Abraham
Abraham (ca. 1900 BC/BCE
אַבְרָ"ָם "Father/Leader of many",
Standard Hebrew Avraham,
Tiberian Hebrew ;
Arabic ابراهيم ;
Ge'ez አብርሃም
) is regarded as the founding
patriarch of the
Israelites whom God chose to bless out of all the families of the earth. He is a critical figure in both
Judaism and
Christianity, and is a very important
prophet in
Islam. Accounts of his life are given in the
Book of Genesis and also in the
Qur'an.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the
Bahá'í Faith are sometimes referred to as the "
Abrahamic religions", because of the role Abraham plays in their holy books and beliefs. In the
Hebrew Bible and the
Qur'an, Abraham is described as a patriarch blessed by God (the Jewish people called him "Father Abraham"), and
promised great things. Jews and Christians consider him father of the
people of Israel through his son
Isaac; Muslims regard him as the father of the
Arabs through his son
Ishmael. In Christian belief, Abraham is a model of faith, and his intention to obey God by offering up Isaac is seen as a foreshadowing of God's offering of his son,
Jesus. In Islam, Abraham obeyed God by offering up Ishmael and is considered to be one of the most important prophets sent by God. In the
Bahá'í Faith,
Bahá'u'lláh, its founder, is said to be a descendant of Abraham through his wife
Keturah; Bahá'ís see Abraham as a
Manifestation of God.
His original name was
Abram (
אַבְרָם "High/Exalted father/leader",
Standard Hebrew Avram,
Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇrām); he was the foremost of the
Biblical patriarchs. Later in life he went by the name Abraham. There is no contemporary mention of his life, and no source earlier than
Genesis mentions him. This is unremarkable given his nomadic lifestyle and only fleeting interactions with more significant figures as portrayed in the Bible. His significance lies in the promises which God gave concerning his descendants. The most remarkable of these promises are that through his offspring, nations all over the world will come to worship God.
According to calculations derived from the
Masoretic Hebrew
Torah, Abraham was born 1,948 years after
biblical creation and lived for 175 years, which would correspond to a life spanning from 1812 BC/BCE to 1637 BC/BCE by Jewish dating; or from 2166 BC/BCE to 1991 BC/BCE by other calculations. The figures in the
Book of Jubilees have Abraham born 1,876 years after creation, and 534 years before the
Exodus; the ages provided in the
Samaritan version of Genesis agree closely with those of Jubilees before the
Deluge, but after the Deluge, they add roughly 100 years to each of the ages of the Patriarchs in the Masoretic Text, resulting in the figure of 2,247 years after creation for Abraham's birth. The Greek
Septuagint version adds around 100 years to nearly
all of the patriarchs' births, producing the even higher figure of 3,312 years after creation for Abraham's birth. A more detailed account of all such calculations can be found in
Genealogies of Genesis.
 |
"Abraham Sacrificing Isaac" by Laurent de LaHire, 1650 |
The account of his life is found in the
Book of Genesis, beginning in Chapter 11, at the close of a
genealogy of the sons of
Shem (which includes among its members
Eber, the
eponym of the
Hebrews).
His father
Terah came from
Ur of the
Chaldees, popularly identified since 1927 by Sir Charles Woolley with an ancient city in southern
Mesopotamia which was under the rule of the Chaldeans — although
Josephus, Islamic tradition, and Jewish authorities like Maimonides all concur that
Ur-Of-The-Khaldis was in Northern Mesopotamia"now southeastern
Turkey (identified with
Urartu,
Urfa, and
Kutha respectively). This is in accord with the local tradition that Abraham was born in Urfa, or with the nearby
Urkesh, which others identify with "Ur of the Chaldees". They also say "Chaldees" refers to a group of gods called
Khaldis. Abram migrated to
Harran, apparently the classical
Carrhae, on a branch of the
Habor. Thence, after a short stay, he, his wife
Sarai,
Lot (the son of Abram's brother
Haran), and all their followers, departed for
Canaan. There are two cities possibly identifiable with the biblical Ur, neither far from Haran: Ura and Urfa, a northern Ur also being mentioned in tablets at
Ugarit,
Nuzi, and
Ebla. These possibly refer to Ur, Ura, and Urau (See
BAR January 2000, page 16). Moreover, the names of Abram's forefathers
Peleg,
Serug,
Nahor, and Terah, all appear as names of cities in the region of Haran (
Harper's Bible Dictionary, page 373). God called Abram to go to "the land I will show you", and promised to bless him and make him (though hitherto childless) a great nation. Trusting this promise, Abram journeyed down to
Shechem, and at the sacred tree (compare Gen. 25:4,
Joshua 24:26,
Judges 9:6) received a new promise that the land would be given unto his seed (descendant or descendants). Having built an
altar to commemorate the
theophany, he removed to a spot between
Bethel and
Ai, where he built another altar and called upon (i.e. invoked) the name of God (Gen. 12:1-9).
