The Priestly Dissemination of Abraham

The editorial activity of the Holiness School in Genesis is much more significant than previously acknowledged. While the precise extent of H additions may remain unknown, close study of H vocabulary in Genesis 17, 23 and 34 suggests that H revised earlier understandings of covenant, land and marriage. H describes the conditions under which Abraham's seed might be disseminated among others, even Canaanite others, when relationships are in good order. Against the grain of Ezra-Nehemiah, this late revision of Abraham tradition proposes that natives and strangers might yet live together in harmony, without destroying the fabric of the YHWH cult.