Studia Antiqua
Keywords
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Narrative, Genesis, Exodus, Archetypes, Covenant, Journey, Typology, Theophany
Abstract
The stories of Noah, Abraham, and Moses display remarkable similarities. All three follow a narrative pattern where God appears in theophany to a prophet-patriarch figure, God forms a covenant with this prophet-patriarch and his people to bring them to a new land, and God guides them on a divinely-assisted journey until they reach that land. Rather than being the result of typological shaping or historical resemblance, the narrative similarities between these three stories are most likely indicative of a common narrative archetype, which this paper titles the covenant journey archetype. The thrice-fold repetition of this archetype within the Pentateuch attests to the Israelites’ theological conviction that their God was a god of promises, guidance, and deliverance, who would fulfill his covenants with them as he did with their fathers.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Madsen, Jeremy. "Covenant Peoples, Covenant Journeys: Archetypal Similarities between the Noah, Abraham, and Moses Narratives." Studia Antiqua 19, no. 1 (2020): 1-17. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol19/iss1/1
Included in
Biblical Studies Commons, Classics Commons, History Commons, Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons