Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 74:2 (Fall 2012)
Article: Faults Of Our Fathers: The Spread Of Sin In The Patriarchal Narratives And Its Implications
Author: Robert R. Gonzales, Jr.

WTJ 74:2 (Fall 2012) p. 367

Faults Of Our Fathers:
The Spread Of Sin In The Patriarchal Narratives
And Its Implications

Robert R. Gonzales, Jr.

Robert R. Gonzales, Jr., is the Academic Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies of Reformed Baptist Seminary, Taylors, S.C., as well as Adjunct Professor of Old Testament for the Midwest Center for Theological Studies, Owensboro, Ky.

I. Introduction

In 1973 Dr. Karl Menninger, a psychiatrist, published a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin?1 One of the primary aims of Menninger’s book is to highlight the way in which modern society has tended to marginalize and domesticate the pervasive reality of sin in the world.2 In my recently published monograph, Where Sin Abounds, I note a similar trend among Bible scholars in their treatment of the patriarchal narratives in the book of Genesis.3 Some interpreters attempt to minimize the sins of the patriarchs. Others go farther and attempt to whitewash their vices. There are, I believe, at least two factors that account for this trend.

II. The Sin Versus Grace Dichotomy

Anyone who is familiar with the secondary literature on Genesis is aware of the almost universal practice of dividing Genesis into at least two major sections. The first eleven chapters are commonly called “primeval history,” whereas chapters 12 through 50 are usually referred to as “patriarchal history” or “the patriarchal narratives.”4

WTJ 74:2 (Fall 2012) p. 368

Interpreters invoke various reasons to justify this division.5 The reason advanced that is most important for our purposes is that of a shift in thematic emphasis. Most interpreters of Genesis argue cogently that in primeval history the narrator (whom we would identify as Moses) focuses primarily on the origin and spread of human sin as well as God’s consequent curse and judgment. However, when they come to the patriarchal narratives the spread of sin theme seems to disappear from their radar. Here, they insist, the narrator shifts his emphasis from human sin and divine judgment to the themes of redemption and divine blessing.

For example, Gerhard von Rad, the renowned German OT scholar, contrasts “the Jahwist’s great hamartiology [i.e., doctrine of sin] in Gen. III–IX” where, says von Rad, “sin broke in like an avalanche” with patriarchal or, as von Rad terms it, “sacred” history where “the promise of the possessi...