Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם, Standard Avraham Tiberian ʾAḇrāhām Ashkenazi Avrohom or Avruhom ; Arabic: ابراهيم, Ibrāhīm ; Ge'ez: አብርሃም, ʾAbrəham) is a man mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, beginning with the Book of Genesis, the first of the Five Books of Moses, as well as in the Qur'an. Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct (yet very well documented Oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Ibrahim ( إبراهيم, Ibrāhīm) or Ebrahim ( Ebrāhīm) is a Arabic name given after prophet Ibrahim אַבְרָהָם Ge'ez (ግዕዝ, ɡɨʕɨz also transliterated Gi'iz, and referred to as Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic Language The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran His life as narrated in Genesis 11-25 may reflect various traditions. Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions regard him as the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites and Edomite peoples. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The Patriarchs (also known as the Avot in Hebrew) according to the Judeo-Christian Old Testament are Abraham, his Son See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل In what is thus called Abrahamic religious tradition, Abraham is the forefather of these peoples.
His original name was Abram (Hebrew: אַבְרָם, Standard Avram Tiberian ʾAḇrām) meaning either "exalted father" or "my father is exalted" (compare Abiram). Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct (yet very well documented Oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was Ab means " Father " in most Semitic languages, sometimes extended to Abba or Aba. Abiram (he אֲבִירָם "my father is exalted" compare Abram) also spelled Abiron, is the name of two people in the Old Testament For the later part of his life, he was called Abraham (see retroactive nomenclature), often glossed as av hamon (goyim) "father of many (nations)" per Genesis 17:5, although it does not have any literal meaning in Hebrew. Retroactive Nomenclature is the telling of the earlier history of a person place or thing while referring to said person place or thing by a name that came into [1]
Abraham was the son of Terah and the grandson of Nahor. Terah or Térach ( was the father of Abraham mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Nahor (or Nacor ( Heb נָחֹור) is the name of two persons in Torah who were both descended from Arpachshad: The son of Abraham's brothers were named Nahor and Haran. For the village in Azerbaijan see Haran Azerbaijan. In the Bible, Haran is the name of a man and of a place [2]
According to Genesis, Abraham was brought by God from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. This is calculated to have occurred around 2000-1700 BCE. [3] There Abraham entered into a covenant: in exchange for sole recognition of YHWH as supreme universal deity and authority, Abraham will be blessed with innumerable progeny. A covenant, in its most general sense is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action See also Yahweh Tetragrammaton (from the Greek, meaning ' of four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are sometimes referred to as the "Abrahamic religions", because of the progenitor role Abraham plays in their holy books. In the Jewish tradition, he is called Avraham Avinu or "Abraham, our Father". God promised Abraham that through his offspring, all the nations of the world will come to be blessed (Genesis 12:3), interpreted in Christian tradition as a reference to Christ. The genealogy of Jesus through Joseph is given by two passages from the Gospels, Matthew and Luke. Jews, Christians, and Muslims consider him father of the people of Israel through his son Isaac (cf. See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Exodus 6:3, Exodus 32:13). For Muslims, he is a prophet of Islam and the ancestor of Muhammad through his other son Ishmael - born to him by his wife's handmaiden, Hagar. Muslims regard as Prophets of Islam ( Arabic: نبي) those non-divine humans chosen by Allah as Prophets An ancestor is a Parent or ( recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل A handmaiden (or handmaid) is a female attendant assistant servant, or slave. Abraham is also a progenitor of the Semitic tribes of the Negev who trace their descent from their common ancestor Sheba (Genesis 10:28). The Negev (נֶגֶב Tiberian vocalization: Néḡeḇ) is the Desert region of southern Israel. Sheba ( Hebrew: שבא, Sh'va, Arabic: سبأ Sabaʼ, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya: ሳባ Saba
Holy Bible
Origins and calling
