Wrangling with Abraham: An Evaluation of Recent Studies on Genesis 12–25

Abstract

This article evaluates recent trends in scholarship on the Abraham narratives in Genesis 12– 25 based on a selection of works published over the last eighteen years. Four main issues are discussed here: the current lack of consensus on the nature of the oral and written traditions underlying the Book of Genesis, a need for methodological restraint in the historical-critical scholarship, new approaches to the historical study of Genesis 12–25, and current directions in the theological study of the ancestral narratives.