I studied ʽâbar through Genesis.  Nothing so far justifies translating it forgiven in Nathan’s response to David’s confession—Yes, and the Lord has forgiven (ʽâbar, העביר; Septuagint: παρεβίβασεν) your sin.^[1]  But ʽâbar kept some evocative company for anyone studying the Torah in Hebrew (Genesis 6:5-7, 11-13 NET).

But the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth.  Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.  The Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.  So the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”

The earth was ruined in the sight of God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים); the earth was filled with violence.  God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.  So God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.  Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.

His chosen method of destruction was water: I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them.  Everything that is on the earth will die…^[2]  The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.^[3]  So [He] destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky.  They were wiped off the earth.  Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.  The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.^[4]

Then ʽâbar was the action of the wind that proceeded (if not caused) the recession of the waters of this destruction: But God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark.  God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים) caused a wind to blow (ʽâbar, ויעבר; Septuagint: ἐπήγαγεν) over the earth and the waters receded.^[5]

The next occurrences of ʽâbar are found in the story of Abram/Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3 NET):

Now the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you [Table].  Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing [Table].  I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name” [Table].

So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do,^[6] and ʽâbar was what Abram did as he obeyed y^ehôvâh.  Abram traveled (ʽâbar, ויעבר; Septuagint: διώδευσεν^[7]) through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem.^[8]

I am the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה), He said to Abram still clearly within the word of the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) that came to Abram in a vision,^[9] who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.^[10]  O sovereign (ʼădônây, אדני) Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה), by what can I know that I am to possess it?^[11] Take for me a heifer, He answered, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.^[12]

I suppose it is possible that Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other^[13] outside of the vision of verses 1-9.  Perhaps I am meant to take—When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away^[14]—in precisely that mundane way.  Then when the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him^[15] and Abram had a second vision.

My problem with this interpretation is that as Abram slept nocturnal birds of prey came to feast upon the carcasses of the heifer, the goat, the ram, the dove and the pigeon he had protected all day for y^ehôvâh in the real world, even as Abram heard and saw something completely different in a dream.  I am more inclined to take the text at face value and assume that Abram acted within the vision of Genesis 15:1 and that he was a dream within a vision deep in Genesis 15:13-16 (NET):

Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country.  They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years [Table].  But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve.  Afterward they will come out with many possessions [Table].  But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age [Table].  In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit [Table].

Then ʽâbar was the action of a smoking firepot with a flaming torch in a vision designed to overcome the doubts of Abram the believer:^[16] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed (ʽâbar, עבר; Septuagint: διῆλθον) between the animal parts.^[17]  It would have been disconcerting, to say the least, if Abram woke up the next morning to find the bones picked clean by nocturnal birds and other scavengers.

That day, the vision concluded, the Lord (y^ehôvâh, יהוה) made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River [Table]– the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, [Table] Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, [Table] Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites [Table].”^[18]

This brings me to the beginning of the Parashat Vayera (פרשת וירא), Genesis 18:1-22:24.  Ben Zion Katz, a pediatrician and self-proclaimed recreational Bible scholar, in an essay—“God’s Appearance to Abraham: Vision or Visit?”—posted on TheTorah.com contrasted “The Traditional Approach” to “A Peshat Reading” of Genesis 18.  In the traditional approach Abraham interrupted a vision of God to entertain three guests.  “This reading thus exemplifies the performance of two mitzvot – visiting the sick and welcoming guests.”

Even when I searched the Bible for mitzvot I was never quite this clever.  I certainly recognized Abraham’s hospitality but had serious doubts and questions about Lot’s practice of the same with two of the same men.  And I didn’t see “visiting the sick” here until I read Dr. Katz article: “God is ‘visiting’ Abraham (in a vision) because Abraham was recuperating from his circumcision.”  As long as I searched the Bible for rules to obey I, like Nicodemus, didn’t see—I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God^[19]—as the take away message of the Old Testament.

I was taught that I must be born again.  I was taught to mock Nicodemus’ dull-wittedness: How can a man be born when he is old?  He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?^[20] And, How can these things be?^[21] But I didn’t understand Jesus’ retort either (John 3:10-12 NET):

Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?  I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.  If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

I was George McFly in the diner in “Back to the Future.”  I felt as bullied by Jesus as he did by Biff Tannen.  When Jesus turned his attention to Nicodemus, like Biff’s followers turned on Marty, I could feel like a winner for a moment, piling on Nicodemus.  But only for a moment, for Jesus was soon back to bullying me as his words seemed at the time.  God come to earth, mocking everyone who was not God.

The revolution came when I began to see Jesus as a baby and a child learning everything anew.  He studied the Hebrew Bible, what I call the Old Testament, and from it through the Holy Spirit learned the solemn truth (John 3:5-8 NET):

unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’  The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

You must all be born from above, because no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^[22]  God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^[23]

Dr. Katz continued:

Although clever and ethically uplifting, the traditional reading is not the peshat, the plain meaning of the text. The peshat reading, which is in consonance with modern literary analysis, is rather straightforward.  In verse 1, we are given an introduction that God appeared to Abraham.  That appearance then begins in verse 2, and of the 3 “people” Abraham sees, one is God personified while the other 2 are angels or messengers of God.

My lord (ʼâdôn, אדני), Abraham said, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass (ʽâbar, תעבר; Septuagint: παρέλθῃς^[24]) by and leave your servant.^[25]  Here ʽâbar became the action that y^ehôvâh would take if He did not favor Abraham.  Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree,^[26] Abraham continued.  It sounds to me as if Abraham wished to honor his guests in a manner in keeping with the favor their consenting to be his guests implied.  But in the “traditional” commentary Abraham was seen as a strict adherent 430 years before the law:

and bathe your feet: He thought that they were Arabs, who prostrate themselves to the dust of their feet, and he was strict not to allow any idolatry into his house.  But Lot, who was not strict, mentioned lodging before washing, as it is said (below 19:2): “and lodge and bathe your feet.” – [from Gen. Rabbah 54:4]

And let me get a bit of food, Abraham continued, so that you may refresh yourselves since you have passed (ʽâbar, עברתם; Septuagint: ἐξεκλίνατε^[27]) by your servant’s home.  After that you may (ʽâbar, תעברו; Septuagint: παρελεύσεσθε^[28]) be on your way.^[29]  Here even the “traditional” commentary recognized the honor Abraham perceived:

because you have passed by: For I request this from you [i.e., to sustain your hearts] because you have passed by me [i.e., have stopped in my home] to honor me.

If y^ehôvâh consented not to ʽâbar by Abraham, Abraham’s hospitality would become the reason that y^ehôvâh ʽâbar Abraham’s tent.  All right, y^ehôvâh and his two companions replied, you may do as you say.^[30]

After Sarah died Abraham negotiated with Ephron for a field with a cave to bury her body.  It was a curious negotiation.  As a wanderer in the promised land Abraham owned no property.  As a respected prince Ephron was willing to give him the property, but Abraham insisted that he would pay full price.  Here ʽâbar was according to the standard of that price: So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and weighed out for him the price that Ephron had quoted in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard (ʽâbar, עבר; Septuagint: δοκίμου) measurement at the time.^[31]  The note in the NET reads: “Heb ‘passing for the merchant.’  The final clause affirms that the measurement of silver was according to the standards used by the merchants of the time.”

I’ll continue in the next essay.