Abraham was born in the Chaldean City of Ur, Mesopotamia, to Terah, his father. Ur Kaśdim or Ur of the Chaldees (אור כשדים is the town in the Hebrew Bible and related literature where Abraham ( origin Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Terah or Térach ( was the father of Abraham mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Josephus, Islamic tradition, and Jewish authorities like Maimonides all concur that Ur of the Chaldees was in Northern Mesopotamia — now southeastern Turkey (identified with Urartu, or claiming Abraham was born in Urfa), or the nearby Urkesh, which others identify with “Ur of the Chaldee. Josephus (AD 37 – c 100 also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph son of Matthias and after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus Moses Maimonides ( March 30 1135 – December 13 1204) also known as the Rambam, was a Rabbi, Physician, and Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Urartu ( Assyrian: Urarṭu Urartian: Biainili Ուրարտու was an Iron Age kingdom in Eastern Anatolia ( Transcaucasia) rising Şanlıurfa (often simply known as Urfa in daily language formerly cited as Edessa or in Kurdish; Riha or Urhāy Urkesh (or Urkish, modern Tell Mozan, Syria) was a city situated at the base of the Taurus Mountains in what is now northern Syria "
Abram migrated to Haran, apparently the classical Carrhae, which lay on the Balikh river, a branch of the Euphrates. For the village in Azerbaijan see Haran Azerbaijan. In the Bible, Haran is the name of a man and of a place The Balikh River (kurd Belih originates in Turkey between the Euphrates and Karaca dağ (mountain flows almost due south and empties in Syria into The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת Thence, after a short stay, he, his wife and half-sister Sarai, Lot (the son of Abram's brother Haran), and all their followers, departed for Canaan. Sarah (; Arabic: سارة, Sārah; "a woman of high rank" is the wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible According to the Bible and the Quran, Lot ( Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ |; "Hidden covered" was the Nephew For the village in Azerbaijan see Haran Azerbaijan. In the Bible, Haran is the name of a man and of a place Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. Moreover, the names of Abram's forefathers Peleg, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, all appear as names of cities in the region of Haran suggesting that these are eponymous ancestors of these communities. Peleg ( is one of the two sons of Eber, the ancestor of the Hebrews according to the so-called " Table of Nations " in Genesis Serug ( was the son of Reu and the father of Nahor, according to Genesis 1120-23 Nahor (or Nacor ( Heb נָחֹור) is the name of two persons in Torah who were both descended from Arpachshad: The son of God called Abram to go to "the land I will show you", and promised to bless him and man. In the Old Testament, when applied, to the patriarch, the name appears as 'Abhram, up to Genesis 17:5; thereafter always as 'Abraham. Two other persons are named 'Abhiram. The identity of this name with 'Abhram cannot be doubted in view of the variation between 'Abhiner and 'Abhner, 'Abhishalom and 'Abhshalom, etc. Abraham also appears in the list at Karnak of places conquered by Sheshonk I.
Etymology
'brm (no. 72) represents 'abram, with which Spiegelberg (Aegypt. Randglossen zum Altes Testament, 14) proposes to connect the preceding name (so that the whole would read "the field of Abram. ") Outside of Palestine this name (Abiramu) has come to light just where from the Biblical tradition we should expect to find it, namely, in Babylonia (e. g. in a contract of the reign of Apil-Sin, second predecessor of Hammurabi; also for the aunt (!) of Esarhaddon 680-669 BC). Ungnad has recently found it, among documents from Dilbat dating from the Hammurabi dynasty, in the forms A-ba-am-ra-ma, A-ba-am-ra-am, as well as A-ba-ra-ma.
Until this latest discovery of the apparently full, historical form of the Babylonian equivalent, the best that could be done with the etymology was to make the first constituent "father of" (construct -i rather than suffix -i), and the second constituent "Ram," a proper name or an abbreviation of a name. (Yet observe above its use in Assyria for a woman; compare ABISHAG; ABIGAIL). Some were inclined rather to concede that the second element was a mystery, like the second element in the majority of names beginning with 'abh and 'ach, "father" and "brother. " But the full cuneiform writing of the name, with the case-ending am, indicates that the noun "father" is in the accusative, governed by the verb which furnishes the second component, and that this verb therefore is prove him (though hitherto childless) a great nation. Trusting this promise, Abram journeyed down to Shechem, and at the sacred tree (compare Genesis 35:4, Joshua 24:26, Judges 9:6) received a new promise that the land would be given unto his seed (descendant or descendants). Shechem ( Sichem, Shkhem or Shachmu, Hebrew: שְׁכֶם / שְׁכָם, Standard Having built an altar to commemorate the theophany, he removed to a spot between Bethel and Ai, where he built another altar and then called upon (i. An altar is any structure upon which Sacrifices or other offerings are made for religious purposes or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place Theophany, from the Greek, theophaneia (meaning "appearance/showing of God" refers to the appearance of a Deity to a human or to a divine disclosure Bethel (בֵּית אֵל also written as Beth El or Beth-El, meaning "House of God" (in general or " House of (the specific god named El Ai (העי "heap of ruins" refers to one or two places in ancient Israel: A city mentioned along with Heshbon by Jeremiah 493 e. invoked) the name of God (Genesis 12:1-9.
