In some circles, the physical and spiritual blessings given to Abraham and his seed are conflated into a single package of blessing. The physical and spiritual blessings given to Abraham are each distinct, and provided for differing people groups.
Gen 12:2-3 "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
The tenets of the Abrahamic Covenant, through which these blessings were provided, can be detailed as follows:
Land - A National Blessing to Ethnic Israel
God promised to make Abram's natural descendants into a "great nation", and give them the land of Canaan (Gen 12:2 - "I will make you a great nation", cf. Gen 18:18, Gen 17:6, Gen 35:11) This is a blessing to national Israel. Once Abram arrived at the land that God called him to, God declared that this new land would be given to his offspring (Gen 12:7). This is the land of Canaan, in the area of present day Israel.
Seed - A Universal Blessing to All Nations
God promised to bring the Redeemer who would crush the serpent's head through the genealogical line of Abram and his descendants thus blessing all people (Gen 12:2 - "you will be a blessing") and (Gen 12:3 - "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you"). This is a universal blessing promised to all the nations on earth, including the Gentile nations. Abram would be a blessing to all nations through the birth, death, and resurrection of his descendant, Jesus Christ (Gen 18:18-19, Gal 3:14, Gal 3:8).
Blessing - A Personal Blessing to Abram
God promised to make Abram's descendants as numerous as the stars (Gen 12:2 - "I will bless you"). Abram would be blessed and his name would be great. This is a personal blessing to Abram himself, and is related to Abram being the father of many nations (Gen 17:4-5, Rom 4:16-18).
The Purpose of this Article
A part of the reason for this article is to address those who believe that the various English words translated from the Hebrew "zera" should be taken as singular per Gal 3:16. The implication of this belief is that the promise of the land was not for the benefit of ethnic Israel, but for all who are "in Christ", making it a spiritual blessing, with allegorical instead of physical implications. This belief blurs the physical and spiritual blessings given to ethnic Israel and to the rest of the world, and ends up conflating the unique nature of the respective physical and spiritual blessings given to Abraham. We will cover Gal 3:16 later in this article.
Gal 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
Land - A National Blessing to Ethnic Israel
To whom is the "land" blessing given? The question we are seeking to answer here is whether the "land" blessing is a physical blessing of actual land to a specific people, or if it is a spiritual blessing for all people of the world.
Bible Translators
The English words "children", "family", "offspring", "seed" or "descendants" are all translated from the Hebrew word "zera". "Zera" is a "collective singular", meaning that the term can be taken either singular or plural. An example is the English word "sheep". "Sheep" is a single word that can mean either one "sheep" or many "sheep". So it is with "seed" or "offspring", as translated from the Hebrew, they could indicate one or multiple "seed" or "offspring". "Children", "family" or "descendants" are words that are plural alone, and would not be used to refer to a single person.
All of the following translations indicate that the translators believed the Hebrew "zera" indicated a quantity of offspring greater than one. This discussion will be pertinent as we answer the question later of what Paul meant in Gal 3:16 when he said that "the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed ... meaning one person, who is Christ".
In Gen 12:7, offspring is understood to be plural referring to Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's physical children, family or descendants. We can see this when we look at the various translations and see that the translators used the plural words "children", "family", and "descendants".
(NIrV) The LORD appeared to Abram at Shechem. He said, "I will give this land to your children after you." So Abram built an altar there to honor the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(GNB) The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(NKJV) Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(CEV) but the LORD appeared to Abram and promised, "I will give this land to your family forever." Abram then built an altar there for the LORD.
(ISV) Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I'll give this land to your descendants." So Abram built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
(NAS77) And the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
(NASB) The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
Clearly, the above translators understood that the Hebrew word "zera" was intended to reflect multiple descendants.
Scripture Interprets Scripture
But it is not enough that we should exclusively rely upon the translators to determine this important distinction. We should allow scripture to interpret scripture in these cases, and Gen 13:14-16 provides that interpretation by explicitly defining "zera" as "children", "family", and "descendants". I will use the English word "descendants" for the remainder of this article.
Additionally we see the connection between the "land", and the "descendants" in Gen 13:14-16. The land is given to Abraham's descendants, and those descendants will be of an uncountable quantity, not just one individual.
