Did Paul Let Go of the Land?
In Romans 4:13, Paul states, “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring—that he would be heir of the world—did not come through the Torah but through the righteousness of faith.” Some readers believe Paul’s reference to the entire “world” (κόσμος, kōsmos) indicates the transcendence of the land promise that God made to Abram in Genesis. In Christ, the argument goes, the land of Israel has lost its former importance; instead of assigning covenantal consequence to a single geographical location, Paul looks beyond the land as a particular promise to the people of Israel. However, this line of interpretation is incomplete. When the verse is read in its context (both of Romans and of Genesis), it is clear that Abraham’s inheritance of the world was always part of his heavenly blessing—yet, this all-encompassing vision does not lessen the continued legitimacy of God’s initial land grant.
Several New Testament commentators have seen in Romans 4:13 an indication that God had expanded the divine purview after the advent of Jesus; whereas the Old Testament had focused on a limited land, followers of Christ have inherited the whole world. As world-renowned scholar N. T. Wright puts it, “In Romans 4:13 Paul says, startingly, ‘The promise to Abraham and his seed, that they should inherit the world.’ Surely the promises of inheritance were that Abraham’s family would inherit the land of Israel, not the world? Paul’s horizon, however, is bigger. The Land, like the Torah… [is] now fulfilled in Christ…. God’s whole purpose now goes beyond Jerusalem and the Land to the whole world… [so that] the claim of Jesus and the claim of ‘holy land’, can never be sustained simultaneously” (1992: 67, 73). But is it true that God only promised Abraham the land of Israel? Does “Paul’s horizon” include a new revelation by which God “goes beyond” the original Abrahamic promise and makes the gospel incompatible with the “holy land”?
The only way to come to such a conclusion would be to stop reading Romans at 4:13 and refuse to read the passages that Paul elucidates from Israel’s Scriptures. Paul goes on to quote Genesis, saying, “As it is written [of Abraham], ‘I have made you a father of many nations (πολλῶν ἐθνῶν, pollōn ethnōn)’ [Gen 17:15]. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed…. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told: ‘So shall your offspring be’ [Gen 15:5]” (Romans 4:17-18). The second verse that Paul cites—part of Genesis 15:5—comes at the start of God’s discussion with Abram, which ends with the covenantal promise of the land: “On that day the Lord made a covenant (בְּרִית; brit) with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land (הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת; ha’arets ha’zot), from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates’” (Genesis 15:18).
Thus, it was not that Paul had a special revelation of a worldwide horizon revealed in Jesus; rather, Abraham’s God had promised him both the particular land of Israel and the fatherhood of “many nations.” Indeed, the first thing that God tells Abram is that he will be made into a “great nation” (גוֹי גָּדוֹל; goy gadol), and that through him “all the families of the earth (כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה; kol mishpahot ha’adamah)” would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3). From the very beginning of the Bible, the promises to Abraham included both the land of Israel and the whole world, so that faithful affirmation of Paul’s words in Romans—especially his belief that Jesus “confirm[s] [all] the promises to the ancestors” (Romans 15:8)—necessitates a simultaneous trust in the claim of Jesus and the eternal promise of the holy land.
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