Who was bound when the covenant was made?
Genesis 15 and the covenant ceremony.
The short answer Settled
God alone. Abram was asleep when the covenant was made. Only God, appearing as a smoking oven and a burning torch, passed between the pieces. Elsewhere Scripture says that those who pass between the pieces are the ones bound to keep the covenant. Abram promised nothing; he believed.
What Genesis 15 shows
God has just promised Abram descendants past counting, and Abram has believed Him. Then Abram asks a fair question about the land: "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" (). God does not answer with an explanation. He tells Abram to bring animals, cut them in two, and lay the halves opposite each other with a path between them.
Then Abram is taken out of the scene. "A deep sleep fell upon Abram" (). While he lies there, "there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces" (). The very next verse says what that was: "On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram" (). The passing between the pieces is the covenant being made, and the LORD is the one who makes it.
Scripture itself explains what walking between the pieces means. Through Jeremiah, God condemns "the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it" (). The people who walked the path were the people held to the covenant. In Genesis 15, God walked it and Abram did not.
The grant is also stated as already given, not offered on terms: "To your descendants I have given this land" (). No condition is attached anywhere in the chapter. Abram's only part was named earlier: "he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness" ().
The usual objection
The most common reason given for saying God's promises to Israel have ended is Israel's own conduct. A covenant, the argument goes, is an agreement between two parties, and when one party breaks it, the other is released. Israel broke faith, so God was released.
The principle is sound wherever it applies. Scripture does contain covenants of that two-sided kind; the covenant at Sinai is one (see Could later commands cancel the promise?). And Israel's unfaithfulness is not in dispute. But the argument cannot reach a covenant that only one party ever entered. In Genesis 15 there was no second party to break it. Whether disobedience carries a penalty is a different question, taken up in Did exile end the covenant?
The words behind it
| Word | Where | Form | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| כָּרַת karath, "to cut" (Strong's 3772) | Qal perfect, third masculine singular | The LORD is the single subject who "made," literally "cut," the covenant. Abram is the one it was made with, not a second party cutting it. | |
| עָבַר 'abar, "to pass" (5674), with בֵּין ben, "between" (996) | ; | Qal forms of the same verb with the same preposition | Jeremiah describes the same rite in the same words, and says who is bound by it. |
| תַּרְדֵּמָה tardemah, "deep sleep" (8639) | Noun, with the verb "fell," Qal perfect third feminine singular | Abram was not awake and not acting while the covenant was made. | |
| הֶאֱמִן he'emin, "believed" (539) | Hiphil perfect, third masculine singular | Abram's one part in the chapter is trust, not a promise to perform. |
No textual variants affect the conclusion.
This study checks the Greek Received Text against the Majority Text, and the written Hebrew against its traditional reading. If a difference could change a conclusion, this note explains it. Otherwise it says that none does.