259 GENESIS 22: WHAT QUESTION SHOULD WE ASK THE TEXT? After these reflections, I think that we may have reached a first con- clusion, namely that there is only one “divine character” in the whole nar- rative even though this character may bear different names or appellations. The next problem is how to define more precisely the role of the divine personage. III. A plot of discovery 6 The narrative begins with the well-known sentence: “After these things God put Abraham to the test”. What is the purpose of a test? Look- ing for parallels, one finds at least three texts that answer this question, two of them coming from the Book of Deuteronomy (Deut 8,2; 13,3), and one being a typical Deuteronomistic text (Judg 3,4). The last example is surely a late text (2 Chr 32,31). Here are the texts: Deut 8,2: Remember the long way that YHWH your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. Deut 13,3: You must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for YHWH your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love YHWH your God with all your heart and soul. Judg 3,4: They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of YHWH, which he com- manded their ancestors by Moses. 2 Chr 32,31: And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him [Hezekiah] to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart. For this terminology of Aristotelian origin, see J.L. SKA, “Our Fathers 6 Have Told Us”. Introduction into the Analysis of Hebrew Narratives (SubBib 13; Rome 22000) 18-19. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati