint
1 And the Lord said to Abram, Go forth out of your land and out of your kindred, and out of the house of your father, and come into the land which I will show you. 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed. 3 And I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed. 4 And Abram went as the Lord spoke to him, and Lot departed with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old, when he went out of Haran.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 10:3

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 Abraham, who was called the ‘friend,’ was found faithful because he obeyed the words of God. 2 Through obedience, he left his land, his family, and his father’s house, so that by leaving a small land, a weak family, and a humble home, he might inherit the promises of God. 3 For He said to him, ‘Go out from your land, from your family, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and through you, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.’
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

“... The bulk of Abraham material in 1 Clement 10 is presented as direct, essentially verbatim quotations of LXX Gen. 12:1-3 (1 Clem. 10.3), Gen. 13:14-16 (1 Clem. 10.4–5), and Gen. 15:5-6 (1 Clem. 10.6). The quotations function as proof of 1 Clement’s claims from 10.1–2 that Abraham obeyed God. But here, 1 Clement sets up the theme of Abraham’s obedience in a paradoxical way. [...] Abraham departs from ‘a small country’ (γῆν ὀλίγην), ‘a weak people’ (συγγένειαν ἀσθενῆ), and ‘an insignificant house’ (οἶκον μικρόν). These adjectival modifiers are not part of the source text from Gen. 12:1 [...] These added descriptions in 1 Clem. 10.2 downplay the significance of Abraham’s obedience. The purpose, it seems, is not to diminish Abraham’s commitment to God but to align with the author’s emphasis on ‘humility’ (e.g., ταπεινοφρονέω in 2.1 and esp. 31.4) and to help create space for another theme: hospitality. ...”
Seth M. Ehorn, “Abraham in the Apostolic Fathers,” in Abraham in Jewish and Early Christian Literature, ed. Sean A. Adams and Zanne Domoney-Lyttle, LSTS 93 (London: T&T Clark, 2019), 150.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Genesis 12:1 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 10:3

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