Sarah and Pharaoh
- See also: Wife-sister narratives in Genesis
Driven by a famine to take refuge in Egypt (Genesis 26:11, Genesis 41:, Genesis 42:), fearing that his wife's beauty should arouse evil designs of the Egyptians and thus endanger his own safety, Abraham referred to Sarai as his sister, first to the Philistine king of Gerar and then to the unnamed Pharaoh of Egypt. A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any Faunal species which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional Malnutrition, Starvation This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The Philistines ( Hebrew פלשתים plishtim) (see "other uses" below were a people who inhabited the southern coast of Canaan, Gerar - meaning lodging-place - was a Philistine town and district in what is today south-central Israel. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods
One interpretation of the original Hebrew includes Abram's explanation that Sarai was literally his sister since she was his father's daughter, but not his mother's, i. e. , a half-sister. [4] However, the kinship pattern of the Semitic chiefs listed in Genesis followed an established protocol that involved betrothal to half-sisters, so Abram may not have lied when he said that Sarai was his sister. On the other hand, there has been ancient tablets recently recovered from the ancient city of Mari that may suggest otherwise. These ancient Semite legal records show that when a woman is married to a man, she is then formally adopted by his father as a full daughter as well[1]. Like Abram, many ancient Semites were Nomads and it was customary for the daughter-in-law to be officially adopted as a full daughter in case her husband is to die while she is traveling with his family. According to Genesis 12:5, Sarai left her family to set out for the land of Canaan, which puts her in this same position as suggested in the ancient tablets of Mari (an ancient Semite city of Abram's time). It is possible that Sarai may not have Abram's half-sister, but adopted sister by law. However,marriage to half sisters was common throughout the ancient middle east and inheritance in the nomadic Semitic tribes was matrilineal. This gave a powerful incentive to marry a half sister and thus retain property within the family.
In any case, this did not save her from the Pharaoh, who took her into the royal harem and enriched Abram with herds and servants. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods HAREM is the first evaluation contest of Named entity recognition (NER for Portuguese and its call for participation was announced in September 2004 But when Yahweh "plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues" Abram and Sarai left Egypt. For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links The Plagues of Egypt ( the Biblical Plagues or the Ten Plagues ( are the ten calamities imposed upon Egypt by God in the Bible There are two other parallel tales in Genesis of a wife confused for a sister (Genesis 20-21and 27) describing a similar event at Gerar with the Philistine king Abimelech, though the latter attributing it to Isaac not Abram. Gerar - meaning lodging-place - was a Philistine town and district in what is today south-central Israel. The Philistines ( Hebrew פלשתים plishtim) (see "other uses" below were a people who inhabited the southern coast of Canaan, Abimelech or Avimelech ( was a common name of the Philistine kings.
When Abram with Sarai and his nephew Lot left Egypt they returned to Ai. Here he dwelt for some time, until strife arose between his herdsmen and those of his nephew, Lot. Abram thereupon proposed to Lot that they should separate, and allowed Lot the first choice. Lot preferred the fertile land lying east of the Jordan River, while Abram moved down to the oaks of Mamre in Hebron. This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia Mamre, full Hebrew name Elonei Mamre ("Oaks of Mamre" is where Abraham built an altar ( Genesis 1318 Hebron ( al-Ḫalīl or al-Khalīl, Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south After receiving reaffirmation and clarification of the promise from Yahweh, he built an altar there.
Chedorlaomer and Melchisedek
Some years after this, Lot was taken prisoner by Chedorlaomer and his allies, then warring against the kings of Sodom, and the neighboring places. Chedorlaomer ( Hebrew:; Tiberian vocalization: Kəḏorlāʻōmer LXX: Khodollogomór) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Abram with his household pursued the conquerors, overtook and defeated them at Dan, near the springs of Jordan and retook the spoil, together with Lot.
At his return, passing near Salem (supposed to be the city afterwards called Jerusalem), Melchisedek, king of that city, and priest of the Most High God, came out and blessed him, and presented him with bread and wine for his own refreshment and that of his army; or as some have thought, offered bread and wine to God, as a sacrifice of thanksgiving on Abram's behalf. Melchizedek is an enigmatic figure twice mentioned in the Hebrew Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament.
Ishmael
After this, the Lord renewed his promises to Abram, with fresh assurances that his descendants would possess the land of Canaan and that his posterity should be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Hagar (הָגָר "Stranger" Standard Hebrew Hagar, Tiberian Hebrew Hāḡār; هاجر Hajar) according to the
As Sarai continued to be infertile, God's promise that Abram's seed would inherit the land seemed incapable of fulfillment. His sole heir was his servant, a certain Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2). Abram was promised one of his own flesh as heir.
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 as his wife (Genesis 16:3). Hagar (הָגָר "Stranger" Standard Hebrew Hagar, Tiberian Hebrew Hāḡār; هاجر Hajar) according to the But, Sarai seeing Hagar with child, was unable to endure the reproach of barrenness (cf. the story of Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:6), and dealt harshly with her and forced her to flee (Genesis 16:1-14). Hannah ( חנה, also occasionally transliterated as Chana) was a wife of Elkanah mentioned in the Books of Samuel. The Books of Samuel ( Hebrew: Sefer Sh'muel ספר שמואל are part of the Tanakh (part of Judaism 's Hebrew Bible) and also of God heard Hagar's sorrow and promised her that her descendants will be too numerous to count, and she returned.