Here he dwelt for some time, until strife arose between his herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram thereupon proposed to Lot that they should separate, and allowed his nephew the first choice. Lot preferred the fertile land lying east of the
Jordan River, while Abram, after receiving another promise from Yahweh, moved down to the oaks of
Mamre in
Hebron and built an altar.
In the subsequent history of Lot and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18, Abraham pleads with God not to destroy
Sodom, and God agrees that he would not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people in it, or 45, or 30, 20, even 10 righteous people. (Abraham's nephew
Lot had been living in Sodom.)
Driven by a
famine to take refuge in
Egypt (26:11, 41:57, 42:1), Abram feared lest his wife's beauty should arouse the evil designs of the
Egyptians and thus endanger his own safety, and alleged that Sarai was his sister. This did not save her from the
Pharaoh, who took her into the royal
harem and enriched Abram with herds and servants. But when Yahweh "plagued Pharaoh and his house with great
plagues" Abram and Sarai left Egypt. There are two other parallel tales in Genesis of
a wife confused for a sister (Genesis 20-21 and 26) describing a similar event at Gerar with the
Philistine king Abimelech, though the latter attributing it to Isaac not Abraham.
As Sarai was infertile, God's promise that Abram's seed would inherit the land seemed incapable of fulfillment. His sole heir was his servant, who was over his household, a certain Eliezer of Damascus (15:2). Abraham is now promised as heir one of his own flesh. The passage recording the ratification of the promise is remarkably solemn (see
Genesis 15). Sarai, in accordance with custom, gave to Abram her Egyptian handmaid
Hagar, who, when she found she was with child, presumed upon her position to the extent that Sarai, unable to endure the reproach of barrenness (cf. the story of
Hannah,
1 Samuel 1:6), dealt harshly with her and forced her to flee (16:1-14). Hagar is promised that her descendants will be too numerous to count, and she returns. Her son
Ishmael thus was Abram's
firstborn, but was not the promised child, as God made his covenant with Abram after Ishmael's birth (chapter 16-17). Hagar and Ishmael were eventually driven permanently away from Abram by Sarah (chapter 21).
The name
Abraham was given to Abram (and the name
Sarah to Sarai) at the same time as the covenant of
circumcision (chapter 17), which is practiced in
Judaism and
Islam and by many
Christians to this day. At this time Abraham was promised not only many descendants, but descendants through Sarah specifically, as well as the land where he was living, which was to belong to his descendants. The covenant was to be fulfilled through
Isaac, though God promised that Ishmael would become a great nation as well. The covenant of circumcision (unlike the earlier promise) was two-sided and conditional: if Abraham and his descendants fulfilled their part of the covenant, Yahweh would be their God and give them the land.
The promise of a son to Abraham made Sarah "laugh," which became the name of the son of promise, Isaac. Sarah herself "laughs" at the idea, when Yahweh appears to Abraham at Mamre (18:1-15) and, when the child is born, cries "God hath made me laugh; every one that heareth will laugh at me" (21:6).
Some time after the birth of Isaac, Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son up as a sacrifice in the land of
Moriah. Proceeding to obey, he was prevented by an
angel as he was about to sacrifice his son, and slew a
ram which he found on the spot. As a reward for his obedience he received another promise of a numerous seed and abundant prosperity (22). Then he returned to
Beersheba. The
near sacrifice of Isaac is one of the most challenging, and perhaps
ethically troublesome, parts of the Bible. According to Josephus, Isaac is 25 years old at the time of the sacrifice or
Akedah, while the
Talmudic sages teach that Isaac is 37. In either case, Isaac is a fully grown man, old enough to prevent the elderly Abraham (who is 125 or 137 years old) from tying him up had he wanted to resist.
The primary interest of the narrative now turns to Isaac. To his "only son" (22:2, 12) Abraham gave all he had, and dismissed the sons of his concubines to the lands outside
Canaan; they were thus regarded as less intimately related to
Isaac and his descendants (25:1-6). See also:
Midianites,
Sheba.
