Genesis 17 — the berìt milàh, the metonomasia, El Shaddài

Meaning

Genesis 17 is the chapter of the berìt par excellence: the noun recurs thirteen times in the text, and the tannaitic tradition made it the foundation of one of the most solemn affirmations of the Mishnah: «Great is milàh, for upon it thirteen covenants were concluded» (Mishnah Nedarim 3:11). In the same passage Rabbi [Yehudah ha-Nasi] observes that, despite all the mitzvot he had performed, Avrahàm was not called shalèm — complete — until he was circumcised, as it is said: «walk before me and be tamìm» (Gen 17:1). The tannaitic reading thus grasps the structural connection of the chapter: the integrity of man and the sign in the flesh are a single reality.

The narrative opens with Avràm at ninety-nine years of age: «the Tetragrammaton appeared» (va-yèra') — the only occurrence of the Name in the entire chapter; from that point the text always uses Elohim. The God who reveals himself presents himself as El Shaddài, the patriarchal Name par excellence, the one by which the God of the fathers manifested himself before the revelation of the Tetragrammaton to Mosheh (Ex 6:3). The command is twofold and programmatic: hithallèkh lefanài — hitpael of halakh, continuous walking, reflexive-intensive, not a punctual action — ve-heyèh tamìm. Tamìm is the same term used of Noach (Gen 6:9) and of the sacrificial animal without blemish: structural wholeness, completeness of being, not mere moral blamelessness.

The berìt has the form of the royal grant covenant of the ancient Near East: unilateral in the divine initiative («I will set my covenant», ve-ettenàh beritì), bilateral in its keeping («my covenant you shall keep», tishmòr, v. 9). The content unfolds in three elements: the multiplication of the seed (av hamòn goyìm, father of a multitude of nations), the land of Kena'an as achuzzàt 'olàm (a legally constituted and perpetual possession), and the personal relationship «I will be their God» — formulated as berìt 'olàm, a covenant of indefinite duration, from generation to generation.

The metonomasia is the second axis: Avràm becomes Avrahàm with the addition of the letter hè — for Bereshit Rabbah 46:7 a letter of the divine Name incorporated into the patriarch's identity — and the new name bears inscribed within it the formula of destiny: av hamòn goyìm. In parallel Saràj becomes Saràh: not an ancillary detail, but the full co-holding of the promise. The blessing of v. 16 falls directly upon her — «she shall become nations, kings of peoples shall come from her» — and the berìt passes through Saràh, not through Avrahàm alone. Avrahàm's laughter (va-yitzchàq, v. 17) generates the name of the promised son, Yitzchàq: the name bears impressed within it the astonishment of the impossible that becomes promise. Yishma'èl is not abandoned: v. 20 assures him blessing, fruitfulness, and twelve nesiìm; the distinction is between the heir of the berìt and the recipient of the berakhàh — separate categories, not mutually exclusive.

The sign: «you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin» (u-nemaltem et besar 'orlatekhèm) «and it shall be a sign of the covenant» (ot berìt, v. 11). Whoever is not circumcised «shall be cut off» (ve-nikhretàh, v. 14): the text plays on the same root karat with which a covenant is «cut» — whoever refuses the cutting of the sign undergoes the cutting off from the community. The chapter closes with immediate execution, «on that very day» (vv. 23, 26): obedience knows no delay.

Why it differs from current translations

The current Italian versions (CEI, Diodati) render El Shaddài as «Almighty God», following the Vulgate (Deus omnipotens); the LXX here even paraphrases with «your God» (ho theós sou), eliminating the proper name. But the etymology of Shaddài is disputed — the root shadad (power), shad (nourishing breast), the Akkadian shadu (mountain) — and the reduction to omnipotence alone is a Greco-Latin simplification that does not exhaust the patriarchal Name.