Her son, Ishmael, Abram's firstborn, was born when Abram was 86 years of age (Genesis 16:15-16). Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Hagar and Ishmael were eventually driven permanently away from Abram by Sarai (Genesis 21:).
Covenant
God made his covenant with Abram thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, when Abram was 99 years old (Genesis 17:1-5). According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Abram's name was changed to Abraham and Sarai's to Sarah. Sarah (; Arabic: سارة, Sārah; "a woman of high rank" is the wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible The covenant was sealed by Abraham's circumcision (Genesis 17:11-14) and the first commandment relating to circumcision. Male circumcision is the removal of some or all of the Foreskin (prepuce from the Penis. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently subjected to vandalism and the insertion of personal opinions Ishmael was also circumcised on that day, at the age of 13, as were the other men of Abraham's household.
The Lord said to Abraham “ go from the country and your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. ” And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. 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. According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq 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, give them the land, and make a great nation and kings out of Abraham's line.
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 because of her age, when Yahweh (God) appears to Abraham at Mamre (Genesis 18:1-15, ) and, when the child is born, cries "Yahweh has made me into laughter; every one that hears will laugh at me" (Genesis 21:6).
Sodom and Gomorrah
The enormous sins of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities, being now filled up, three angels were sent to inflict upon them the divine vengeance. According to the Bible and the Quran, Lot ( Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ |; "Hidden covered" was the Nephew After visiting Abraham, they were ready to depart and Abraham accompanied them towards Sodom, whither two of them (who proved to be divine messengers) continued their journey. The third remained with Abraham, and informed him of the approaching destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham interceded, praying that if fifty righteous persons were found therein, the city should be spared; he reduced the numbers gradually to ten; but this number could not be found (or God, in answer to his prayers, would have averted his design). Lot, his wife, and their 2 daughters were preserved from the disaster, either because they were the only righteous, or because of Abraham's intercession on their behalf. His wife was turned to salt on their escape from the destruction when she disobeyed God's command not to look back at the destruction.
Sarah and Abimelech
After Sarah conceived, according to the divine promise, she and Abraham left the plain of Mamre and went south, to Gerar, where Abimelech reigned. Abimelech or Avimelech ( was a common name of the Philistine kings. Gerar - meaning lodging-place - was a Philistine town and district in what is today south-central Israel. Fearing that Sarah might be forced from him, and himself put to death, Abraham again called Sarah 'sister,' just as he had done in Egypt.
Abimelech took her to his house, with intentions to marry her. According to scripture, God informed Abimelech, through a dream, that Sarah was Abraham's wife. Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham with great presents.
Beersheba
About the same time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his general, to conclude an alliance with Abraham, who made that prince a present of seven ewe-lambs out of his flock, in consideration that a well that he had opened should be his own property; and they called the place Beer-sheba or "the well of swearing". Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern
Here Abraham resided some time.
Binding of Isaac
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. The Binding of Isaac, in Genesis, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Moriah ( Hebrew: מוריה Mōriyyā = "ordained/considered by YHWH " is the name given to a mountain range by the book of Genesis The patriarch traveled three days until he came to the mount that God taught him. He commanded the servant to remain while he and Isaac proceeded alone to the mountain, Isaac carrying the wood upon which he would be sacrificed. Along the way, Isaac repeatedly asked Abraham where the animal for the burnt offering was. Abraham then replied that God would provide one. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was prevented by an angel, and given on that spot a ram which he sacrificed in place of his son. An angel is a Spiritual Supernatural being found in many Religions Although the nature of angels and the tasks given to them vary from tradition to tradition Thus it is said, "On the mountain the Lord provides. " (Genesis 22) As a reward for his obedience he received another promise of a numerous seed and abundant prosperity (22). After this event, Abraham did not return to Hebron, Sarah's encampment, but instead went to Beersheba, Keturah's encampment, and it is to Beersheba that Abraham's servant brought Rebecca, Isaac's patrilineal parallel cousin who became his wife. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern This article is about the biblical matriarch For other uses of the word Rebecca see Rebecca (disambiguation Rebecca (also Rebekah also
The near sacrifice of Isaac is one of the most challenging, and perhaps ethically troublesome, parts of the Bible. The Binding of Isaac, in Genesis, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life According to Josephus, Isaac was 25 years old at the time of the sacrifice or Akedah, while the Talmudic sages teach that Isaac was 37. The Talmud ( Hebrew: he תַּלְמוּד is a record of Rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history In either case, Isaac was a fully grown man, old enough to prevent the elderly Abraham (who was 125 or 137 years old) from tying him up had he wanted to resist. The narrative now turns to Isaac. To his "only son" (22:2, 12) Abraham gave all he had, and dismissed his other sons, as Abraham himself had been dismissed by Terah after Terah had given his territory to Nahor.
