How Abraham Is the New Adam

We normally think about the Abraham story as starting with the call of Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis, but it actually starts a little bit earlier on, in chapter 11. Understanding that Abraham is a new Adam really illumines this text and helps make sense of some strange aspects of his story.

In Genesis 11:31, it says:

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

This is a rather strange introduction to Abraham’s story. We normally think that God calls Abraham, and then Abraham leaves his country and journeys into the land of Canaan. But that is actually not what happens at first. It is Abraham’s father who decides to leave, and they get halfway there and settle, and then Terah dies. It is only at that point that God comes to Abraham in Genesis 12:1 and says:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Only at that point does God call him to enter the land. So the question from a narratological perspective is: why does the narrator include this little vignette about their family leaving and then dying in Haran? How does that contribute to the message of the text?

Directional Patterns in Genesis

To answer that, it is important to understand the patterns that have already occurred in Genesis. The first is a directional pattern. In the beginning, God creates the garden, and when Adam and Eve sin, they are driven out eastward. Then Cain sins, and he is driven further east. You have this consistent pattern where moving east means moving further away from God.

You also have a pattern that James Jordan has pointed out, where you see three sins and then a fall. You get the sin in the garden, then the sin of Cain and Abel, and then the sons of God and the daughters of men, followed by the Flood. Then after Noah, you have the sin of Ham, and then the sin of the Tower of Babel. At Babel, you are expecting a third sin, but God interrupts this sequence.

Interestingly, in the story of the Tower of Babel, it describes them migrating from the east or coming westward, because the whole story is about people undertaking these initiatives by themselves while ignoring God. They effectively say: “We want to come west. We want to come back into the garden in our own power. We want to build a tower by our own power. We want to make a name by our own power.” They do not want to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth as God commanded; they want to do everything on their own terms.

So we have two sins, and we are expecting another great judgment and fall to occur. But God interrupts the cycle and calls Abraham. He steps in and says, in effect: “Abraham, I want you to journey west. I want you to travel back toward this garden.” Coming west is symbolically moving back into the garden, which is why the Tabernacle itself is structured facing that exact direction.

Entering the Garden Through Death

Why, then, does the narrative give us this specific vignette where Abraham’s father brings him halfway, dies, and only then does God call Abraham into the land?

There are at least two reasons, and both have to do with Abraham being a new Adam. First, Adam was created outside of the garden, and only afterward did God bring him into it. That is a fascinating detail in Genesis 2: Adam is not formed inside the garden; he is formed outside, and then God places him there. In the same way, Abraham’s family is outside, and they are brought in.

Second, to get back into the garden, remember that God placed cherubim with flaming swords at the entrance. The theological reality is that you cannot re-enter the garden without passing through death. The punishment for eating of the tree was death, and so to re-enter requires death. Abraham’s father dies so that the next generation can enter. It is a mini death-and-resurrection scene: the father dies, and the son enters.

On top of that, remember that God declared that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. Here God is dramatically painting a picture where Abraham, like a new Adam, leaves his father and mother behind and enters into this new land, this garden that God has prepared.

The Tree and the Serpent

When Abraham enters the land in Genesis 12, God makes him a profound promise:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Here you have blessing and cursing, echoing the foundational themes of Genesis 3. Abraham gets up and departs, and when he arrives in the land, verse 6 tells us where he first goes:

Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.

The very first thing Abraham does upon entering the land is go to a tree, just like Adam. And remarkably, the very next sentence notes: “At that time the Canaanites were in the land.” Right after the mention of the tree, we are immediately given a reference to the serpentine enemy dwelling in the land.

Then the Lord appears to Abraham and says: “To your offspring I will give this land.” Notice what happens here. Abraham comes into the land, goes straight to a tree, and immediately God speaks to him, just as God spoke in the garden at the tree. We might have expected God to say: “Here it is; take the land right now.” But instead, God tells him that He will give it to his descendants. Abraham cannot simply seize the land right now; he must wait. It is the exact test Adam faced in the garden: all the trees were given for food, but concerning the tree of knowledge, he had to wait. Abraham is placed in the same position as Adam, reduplicating that calling of patient faith.

Altars as Mini-Edens

Abraham’s next actions continue these adamic themes. He travels from the north down to the south, and he builds an altar in the north and then another altar in the south.

What is an altar? An altar is a pile of stones with fire on top. It is a miniature symbolic mountain where sacrifices are burned—a symbolic Eden. It is as if Abraham is saying: “I want to go back to the garden. I want to be back in fellowship with God. But I cannot possess it fully yet; I have to wait. So I am going to place a sacred emblem here.” Altars are sites of worship and feasting, just like the top of Mount Eden.

We know Eden was on a mountain for two reasons: Ezekiel describes Eden as the holy mountain of God, and Genesis describes rivers flowing down out of Eden to water the earth. Furthermore, there is fire upon this mountain, represented by the cherubim with the flaming sword. As Abraham journeys from north to south, he establishes these mini-mountains and sites of worship because he is clinging to the promise. He knows that worship is central to God’s kingdom. He does not march through and seize the land by force; he trusts God, builds altars, and offers worship. He does precisely what Adam ought to have done.

The First Words of Abraham

There is one more crucial adamic theme. After this, a famine strikes the land, and Abraham journeys down into Egypt.

If you ask yourself when in the narrative we first hear Abraham speak, you might guess he spoke to his father, or perhaps to God when God called him. But Abraham has remained completely silent up to this point. The very first time Abraham speaks in the Bible is to his wife Sarai, when they are arriving in Egypt. He says to her:

I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.

In biblical narrative, the first words spoken by a major character are deeply significant. They almost always reveal something foundational about the character and establish themes that will unfold across the rest of the story.

Notice how his speech begins: Abraham says, “I know.” This directly connects to the theme of knowledge. Adam was meant to mature into the knowledge of good and evil through wisdom, the kind of wisdom that understands human nature and moral reality, which we see in its Old Testament fullness in figures like Solomon. Abraham already possesses that discerning wisdom. He knows what the Egyptians will do when they look upon this beautiful woman.

Notice the echo: Abraham recognizes Sarai as tov—good and beautiful to look upon—the very word used in Genesis for the tree that was good for food and pleasing to the eyes. Abraham knows the Egyptians will act like the fallen Adam; they will see this beautiful treasure and try to take it by violence.

Consider the stark contrast between Adam and Abraham. In Genesis 3, Adam never speaks to his wife to protect her. When the serpent enters the garden speaking falsehoods, Adam remains silent when he should have stepped in, guarded his wife, and driven out the threat. But Abraham, the new Adam, directs his very first recorded words to his wife to guard and protect her before the attack even arrives.

People often assume Abraham’s actions here are cowardly or selfish, but that misunderstands the narrative. Abraham acts with strategic wisdom. What he anticipates is precisely what takes place: Pharaoh acts like the serpent and takes Sarai into his house, but God intervenes with plagues to judge Pharaoh and deliver them with great wealth. Abraham’s wisdom and foresight are vindicated.

In Abraham, we are watching the unfolding of those original creation callings: to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue, rule, guard, and cultivate. Genesis gives us the tragic failure of those mandates in Adam, but in Abraham we begin to see what it looks like when God raises up a faithful man to walk in that calling. We see a fuller picture of the humanity God always intended.

And that, my friends, is why the Bible is art.

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