Sarah died at an old age, and was buried in the
Cave of Machpelah near
Hebron, which Abraham had purchased, along with the adjoining field, from
Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23). Here Abraham himself was buried. Centuries later the tomb became a place of
pilgrimage and
Muslims later built an
Islamic
mosque inside the site.
Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish nation, as their first Patriarch, and having a son (Isaac), who in turn begat
Jacob, and from there the
Twelve Tribes. To father the nation, God "tested" Abraham with ten tests, the greatest being his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. God promised the land of Israel to his children, and that is the first claim of the Jews to Israel. Judaism ascribes a special trait to each Patriarch. Abraham's was kindness. Because of this, Judaism considers kindness to be an inherent Jewish trait.
According to the 1st Century Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews "Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: "Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abraham is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abraham." He is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism
Abraham stands out prominently as the recipient of the promises (Gen. 12:2-7, 13:14-17, 15, 17, 18:17-19, 22:17-18, 24:7). In the
New Testament Abraham is mentioned prominently as a man of
faith (see e.g.,
Hebrews 11), and the apostle
Paul uses him as an example of
salvation by faith (in e.g.
Galatians 3). Abraham also plays significantly in the theology of
Paul as the progenitor of the
Christ (or
Messiah) (see
Galatians 3:16).
Authors of the New Testament report that Jesus cited Abraham to support belief in the
resurrection of the dead. "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the
Book of Moses, in the
burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken." (
Mark 12:26-27) "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." (
Hebrews 11:17-19)
The traditional view in
Christianity is that the chief promise made to Abraham in
Genesis 12 is that through Abraham's seed, all the people of earth would be blessed. Notwithstanding this,
John the Baptist specifically taught that merely being of Abraham's seed was no guarantee of
salvation. The promise in Genesis is considered to have been fulfilled through Abraham's seed, Jesus. It is also a consequence of this promise that Christianity is open to people of all races and not limited to Jews.
The
Roman Catholic Church calls Abraham "our father in Faith," in the
Eucharistic prayer called the
Roman Canon, recited during the
Mass. (See
Abraham in Liturgy).
Christian tradition sees Abraham as a figure of God, and Abraham's attempt to offer up
Isaac is a foreshadowing of
God's offering of his Son,
Jesus (Gen. 22:1-14; Heb. 11:17-19). Just as Isaac carried wood for the sacrifice up the mountain and willingly submitted to being offered, so Jesus carried his
Cross up the hill and allowed himself to be
crucified.
Abraham (known as
Ibrahim in Arabic) is very important in
Islam, both in his own right as prophet and as the father of the prophet
Ismail (Ishmael), his firstborn son, who is considered the
Father of the Arabs. Abraham is considered one of the most important prophets of Islam, and is commonly termed
Khalil Ullah, Friend of God. (Islam regards most of the
Old Testament "patriarchs" as
prophets of God, and hence as Muslims.)
The
Book of Abraham has five chapters. Chapters 1 through 2 include previously lost details about Abraham's early life and his fight against the idolatry of his society and even of his own family. It recounts how pagan priests tried to sacrifice him to their god, but an angel appeared and rescued him. Chapter 2 includes important information about God's covenant with Abraham, and how it would be fulfilled. Chapters 3 through 5 are a vision in which God reveals much about astronomy, the creation of the world, and the creation of man. It agrees precisely with
Moses' account of the creation, except that it gives us even more detail.
In addition to the text, there are three facsimiles of vignettes from the papyrus. One depicts Abraham about to be sacrificed by a priest; the second is the hypocelaphus which contains important insights about the organization of the heavens. The final picture shows Abraham teaching in the Pharaoh's court.
Abraham, as a man communicating with God or the divine, has inspired some fairly extensive discussion in some
philosophers, such as
Søren Kierkegaard and
Jean-Paul Sartre. Kierkegaard goes into Abraham's plight in considerable detail in his work
Fear and Trembling. Sartre understands the story not in terms of Christian obedience or a "teleological suspension of the ethical", but in terms of mankind's utter behavioral and moral freedom. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Sartre doubts that Abraham can know that the voice he hears is really the voice of his God and not of someone else, or the product of a mental condition. Thus, Sartre concludes, even if there are signs in the world, humans are totally free to decide how to interpret them.