In Christian theology this event is sometimes interpreted as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion of Jesus, where Abraham is represented as God, and Isaac as Jesus Christ. According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Key elements from the stories given as symbols of this foreshadowing include: Both of their births were believed to be miraculous (Isaac to a woman who was far too old to have children, Jesus to a woman believed to be a virgin). According to scripture Abraham was told by God that he would be the father of many nations, and in the Christian faith God is the seen as the father of all people. In both stories Jesus and Isaac had the wood laid upon their backs and were forced to carry it up to the hills where they were to be sacrificed. Although according to scripture Abraham had fathered a son previously, namely Ishmael with Hagar, Isaac was the only son of Abraham through Sarah, as Jesus was the "only begotten son" of God (see John 3:16)(Isaac is also referred to as "his [Abraham's] only begotten son" in Hebrews 11:17). Sarah (; Arabic: سارة, Sārah; "a woman of high rank" is the wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible They both made their way up hills to be sacrificed (Isaac up Moriah, and Jesus to Golgotha, which may be located on the same hill, but with Golgotha on the North end). "Golgotha" redirects here For other uses see Golgotha (disambiguation. The exact location referred to is currently a matter of some debate. They both were laid on the wood alive, and it was allegedly voluntary on both their parts (this theory would explain why Isaac, possibly a full grown man at the time would not have resisted when his father tied him down). The difference in the stories comes when Abraham was stopped from sacrificing his son, and God provided an alternative to Isaac. For Jesus, there was no "ram caught in the thicket" (Gen. 22:13) and the "sacrifice" was carried out to completion.
Death of Sarah
Sarah died at an old age at about 127, and was buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs near Hebron, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite, along with the adjoining field (Genesis 23). The Cave of the Patriarchs ( Hebrew: מערת המכפלה Me'arat HaMachpela, Trans Hebron ( al-Ḫalīl or al-Khalīl, Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south Here Abraham himself was buried so they could be with each other forever. Centuries later the tomb became a place of pilgrimage and Muslims later built an Islamic mosque inside the site. In Religion and Spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or Search of great Moral significance A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. A "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller privately owned mosque and the larger
A wife for Isaac
Abraham, being reminded by this occurrence, probably, of his own great age, and the consequent uncertainty of his life, became solicitous to secure an alliance between Isaac and a female branch of his own family.
Eliezer his steward was therefore sent into Mesopotamia, to fetch from the country and kindred of Abraham a wife for his son Isaac. For the mathematician and Tamil activist see CJ Eliezer; also look at Eleazar Eliezer ( Hebrew: אֱלִיעֶזֶר Eliezer went on his commission with prudence, and returned with Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel, granddaughter of Nahor, and, consequently, Abraham's niece. For the mathematician and Tamil activist see CJ Eliezer; also look at Eleazar Eliezer ( Hebrew: אֱלִיעֶזֶר Bethuel (בתואל &ndash Hebrew for “house of God ” in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man the youngest son of Nahor and Nahor (or Nacor ( Heb נָחֹור) is the name of two persons in Torah who were both descended from Arpachshad: The son of
Other children of Abraham
Abraham lived a long time after these events. After the death of Sarah, who died when he was 137 years of age[5], and while in bad health (Gen 24:1), he took another wife, a concubine named Keturah and she bore Abraham six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. According to the Hebrew Bible, Keturah or Ketura ( was the woman whom Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites, married after the According to the Hebrew Bible, Zimran ( also known as Zambran. Jokshan ("an offense" "hardness" or "a knocking" most probably Josephus' Jazar. Medan (Hebrew "contention to twist conflict" also spelt Madan was the third son of Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites, and Ishbak (Hebrew ish'băk "he will leave leaving" also spelt Jisbak and Josabak. Shuah ( Hebrew: "ditch swimming humiliation" also known as Sous, was the sixth son of Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites (Genesis 25:1-6)
Abraham's Death
He died at the age of 175 years. [6] Jewish legend says that he was meant to live to 180 years, but God purposely took his life because he felt that Abraham did not need to go through the pain of seeing Esau's wicked deeds. Esau (ˈisɔ ( Hebrew, Standard Hebrew Esav, Tiberian Hebrew ʿĒśāw) is the brother of Jacob (whom God renamed
He was buried by his sons Isaac (aged about 76 years) and Ishmael (aged about 89 years), in the Cave of the Patriarchs, where he had deposited the remains of his beloved Sarah. The Cave of the Patriarchs ( Hebrew: מערת המכפלה Me'arat HaMachpela, Trans
| Sons of Abraham by wife in order of birth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hagar | Ishmael (1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sarah | Isaac (2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Keturah | Zimran | Jokshan | Medan | Midian | Ishbak | Shuah | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Significance
Biblical narratives represent Abraham as a wealthy, powerful and supremely virtuous man, but humanly flawed, and when afraid for himself, miscalculating, and a sometimes deceiving and an inconsiderate husband. Hagar (הָגָר "Stranger" Standard Hebrew Hagar, Tiberian Hebrew Hāḡār; هاجر Hajar) according to the Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Sarah (; Arabic: سارة, Sārah; "a woman of high rank" is the wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq According to the Hebrew Bible, Keturah or Ketura ( was the woman whom Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites, married after the According to the Hebrew Bible, Zimran ( also known as Zambran. Jokshan ("an offense" "hardness" or "a knocking" most probably Josephus' Jazar. Medan (Hebrew "contention to twist conflict" also spelt Madan was the third son of Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites, and Ishbak (Hebrew ish'băk "he will leave leaving" also spelt Jisbak and Josabak. Shuah ( Hebrew: "ditch swimming humiliation" also known as Sous, was the sixth son of Abraham, the Patriarch of the Israelites 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, how the boundaries and relationships of peoples were established by Him, and how the Kingdom of God would be established through Abraham.