Hithallèkh lefanài becomes in the LXX euarèstei enantíon emoû, «be pleasing before me»: the shift is substantial, from continuous conduct (durative hitpael) to divine approval. Similarly tamìm is rendered ámemptos, «blameless»: a moral-juridical category, where the Hebrew speaks of ontological completeness. The emphatic reduplication bim'od me'od («exceedingly-exceedingly», vv. 2, 6) is attenuated at v. 2 with a single sphódra. The berìt is translated diathèke — a term that in Greek denotes the unilateral testamentary disposition, not the solemn covenant with bilateral keeping. «The land of your sojournings» (eretz megurèkha, where megurìm denotes the stays as a foreigner) becomes in the LXX the interpretive paraphrase «the land in which you dwell as a stranger». Finally 'olàm rendered as aiònios: the Hebrew speaks of an indefinite duration that embraces the generations, not the metaphysical eternity of Greek categories.

Layered receptions

The Jewish reception is first of all tannaitic and halakhic. Mishnah Nedarim 3:11 accumulates the praises of milàh: thirteen covenants concluded upon it, and the completeness (shalèm) of Avrahàm attained only with circumcision. Mishnah Shabbat 18:3 and 19:2 establish that milàh on the eighth day overrides even the Shabbat: «everything necessary for circumcision is done on Shabbat». Mishnah Avot 3:11 (R. El'azar ha-Moda'i) places «whoever annuls the covenant of Avrahàm our father» among those who have no share in the world to come. The baraita of b. Shabbat 137b fixes the blessings of the rite, among them that of the father: «who has commanded us to bring him into the covenant of Avrahàm our father». The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael (Pisḥa 5) intertwines the blood of milàh with the blood of Pesach as the two merits of redemption. The Targum Onkelos renders hithallèkh lefanài as «serve before me» (pelach qodamài), reading the walking as cultic service.

The Christian reception turns on Romans 4:9-12: Paul observes that righteousness was credited to Avrahàm (Gen 15:6) before circumcision, and defines milàh a «seal» (sphraghís) of the righteousness of faith — not an abolition of the sign, but a reading of its narrative order, which makes Avrahàm the father of the circumcised and of the uncircumcised believers. Acts 7:8 calls Genesis 17 «covenant of circumcision»; Luke 1:59 and 2:21 document the practice of the eighth day for Yochanan and for Yeshua. The «circumcision of the heart» is not a Christian invention but a trajectory internal to the Torah and the prophets (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4): the Christian typology is grafted onto it as fulfillment, not as substitution — the berìt 'olàm with Israel remains, for the text, of indefinite duration.

Historical reconstruction (aggadah)

On the historical-cultural plane, Genesis 17 adopts the structure of the royal grant covenant of the ancient Near East: the sovereign grants in perpetuity land and dynasty to the faithful servant, and the achuzzàh is the legally constituted hereditary holding. Circumcision was known in Egypt and in the West-Semitic milieu as a pubertal or premarital rite; Genesis 17 reconfigures it radically: shifted to the eighth day of life, removed from any function of passage, redefined as ot berìt — a permanent sign of belonging, not a threshold rite.

The aggadah developed each node of the chapter. Bereshit Rabbah 46:7 reads the hè added to the names as a letter of the divine Name incorporated into the identity of the patriarchs. The baraita of b. Berakhot 13a establishes that whoever continues to call Avrahàm «Avràm» transgresses, for it is written «your name shall be Avrahàm»; the same passage reads the metonomasia of Saràh in a universal key: formerly «my princess» (Saràj), now princess for all the nations. In b. Bava Metzia 86b the appearance at the oaks of Mamre (Gen 18:1) occurs on the third day from the milàh: the Holy One visits the convalescent, and the visiting of the sick (biqqur cholim) finds here its archetype. The execution «on that very day» (be-'etzem ha-yom ha-zèh, vv. 23, 26) is read as a public gesture, carried out in broad daylight and not in secret: adherence to the covenant does not fear witnesses.

