בְּזַרְעֲךָ (Be-zar'akha)

MEANING'In your seed.' The OT grammatical ancestor of Paul's en Christō (in Christ). Election located in the Seed, not in a pre-selected list of individuals. The corporate election grammar.

GRAMMARBe (in/through/by) + zera (seed --- collective singular: can refer to one or multitude without changing form) + kha (your, 2ms suffix). Paul exploits the collective singular in Galatians 3:16: the Seed is Christ (one); those in Christ are the elect (many). The be preposition = Greek en (in).

SIGNIFICANCEBe-zar'akha is the OT foundation for corporate election. Election is in the Seed. Individuals enter by being in the Seed through faith. Galatians 3:26-29 names the mechanism: 'for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus\... if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.'

KEY VERSE / SCRIPTURESGenesis 12:3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.

CROSS-REFERENCESGenesis 22:18 · Galatians 3:16 · Galatians 3:26-29 · ἐν αὐτῷ en autō (direct NT parallel)