ny, these are referred merely to the
bodily descendants of the Patriarchs; by many, also, to their spiritual
descendants, their successors in the faith. But the latter reference is
altogether arbitrary; and the former could be well-founded only, if the
Congregation of the Lord had been destined solely for the natural
descendants, and if all the Gentiles had been refused admittance into
it. But that such is not the case, is evident from the command to
circumcise every bondservant; [Pg 218] for, by circumcision, a man was
received among the people of God. This appears, _further_, from the
command in Exod. xii. 48, that every stranger who wished to partake of
the Passover must be previously circumcised; and this implies that
strangers might partake in the sign and feast of the covenant if they
wished; compare _Michaelis_, _Mos. Recht._ Th. iv. Sec. 184. This appears,
_moreover_, from Deut. xxiii. 1-8, where the Edomites and Egyptians are
expressly declared to be capable of being received into the
Congregation of the Lord. It appears, _still further_, from the
circumstance that, in the same passage, the command to exclude the
Ammonites and Moabites is founded upon a special reason. And,
_finally_, it appears from the Jewish practice at all times. But the
heathens who were received among the people of God were considered as
belonging to the posterity of the Patriarchs, as their sons by
adoption. How indeed could it be otherwise, since, by intermarriage,
every difference must have very soon disappeared? They were called
children of Israel, and children of Jacob, no less than were the
others. It now appears to what extent the promise to the Patriarchs
refers to the Gentiles also--viz., in so far as they became believers
in the God of Israel, and joined themselves to Israel. Compare Is.
xliv. 5: "One shall say, I am Jehovah's, and another shall call the
name of Jacob, and another shall write with his hand. Unto the Lord!
and boast of the name of Israel." Such an eager desire of the Gentiles
towards the kingdom of God regularly took place, either when the God of
Israel had revealed Himself by specially distinguishing manifestations
of His omnipotence and glory, as, _e.g._, in the deliverance from the
Egyptian and Babylonish captivities, in both of which events we find a
number of those who had previously been heathens, [Hebrew: erb], in the
train of the Israelites;--or when a feeling of the vanity of the idols
of the heathen worl