Biblical narratives represent Abraham as a wealthy, powerful and supremely virtuous man, but humanly flawed, and when afraid for himself, miscalculating, and a sometimes deceiver and an inconsiderate husband. But his central importance in the Book of Genesis, and his portrait as a man favored by God, is unequivocal. Abraham's generations (Hebrew:
toledoth, translated to Greek: "Genesis") are presented as part of the crowning explanation of how the world has been fashioned by the hand of God, and how the boundaries and relationships of peoples were established by him.
As the father of Isaac and Ishmael, Abraham is ultimately the common ancestor of the
Israelites and their neighbours. As the father of
Ishmael, whose twelve sons became desert princes (most prominently,
Nebaioth and
Kedar), along with
Midian,
Sheba and other
Arabian tribes (25:1-4), the Book of Genesis gives a portrait of Isaac's descendants as being surrounded by kindred peoples, who are also oft-times enemies. It seems that some degree of kinship was felt by the
Hebrews with the dwellers of the more distant south, and it is characteristic of the genealogies that the mothers (Sarah, the Egyptian Hagar, and
Keturah) are in the descending scale, perhaps of purity of blood, or as of purity of relationship, or of connectedness to Sarah: Sarah, her servant, her husband's other wife (or concubine). The Bible says of the Hebrew people: "Your father was a wandering Syrian".
As stated above, Abraham came from Ur in
Babylonia to Haran and thence to
Canaan. Late tradition supposed that the
migration was to escape Babylonian idolatry (
Judith 5,
Jubilees 12; cf.
Joshua 24:2), and knew of Abraham's miraculous escape from death (an obscure reference to some act of deliverance in
Isaiah 29:22). The route along the banks of the
Euphrates from south to north was so frequently taken by migrating tribes that the tradition has nothing improbable in itself. It was thence that
Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel, came, and the route to
Shechem and
Bethel is precisely the same in both. A twofold migration is doubted by some, but from what is known of the situation in
Canaan in the
15th century BC/BCE, not at all impossible.
Further, there is yet another parallel in the story of the conquest by Joshua, partly implied and partly actually detailed (cf. also Joshua 8:9 with Gen. 12:8, 13:3), whence it would appear that too much importance must not be laid upon any
ethnological interpretation which fails to account for the three versions. That similar traditional elements have influenced them is not unlikely; but to recover the true historical foundation is difficult. The invasion or immigration of certain tribes from the east of the
Jordan; the presence of
Aramean blood among the Israelites; the origin of the sanctity of venerable sites — these and other considerations may readily be found to account for the traditions.
Noteworthy coincidences in the lives of Abraham and Isaac, such as the strong parallels between two tales of
a wife confused for a sister, point to the fluctuating state of traditions in the oral stage, or suggest that Abraham's life has been built up by borrowing from the common stock of popular lore. More original is the parting of Lot and Abraham at Bethel. The district was the scene of contests between
Moab and the Hebrews (cf. perhaps
Judges 3), and if this explains part of the story, the physical configuration of the
Dead Sea may have led to the legend of the destruction of inhospitable and vicious cities.
Arab connection
All Arab historians, before and after Islam, agree that some Arabs are descendants of Ishmael. As for western historians, although they have no non-religious evidence for Abraham's connection to the Arabs, and the historicity of Biblical accounts is questioned by academics (see
The Bible and history), some believe that the area outlined as the final destination of Ishmael and his descendants (from Havilah to Assyria) refers to Northern
Arabia. The earliest known record of the connection of Abraham's son Ishmael to the Arabs is by the
Jewish historian
Josephus, who, approximately 2000 years after such events, asserted that Ishmael was the father of the "Arab nation" [
1]. One line in the
Book of Jubilees (20:13) also mentions the tradition.
This has led to the identification of Abraham as the father of the Arabs through Ishmael. In addition, Abraham's next wife,
Keturah, is said to have borne him a son named
Midian who became father of the
Midianites[
2]. The Midianites are also identified with the Arabs as they are said to have settled east of the
Jordan River[
3]. In recent times some Christian polemicists have insisted these claims are spurious and entirely made up by Muslims, although they existed long before Islam arrived. Some have claimed that all of Ishmael's descendants in fact died out; and that most Arabs are descended from Joktan.
For an exploration/examination of the historicity of Abrahamic stories in the Book of Genesis,
see Historicity of the Patriarchs.