As the father of Isaac , Abraham is ultimately the common ancestor of the Israelites. See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. 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 more often enemies. Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Nebaioth ( Heb Sheba ( Hebrew: שבא, Sh'va, Arabic: سبأ Sabaʼ, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya: ሳባ Saba The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding This is because the clans practiced intermarriage. 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. The Bible says of the Hebrew people: "Your father was a wandering Syrian". Yet to Abraham's face the Hittites said, "You are a great chief among us. The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. " (Genesis 23:4 and 5)
As stated above, Abraham came from Ur in Chaldea to Haran and thence to Canaan. Chaldea (from Greek grc Χαλδαία Chaldaia; Akkadian akk māt Kaldu Hebrew כשדים Kaśdim, "the Chaldees" of the Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. Late tradition supposed that this was to escape Babylonian idolatry (Judith 5, Jubilees 12; cf. Jubilee The Book of Jubilees (ספר היובלים sometimes called the Lesser Genesis ( Leptogenesis) is an ancient Jewish religious work considered 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 Book of Joshua ( Hebrew: Sefer Y'hoshua ספר יהושע is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Isaiah (; Greek:, Ēsaiās; Arabic: اشعیاء, Ash-ee-yaa; "Salvation of/is YHWH " is 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. The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת 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. Jacob ( Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב, Standard Yaʿaqov Tiberian Yaʿăqōḇ; Shechem ( Sichem, Shkhem or Shachmu, Hebrew: שְׁכֶם / שְׁכָם, Standard Bethel (בֵּית אֵל also written as Beth El or Beth-El, meaning "House of God" (in general or " House of (the specific god named El
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. Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit custom convention" is the branch of Anthropology that compares and 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. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The Aramaeans (also Arameans) ( Aramaic / Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ, Ārāmāye' were a Semitic (West Semitic language group
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. Moab (; Greek Μωάβ; Arabic مؤاب, Assyrian Mu'aba, Ma'ba, Ma'ab; Egyptian 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. A judge, or justice, is an Official who presides over a Court of law The Dead Sea (יָם הַמֶּלַח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between
Christianity
Old Testament
New Testament
In the New Testament Abraham is mentioned prominently as a man of faith (see e. Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in g. , Hebrews 11), and the apostle Paul uses him as an example of salvation by faith, as the progenitor of the Christ (or Messiah) (see Galatians 3:16). The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and In Theology, salvation can mean three related things being saved from or Liberation from something such as Suffering or the punishment of Christ is the English term for the Greek ( Khristós) meaning "the anointed " This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion notably in the Christian Islamic and Jewish traditions The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of
Authors of the New Testament report that Jesus cited Abraham to support belief in the resurrection of the dead. This article concerns itself with Jesus Christ Christian, Islamic and other religious interpretations of resurrection in general "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. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to The burning bush is an object described by the Book of Exodus as being located on Mount Horeb; according to the narrative the bush was on fire but was not consumed You are therefore greatly mistaken" (Mark 12:26-27). Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin The New Testament also sees Abraham as an obedient man of God, and Abraham's interrupted attempt to offer up Isaac is seen as the supreme act of perfect faith in God. According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq "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 imagery of a father sacrificing his son is seen as a type of God the Father offering his Son on Calvary. In many religions the supreme Deity ( God) is given the title and attributions of Father. Son of God is a phrase found in the Hebrew Bible, various other Jewish texts and the New Testament. "Golgotha" redirects here For other uses see Golgotha (disambiguation.