Practical observance

Genesis 17 founds a fully operative mitzvah. Whoever observes does concretely this: the father has the male son circumcised on the eighth day (Gen 17:12; Lev 12:3), as a rule in the morning — Avrahàm's diligence «on that very day» is the model of zeal. Milàh overrides the Shabbat: everything necessary for the rite is carried out even on the Sabbath (Mishnah Shabbat 18:3; 19:2), while for danger to the newborn's health the rite is postponed — life prevails over the sign. The mohèl performs the cutting and blesses «over the milàh»; the father blesses «to bring him into the covenant of Avrahàm our father» (baraita, b. Shabbat 137b); at the rite the name is imposed — the practice that Luke 1:59 and 2:21 document identically for Yochanan and for Yeshua. There follows the meal of mitzvah. The adult who enters the people performs the milàh as Avrahàm did at ninety-nine years of age: no age exempts.

Where the New Testament documents real continuity, the connections are these. The command hithallèkh lefanài ve-heyèh tamìm — continuous conduct, not a punctual act — corresponds to the category of Holiness (sanctification-walking): concretely, the daily examination of conduct before God, because the hitpael demands an uninterrupted walking, verifiable day by day, not devout episodes. The dynamic of «removing the 'orlàh» finds explicit continuity in Colossians 2:11-12, which binds circumcision and baptism: for the category Be Baptized, baptism is performed as a single and bodily entrance into the covenant — an act received once, like milàh, not repeatable; for the category Things to Put Off (Sanctification), the «putting off the body of flesh» is carried out with determinate and nameable renunciations, not with generic intentions — just as the cutting of milàh is punctual, dated, and irreversible. None of these continuities abrogates the sign for Israel: Acts 15 does not impose milàh on the nations, but Acts 16:3 shows Paul himself circumcising Timothy — the covenant «from generation to generation» remains in force for the seed of Avrahàm.

Textual notes

• v. 1 — va-yèra' YHWH: the only occurrence of the Tetragrammaton in the chapter; from v. 3 always Elohim. El Shaddài: disputed etymology (shadad, shad, Akkadian shadu). Hithallèkh: durative hitpael of halakh. Tamìm: structural wholeness (cf. Gen 6:9).
• v. 2 — ve-ettenàh beritì: the covenant is given, not negotiated; bim'od me'od: emphatic reduplication.
• v. 4 — hinnèh beritì ittàkh: the deictic particle hinnèh emphasizes the immediacy of the covenant.
• v. 5 — Avrahàm: metonomasia with the addition of the hè; the name semantically incorporates av hamòn goyìm — an inseparable onomastic link of name-destiny.
• v. 6 — ve-hifretì: hifil of paràh, to bear fruit, an echo of the creational blessing.
• v. 7 — va-haqimotì: hifil of qum, to make subsist, to make stand; li-verìt 'olàm: indefinite duration, not metaphysical eternity.
• v. 8 — eretz megurèkha: the land of the sojournings as a foreigner; achuzzàt 'olàm: a legally constituted possession.
• vv. 9-11 — tishmòr: active keeping (shamar); himmòl: niphal of mul, absolute normative value; 'orlàh: foreskin; ot berìt: sign of the covenant.
• v. 12 — ben shemonàt yamìm: the eighth day, fixed as the normative term (cf. Lev 12:3).
• v. 14 — ve-nikhretàh: wordplay on the root karat — a covenant is «cut», whoever refuses it is «cut off» (karèt).
• v. 15 — Saràh: second metonomasia, with the same hè; equal dignity in the holding of the promise.
• v. 17 — va-yitzchàq: Avrahàm's laughter generates the name Yitzchàq, «he will laugh».
• v. 20 — u-le-Yishma'èl shema'tìkha: wordplay on the root shamà' contained in the very name of Yishma'èl («God hears»); twelve nesiìm.
• vv. 23, 26 — be-'etzem ha-yom ha-zèh: «on that very day», a formula of immediate and public execution.