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The early example you gave was 1983. Do you have anything earlier or even prior to 1917? Or another passage in the 1985 edition, or other translation of other than Genesis 15:6 translated "merit."Here's a bit of preliminary research for you to look over; the first three versions are by Jewish scholars.
6 And he put his trust in יהוה, who reckoned it to his merit.
Genesis 15:6 (JPS Contemporary Torah) 2006.6 And he trusted the LORD, and He reckoned it to his merit.
Robert Alter, Genesis, 2004. p. 756 Now he trusted in YHWH,
and he deemed it as righteous-merit on his part
(note: he deemed it: “He” refers to God.)
Everett Fox, The Schocken Bible: Volume 1, The Five Books of Moses. 1983. p. 656 He trusted in Yahweh, and he deemed it as faithfulness on his part.
John Goldingay, The First Testament, a New Translation. 2018. p. 13.
He reckoned it to his merit God is the subject of the verb.* Hebrew tsedakah, usually “righteousness,” sometimes bears the sense of “merit.” The idea is that Abram’s act of faith made him worthy of God’s reward, which is secured through a covenant. This interpretation is supported by Nehemiah 9:7–8 and by the similar phraseology in Psalms 106:30f., which refers to the narrative of Numbers 25:6–13. The latter tells of the intervention of Phinehas at the affair of Baal-peor, as a result of which he was granted God’s “pact of friendship”—“for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time.” The alternative possibility that Abram regarded “it,”—that is, the promise of posterity—as an expression of God’s righteousness and grace seems less likely.**
* So Targ. Onk., Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Sforno.
** So in Deut. 9:4; 2 Sam. 19:29; Dan. 9:18. The alternative interpretation is given by Bekhor Shor, Ramban, Ralbag, Abravanel.
Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 113.
An extended discussion about this verse and its translation is found in the NICOT, Genesis [LINK]
Rob
Which "he?" The one who trusted or the one crediting?Oddly enough the difference in translation revolves around the word “he”. Who is “he”?
That "He" is provided by the translator in English. for the One who "reckoned." And the "his" by the translator referring to Abraham....he reckoned it to his...
Both are undefined in the Hebrew.
True, Paul clears things up for Christians in the NT.
Rob
I don't have the 1985 JPS Torah, but I do have a later adaption, the Contemporary Torah (2006)The early example you gave was 1983. Do you have anything earlier or even prior to 1917? Or another passage in the 1985 edition, or other translation of other than Genesis 15:6 translated "merit."
My thinking on this is it being unmerited merit.
It would probably be a good idea to include the translation from which the note was taken, particularly since it's unique.Here is the NET footnote:
"20tn The nonconsecutive vav (ו) is on a perfect verbal form. If the composer of the narrative had wanted to show simple sequence, he would have used the vav consecutive with the preterite. The perfect with vav conjunctive (where one expects the preterite with vav consecutive) in narrative contexts can have a variety of discourse functions, but here it probably serves to highlight Abram’s response to God’s promise. For a detailed discussion of the vav + perfect construction in Hebrew narrative, see R. Longacre, “Weqatal Forms in Biblical Hebrew Prose: A Discourse-modular Approach,” Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 50-98. The Hebrew verb אָמַן (’aman) means “to confirm, to support” in the Qal verbal stem. Its derivative nouns refer to something or someone that/who provides support, such as a “pillar,” “nurse,” or “guardian, trustee.” In the Niphal stem it comes to mean “to be faithful, to be reliable, to be dependable,” or “to be firm, to be sure.” In the Hiphil, the form used here, it takes on a declarative sense: “to consider something reliable [or “dependable”].” Abram regarded the God who made this promise as reliable and fully capable of making it a reality."
I see nothing in the passage to support something other that Abraham's faith in the promise of God was credited by God as righteousness.