How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing

“In How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing, Qiang Fu uses formative narrative analysis and narrative discourse analysis of the Abraham cycle in Genesis 12–22 to explore God’s promise that Abraham would ‘be a blessing.’ This volume explores how God’s interactions with Abraham fulfill that promise and transform him into a model mediator of God’s plan that all human families have a relationship with him.”


—John D. Harvey, professor of New Testament, Columbia Biblical Seminary





“Most enlightening is Qiang Fu’s unfolding of the central theme of Genesis 12–22, God’s command to Abraham to be (with imperative force) a blessing. Through the interplay and flow of pericopae, he shows how the narrative reveals God’s interaction with Abraham, forming him into the agent of blessing he is commanded to be. The pastoral applications to spiritual formation are significant.”


—John Hilber, professor of Old Testament, McMaster Divinity College





“Beyond isolated episodes, here is a method of discourse that is applied to the entire Abraham story. This interpretive analysis should find its way into the next generation of commentaries and literary studies.”


—Andrew Schmutzer, professor of Bible, Moody Bible Institute





“Qiang Fu delivers surprisingly new insights into the Abrahamic narrative of Genesis 12–22. Through analysis of the plot and narrative structure, three movements of obedience to God’s commands are contrasted with three movements of deviation. Fu’s rich and personally enlightening exegesis pulls Abraham from an old flat narrative as a hero of faith into the reality of a flawed human through whom God intervened to transform him into a person of blessing. In this process, Fu rescues the imperative phrase ‘be a blessing’ from a formulaic platitude into a dynamic mission.”


—Ingrid Faro, associate professor of Old Testament, Scandinavian School of Theology