Gen 13:14-16 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. (15) All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. (16) I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
The descendants are further defined as the flesh and blood of Abraham in Gen 1:4-5. The descendants are not "spiritual" descendants, but physical descendants. Additionally, the descendants are compared in quantity to the stars in heaven, and their identity is further clarified as "a son who is your own flesh and blood", referring to the physical bloodline of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their physical descendants.
Gen 15:4-5 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." (5) He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
Gen 22:17, Gen 26:14, Gen 28:4 and Gen 32:12 also explicitly define the quantity of these heir's by blood, the descendants, as "numerous as the stars in the sky".
Gen 22:17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
Gen 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
Gen 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Gen 32:12 But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"
The prophecies that the blood related descendants of Abraham would become as "numerous as the stars" and "as the sand of the sea" was fulfilled by Israel in Egypt. The reference is not to spiritual descendants, but to the physical Israelites fleeing Egypt:
Deu 1:10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Deu 10:22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
All of the above passages refer to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The physical land, and the physical descendants are the context of all of this discussion so far. The "land" is not a spiritual blessing, but a physical blessing.
Seed - A Universal Blessing to All Nations
So what are we to make of Gal 3:16 in light of all the evidence above that the promise of the land was to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their physical descendants? Is Paul contradicting what was written regarding the Land blessing to Ethnic Israel?
Gal 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
Unlike the Land blessing to ethnic Israel, the Seed blessing is a promise given to all the people of the nations on earth. This is an important distinction in blessings. The blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant are not to be conflated as a single blessing, but as a single covenant with multiple blessings applied to distinctly different people. The Land blessing is stated as "I will make you a great nation", while the Spiritual blessing is stated as "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you".
The Spiritual nature of Gal 3:16 is defined through the context of Galatians 3. The topic being discussed here is Spiritual blessing, which is distinct from the Land blessings.
Gal 3:6-9 So also Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (7) Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. (8) Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." (9) So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
The spiritual nature of Gal 3:6-9 is apparent in the discussion of "righteousness", which is a spiritual characteristic. "Faith" is also a spiritual characteristic". Additionally, the passage explicitly ties itself to the spiritual blessings opened to "all nations will be blessed through you" in vs. 8, which can be compared to Gen 12:3.
Gen 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
The context of Galatians 3 is further clarified by Gal 3:14, which explicitly states that the blessing in view in this context is "the promise of the Spirit".
Gal 3:14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
So two verses further on, we come to the statement that Paul makes that the promise spoken to Abraham was a promise spoken to Christ alone.
Gal 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
If we are faithful to the context, then we will understand that the promise in view here was the specific promise defined in vs. 8, the promise that "all nations will be blessed through you", and that the promise to the nations was defined in vs. 14 as "the Spirit".
Conclusion
It is improper exegesis to conclude that because Paul stated that the promise spoken to Abraham was a promise spoken to Christ alone, that it applies to a conflated collection of all the promises given to Abraham. Scripture shows that there are physical land promises that were given to ethnic Israel and Jacob's physical descendants, and that there are spiritual promises given to all people in the nations. Paul's discussion in Galatians 3 relates to the spiritual promises, not the Land promises.
Paul is able to make the statement that the promise spoken to Abraham was a promise spoken to Christ alone because the context of the passage was spiritual blessings, and because all the people of the nations receive their spiritual blessings by being "in Christ". This statement is not to be confused with the land blessings given to ethnic Israel.
To be "in Christ" means to be baptized into His body. Baptism simple means to be immersed into Him, an immersion that occurs through faith.
Gal 3:26-27 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, (27) for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
1 Co 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body--whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Essentially, Paul is conveying the understanding that the only path that the nations have to receive the spiritual blessings is through Christ, and that is true of both Jew and Gentile.
Joh 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Land blessings given to Israel and the Spiritual blessings given to all nations are distinct blessings and should not be conflated. Paul's statement that the promise spoken to Abraham was a promise spoken to Christ alone does not conflict with the passages in Genesis that speak of the promises being for all of Abraham's descendants because Paul is speaking of the spiritual blessings while Genesis is speaking of the physical blessings.
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