To Your Seed I Will Give … : The Land(s) Promised to Abraham in Genesis and Second Temple Judaism

The land promise to Abraham begins modestly near Shechem. In most sources, the promise crystallizes around the land of Canaan. However, Genesis’s own narrative shows the outward reverberations of Yahweh’s word to Abraham about landed inheritance. When one considers Second Temple Judaism, including the early Jesus movement, one finds other sources that expand the promise still further. In particular, Ben Sira, Jubilees, Philo, and Paul find in the promise to Abraham of landed inheritance a claim for this promise to encompass the whole world.