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Question on Moses’ inclusion of Gentiles in covenant relationship

January 30th, 2015

Byron Earnheart
January 29, 2015

Question for myself…my best friend and I are reading Calvin’s “Institutes” this year and discussing. Got to Book 1 C8 Sec 7 where Moses is defended and Calvin brings up Moses’ inclusion of the Gentiles into covenant relationship. Is he referring to Gen 17:9-14 or is there something else I’m missing? Did Moses, in his speech or writings explicitly include Gentiles in the covenant?

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    Ed Chait likes this.
  • Tim White Calvin and Hobbs is one of my favorite, too, but I don’t remember that.
    19 hrs · Like · 1
  • John Edward Rasmussen “Similarly, Moses foretells things, albeit obscurely, concerning the election of the Gentiles into God’s covenant [Gen. 49:10], which actually took place almost two thousand years later.”

    John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 87.
    17 hrs · Like
  • John Edward Rasmussen ^ This is how mine reads, inserting the reference to Gen. 49:10. But other than that, (which is indeed obscure), I don’t believe the Torah speaks much of the inclusion of Gentiles, other than the promise to Abraham. The Old Testament is replete with the inclusion of the Gentiles (especially the prophets) but somewhat obscure in the Torah from my reading.
    17 hrs · Like · 1
  • Byron Earnheart Thanks for the help! It struck me as odd when I read it and couldn’t find anything better.
    15 hrs · Edited · Like
  • Robert Pristoop Isaiah 49:5-8 implicitly speaks of God’s salvation going to the Gentiles as well as Jews. Certainly many of the prophets include God’s salvation going to the goyim (nations). I am not so sure that Moses understood salvation apart from the Commonwealth of Israel as we understand it today. In OT days and verbiage people joined with the Israelites for salvation. Much like Abraham and Isaac sacrificing on Mt Moriah. They did not know that they were giving the world a look at the coming Messiah, they were simply being obedient to God.
    5 mins · Like

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