And of My Descendants?

In Scripture, Abraham’s seed encompasses more than just biological lineage. It also transmits God’s covenant, outlining the potential for righteousness and human corruption in a single function.

The Hebrew term zera', "seed" or "offspring," follows the continuity of God’s promise to Abraham from one generation to the next. It also marks the recurring story of human rebellion, which is as predictable in each generation as the agrarian cycle of seasons.

Nothing changes under the sun.

In this sense, the biblical seed is covenantal, according to God’s promise across the generations, and biological, according to his command. The seed has all living things and the preservation of life in its purview, even as humans repeatedly threaten life in literary Scripture and literal history.

To sow the biblical seed is to “spread” God’s covenant in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham, a grace carried in the content of Paul’s gospel, which scatters our rebellious (biological) seed as Jesus scatters in Luke, all the while gathering God’s offspring for the Kingdom.

This is what the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55 means:

Scripture shatters the stubborn back of human rebellion in every generation, scattering those who remain and spreading them among the nations, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham and his offspring, including all life in God’s zealous care.

Put that in your flashy fundraising brochure.

This week, I discuss Luke 8:4-8.

Show Notes

σπείρω / σπόρος / ז-ר-ע (zayin-resh-ʿayin) / ز-ر-ع (zāy-rāʿ-ʿayn)

“And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time זרע (zaraʿ), and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely.” (Leviticus 26:5)זֶ֫רַע (zeraʿ) “seed,” in biblical Hebrew, also functions as “offspring” or “descendants” with a connotation of spreading or scattering. In Arabic:

• The verb زرع (zaraʿa) means “to sow” or “to plant.”
• The noun زرع (zarʿ) refers to “crops” or “plants.”

أَفَرَأَيْتُم مَّا تَحْرُثُونَ
أَأَنتُمْ تَزْرَعُونَهُ أَمْ نَحْنُ الزَّارِعُونَ
(ʾafa-raʾaytum mā taḥruthūna, ʾaʾantum tazraʿūnahu ʾam naḥnu al-zāriʿūna)“Have you seen that which you sow?
Is it you who makes it grow, or are we the grower?”(Surah Al-Waqi'ah, 56:63-64)

The biblical function ז-ר-ע bifurcates in the Qur’an, clarifying the distinction between covenant and offspring. A second root, ذ-ر-أ (dhā-ra-hamza), is introduced alongside ז-ר-ע that ties directly to lineage, posterity, and the continuity of God’s covenant with Abraham:

قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ
(qāla wa-min dhurrIyyatī qāla lā ya-nālu ʿahdī a-ẓālimīna)“He [Abraham] said, ‘And of my descendants?’ He said, ‘My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.’”(Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:124)

As with Biblical Hebrew, both connotate scattering, dispersing, or spreading.

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