Genesis 22:18
Hebrew Bible
17 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies. 18 Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.” 19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer Sheba where Abraham stayed.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Acts 3:25
New Testament
24 And all the prophets, from Samuel and those who followed him, have spoken about and announced these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’ 26 God raised up his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each one of you from your iniquities.”
Date: 75-85 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Here also there are two main lines of interpretation: this has generally been understood either in a passive sense (i.e., “all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you”) or in a reflexive sense (i.e., “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves”). This interpretative crux is compounded by the fact that two different verb forms are used in relation to this particular promise within the patriarchal narratives: the Niphal (generally passive) in Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 28:14; and the Hithpael (generally reflexive) in Genesis 22:18 and 26:4. The antiquity of the passive interpretation in Genesis 12:3 is reflected by both the Septuagint and the New Testament (compare Acts 3:25; Galatians 3:8) ... However, the fact that the promises are explicitly related to the person of Abraham rather than to his name constitutes a serious problem for those who wish to interpret the verb reflexively. A further difficulty is that the context anticipates that the nations will participate in Israel’s blessing (in Genesis 12:3a, what is expected to be the norm is expressed by the plural); thus merely wishing for such blessing would be “decidedly anti-climactic” ..."
Alexander, T. Desmond, and David W. Baker
Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch
(p. 144) InterVarsity Press, 2003
* 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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