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. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Notwithstanding this, John the Baptist specifically taught that merely being of Abraham's seed was no guarantee of salvation. Saint John the Baptist ( heb. Jochanan ben Sacharja, arab. يحيى Yaḥyā or يوحنا Yūḥanna, aram. In Theology, salvation can mean three related things being saved from or Liberation from something such as Suffering or the punishment of 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.
Liturgical commemoration
The Roman Catholic Church calls Abraham "our father in Faith," in the Eucharistic prayer of the Roman Canon, recited during the Mass (see Abraham in the Catholic liturgy). The Anaphora is the most solemn part of the Divine liturgy, Mass, or other Christian Communion rite where the offerings of bread and wine are consecrated Before the 1970 revision of the Roman Missal, the Mass had in the Roman Rite, only one Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer which was referred to as the Canon The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. Abraham figures prominently in Catholic liturgy Of all the names of the Old Testament used in the liturgies of the of the Roman Rite, a special prominence He is also commemorated in the calendars of saints of several denominations: on August 20 by the Maronite Church, August 28 in the Coptic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, with the full office for the latter, and on October 9 by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The Calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a Liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more Saints Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Maronites ( الموارنة,, Syriac: ܡܪܘܢܝܐ, Latin: Ecclesia Maronitarum) are members of one of the Syriac Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital History of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Apostolic foundation Egypt is identified in the Bible as the place of refuge that the The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East (ܥܕܬܐ ܩܕܝܫܬܐ ܘܫܠܝܚܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ܕܐܬܘܪ̈ܝܐ ‘Ittā Qaddishtā wa-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi Canonical hours are divisions of time developed by the Christian Church, serving as increments between the prescribed Prayers of the daily round Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS founded in 1847 in Missouri, is the eighth largest Protestant denomination in the United States and the second-largest He is also regarded as the patron saint of those in the hospitality industry. The patron saint of a particular group of people is a Saint who would protect and 'love' the group and its members Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a Guest and a host and it also refers to the act or practice of being hospitable that is the reception and entertainment [7]
The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him as the "Rigteous Forefather Abraham", with two feast days in its liturgical calendar. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world The Calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a Liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more Saints The first time is on October 9 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, October 9 falls on October 22 of the modern Gregorian Calendar), where he is commemorated together with his nephew "Righteous Lot". Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today According to the Bible and the Quran, Lot ( Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ |; "Hidden covered" was the Nephew The other on the "Sunday of the Forefathers" (two Sundays before Christmas), where he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus. The genealogy of Jesus through Joseph is given by two passages from the Gospels, Matthew and Luke. Abraham is also mentioned in the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, just before the Anaphora. The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (c 330 – January 1, 379) (Άγιος Βασίλειος ο Μέγας Latin In Rhetoric, an anaphora (ἀναφορά "carrying back" is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses Abraham and Sarah are invoked in the prayers said by the priest over a newly married couple at the Sacred Mystery of Crowning (i. A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites in particular rites of sacrifice to and propitiation of a deity or deities The term sacred mysteries generally denotes the area of Supernatural phenomena associated with a Divinity or a religious ideology. Throughout history Christians have regarded Marriage as ordained by God for the lifelong union of a Man e. , the Sacrament of Marriage).
