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Genesis 12:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Genesis 12:1-2
New Catholic Bible
Origin of the People of God[a]
Abraham, Man of Faith[b]
Chapter 12
“Leave Your Country [and] Your People.”[c]1 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people, and the house of your father, and go to the land to which I will lead you.
2 “I will make of you a great
people and I will bless you.
I will make your name great
and it will become a blessing.
Footnotes
- Genesis 12:1 The second part of Genesis gathers and arranges the memories that Israel has preserved regarding its distant origins (which can be dated to between the 19th and 17th centuries B.C.). These memories reduce to a few essential traits the life of the ancestors of the chosen people.
- Genesis 12:1 God has never abandoned the human race that he created; the universe and nature speak of him to human beings (Wis 13; Rom 1:20), but the human conscience, blinded by self-centeredness and pride, reaches out to him only in a groping way (Acts 17:27).
This is the reason why God enters our history, chooses Abraham, forms a people for himself, progressively reveals himself to them, and remotely prepares them to welcome someday the true descendants of Abraham, Christ the Savior and the Church. Abraham is the father and model of believers (Gal 3; Rom 4) because he promptly responds to the voice of God. - Genesis 12:1 Chapters 12–13 are from the Yahwist tradition. We do not know how the true God made himself known to the heart of Abraham.
It is certain that the Israelite tradition, diligent in safeguarding the memory of the Patriarch, has preserved the knowledge that his ancestors were pagans (Jos 24:2) and that at a certain moment Abraham’s family came to know the true God and abandoned the religion of their fathers (Jud 5:7-8).
