Summary of Genesis 15

Adopting Jim's device, though certainly with less elegance and coherence, I'll attempt to summarize our discussion below.

1. Abram and the Lord converse in dialogue
1.1 Melchizedek's priestly mediation may be a necessary precursor to dialogic communication with the Lord
1.2 The metonymic locution "the word of the Lord" may suggest the introduction of a symbolic order structuring the covenant
1.3 The "cutting" of the newly symbolic covenant may enact a subject-splitting psychic exile.

2. This third (?) articulation of the covenant introduces metaphor.
2.1 The rhetorical logic of metaphor may match the covenantal logic of the interrupted patriline
2.2 The terms of the metaphor---star and dust---suggest a kind of synchronic infinity that may bear on Abram's promised "eternal increase"

3. The parameters (and perimeters) of the covenant are enlarged, specified, and delayed
3.1 Abram broaches doubt and faith in this dilatation of the covenant, and the Lord responds with a non-verbal display of divine power
3.2 The Lord may reaffirm and enlarge the covenant as Abram enlarges his concern for others