Writers have regarded the life of Abraham in various ways. He has been viewed as a
chieftain of the
Amorites, as the head of a great
Semitic migration from
Mesopotamia; or, since Ur and Haran were seats of
Moon-worship, he has been identified with a moon-god. From the character of the literary evidence and the locale of the stories it has been held that Abraham was originally associated with Hebron. The double name Abram/Abraham has even suggested that two personages have been combined in the Biblical narrative; although this does not explain the change from Sarai to Sarah.
The interesting discovery of the name
Abi-ramu (Abram?) on Babylonian contracts of about 2000 BC/BCE does not prove the Abraham of the Old Testament to be an historical person, even as the fact that there were
Amorites in Babylonia at the same period does not make it certain that the 'patriarch' was one of their number (if he existed altogether).
One remarkable chapter associates Abraham with kings of
Elam and the east (
Genesis 14). No longer a peaceful sheikh but a warrior with a small army of 318 followers, he overthrows a combination of powerful monarchs who have ravaged the land. The genuineness of the narrative has been strenuously maintained, although upon insufficient grounds.On the assumption that a recollection of some invasion in remote days may have been current, considerable interest is attached to the names. Of these,
Amraphel, king of
Shinar (i.e., Babylonia,
Genesis 10:10), has been in the past identified with
Hammurabi, one of the greatest of the Babylonian kings (ca. 2000 BC/BCE), and since he claims to have ruled as far west as the
Mediterranean Sea, the equation has found considerable favour. Apart from chronological difficulties, the identification of the king and his country is far from certain, and at the most can only be regarded as possible.
Arioch, king of
Ellasar, has been connected with
Eriaku of Larsa — the reading has been questioned — a contemporary with Hammurabi.
Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, bears what is doubtless a genuine
Elamite name, Kudur-Lagamer. Finally, the name of
Tid'al, king of
Goiim, may be identical with a certain
Tudhulu, the son of Gazza, a warrior, but apparently not a king, who is mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, and has been connected by others with
Tudhaliya, a predynastic Hittite king. Goiim (the Hebrew for "gentiles" or "nations") may also stand for Gutim, the
Guti being a people who lived to the east of
Kurdistan. Nevertheless, there is as yet no considerable evidence for the genuineness of the story, and the most that can be said is that the author (of whatever date) has derived his names from a trustworthy source, and in representing an invasion of Canaan by Babylonian overlords, has given expression to a recurrent situation in ancient Middle Eastern history.If it is a historical romance (cf., e.g., the
Book of Judith), it is possible that a writer who lived in the
post-exilic age, and was acquainted with Babylonian history, decided to enhance the greatness of Abraham by exhibiting his military success against the monarchs of the
Tigris and
Euphrates, the high esteem he enjoyed in Canaan, and the practical character displayed in his brief exchange with
Melchizedek.The historical section of the article
Tithe deals more extensively with the historicity of the meeting with Melchizedek.
On the other hand, several scholars claim, on the basis of archaeological and philological evidence, that many stories in the Old Testament, including the accounts about Abraham,
Moses, and others, were actually made up by scribes under King
Josiah (
7th century BC/BCE) in order to provide a historical framework for the monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Such scholars claim that the archives of neighbouring countries that kept written records, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., show no trace of the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC/BCE.Such claims are detailed in "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by
William G. Dever, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003). Another similar book by
Neil A. Silberman and
Israel Finkelstein is "The Bible Unearthed," (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001).
*
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
*
Genesis* Rosenberg, David.
Abraham: The First Historical Biography. Basic Books/Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006. ISBN 0-465-07094-9.
*
Abrahamic religions*
Abraham's bosom*
Biblical criticism*
List of founders of major religions* The
Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham
*
The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
*
Early Wars of Israel Abraham's Wars & others
*
Abraham in all three Abrahamic faiths*
Abraham's sacrifice: an Islamic perspective *
GospelTruth -- God's promises to Abraham according to Christian belief
*
Biblical Archeology -- Bible-related article about Abraham
*
The Legacy of Abraham -- Time magazine cover story
*
Abraham's vision in the Qur'an*
Millat-e-Ibrahim: Prophet Abraham's Way by
ClearVision Pakistan*
Children of Abraham -- episode of the weekly
Minnesota Public Radio show
Speaking of Faith*
Abraham by Rob Bradshaw An extensive dictionary-style article.
*
A.R. Millard & D.J. Wiseman, eds., Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives. Leicester: IVP, 1980. Hbk. ISBN 0851117430.
