THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM. A RABBINIC MIDRASHIC INTERPRETATION OF THE STORY OF ABRAHAM

In the following article we will analyze the episode of the call of Abraham as it was imagined by the authors of the Genesis Rabbah 39. We will deal with the various aspects of literary devices and structure, and then we will look at the theological worldview that emerges out of Genesis Rabbah. The literary genre of Midrashic Literature employs a number of devices which set this type of literature apart from the others. The formula lech lecha (go yourself) functions as the key expression in Genesis Rabbah 39. We will also ask questions about the historical and social background that may have influenced the rabbis in their exposition of the life of Abraham. We will notice that the world in which Abraham lived resembled a palace that was set on fire, an allusion to the world that God created and that, apparently, seems at the mercy of wickedness and evil. It was this context in which God called Abraham, a righteous man whom God spoke to, and used more than any other people of his generations.