Islam
Abraham, known as Ibrahim in Arabic, is very important in Islam, both in his own right as a prophet as well as being the father of Ishmael and Isaac. Ibrahim ( إبراهيم, Ibrāhīm) or Ebrahim ( Ebrāhīm) is a Arabic name given after prophet Ibrahim אַבְרָהָם For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Ishmael, his firstborn son, is considered the Father of the Arabised Arabs, and Isaac is considered the Father of the Hebrews. Islam teaches that Ishmael was the son Abraham nearly sacrificed on Moriah. To support this view Muslims use various proofs, including the belief that at the time Ishmael was his only son. Abraham is revered by Muslims as one of the Prophets in Islam, and is commonly termed Khalil Ullah, "Friend of God". Muslims regard as Prophets of Islam ( Arabic: نبي) those non-divine humans chosen by Allah as Prophets Abraham is considered a Hanif, that is, a discoverer of monotheism. (Arabic ar حنيف plural حنفاء is an Arabic term that refers to pre- Islamic non- Jewish or non-Christian Arabian Monotheists For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]]
Abraham is mentioned in many passages in 25 Qur'anic suras (chapters). The number of repetitions of his name in the Qur'an is second only to Moses. Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ [8]
Abraham's footprint is displayed outside the Kaaba, which is on a stone, protected and guarded by Mutawa (Religious Police). The annual Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, follows Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael's journey to the sacred place of the Kaaba. The Hajj (حج is a pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world The Five Pillars of Islam (Arabic أركان الإسلام is the term given to the five duties incumbent on every Muslim. Hagar (הָגָר "Stranger" Standard Hebrew Hagar, Tiberian Hebrew Hāḡār; هاجر Hajar) according to the Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Islamic tradition narrates that Abraham's subsequent visits to the Northern Arabian region, after leaving Ishmael and Hagar (in the area that would later become the Islamic holy city of Mecca), were not only to visit Ishmael but also to construct the first house of worship for God (that is, the monotheistic concept and model of God), the Kaaba -as per God's command. Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل Mecca ˈmɛkə also spelled Makkah ˈmækə (in full Makkah Al-Mukarramah (Arabic mækːæ(t ælmʊkarˑamæ مكّة المكرمة, literally Honored Ishmael ( Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Standard Yišmaʿel Tiberian Yišmāʿêl Arabic: إسماعيل God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. The Kaaba ( Arabic: ar الكعبة; 'kɑʕbɑ or 'kæʕbæ "Cube" is a Cuboidal building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the [9] The Eid ul-Adha ceremony is focused on Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his promised son on God's command. Eid al-Adha ( Arabic: عيد الأضحى ‘Īd ul-’Aḍḥā, Urdu: بقرعید or the Festival of Sacrifice is a religious festival celebrated In turn, God spared his son's life and instead substituted a sheep. This was Abraham's test of faith. On Eid ul-Adha, Muslims sacrifice a domestic animal — a sheep, goat, cow, buffalo or camel — as a symbol of Abraham's sacrifice, and divide the meat among the family members, friends, relatives, and most importantly, the poor.
Arab connection
A line in the Book of Jubilees (20:13) mentions that the descendants of Abraham's son by Hagar, Ishmael, as well as his descendants by Keturah, became the "Arabians" or "Arabs". Jubilee The Book of Jubilees (ספר היובלים sometimes called the Lesser Genesis ( Leptogenesis) is an ancient Jewish religious work considered The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus similarly described the descendants of Ishmael (i. Josephus (AD 37 – c 100 also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph son of Matthias and after he became a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus e. the Ishmaelites) as an "Arabian" people. [10] He also calls Ishmael the "founder" (κτίστης) of the "Arabians". [11] Some Biblical scholars also believe that the area outlined in Genesis as the final destination of Ishmael and his descendants ("from Havilah to Assyria") refers to the Arabian peninsula. This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document Havilah is a land mentioned in the Bible first described in Genesis 211 in relation to the Garden of Eden: "The name of the first is the Pishon Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) This has led to a commonplace view that modern Semitic-speaking Arabs are descended from Abraham via Ishmael, in addition to various other tribes who intermixed with the Ishmaelites, such as Joktan, Sheba, Dedan, Broham, etc. Joktan or Yoktan ( was the second of the two sons of Eber (Gen Sheba ( Hebrew: שבא, Sh'va, Arabic: سبأ Sabaʼ, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya: ሳባ Saba The word Dedan means "low ground" In the Bible, it can refer to either A son of Raamah ( Genesis 107 Both Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions speak of earlier inhabitants of Arabia.
Classical Arab historians traced the true Arabs (i. The proper name Arab or "Arabian" (and cognates in other languages has been used to translate several different but similar sounding words in ancient and classical e. , the original Arabs from Yemen) to Qahtan and the Arabicised Arabs (people from the region of Mecca, who assimilated into the Arabs) to Adnan, said to be an ancestor of Muhammad, and have further equated Ishmael with A'raq Al-Thara, said to be ancestor of Adnan. Yemen ( Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman officially the Republic of Yemen ( Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya Qahtani (قحطان transliterated: Qahtan refers to al Aribah' or the Semites who inhabited Yemen. Mecca ˈmɛkə also spelled Makkah ˈmækə (in full Makkah Al-Mukarramah (Arabic mækːæ(t ælmʊkarˑamæ مكّة المكرمة, literally Honored IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics Umm Salama, one of Muhammad's wives, wrote that this was done using the following hermeneutical reasoning: Thara means moist earth, Abraham was not consumed by hell-fire, fire does not consume moist earth, thus A'raq al-Thara must be Ishmael son of Abraham. Hind bint Abi Umayya (هند بنت أبي أمية (c 580 - 680 was a wife of Muhammad, and therefore a Mother of the Believers. Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of Theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts [12]
According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Book of Abraham is a scriptural text for some denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement (also know as Mormons). The Book of Abraham is a scriptural text for Latter Day Saint movement denominations TalkMormon#Latter Day Saint vs Latter-day Saint --> Mormon Abraham's sojourn in Egypt is given very differently in the Latter-day Saint Abraham 1 - 2. [13] than in in Genesis 12. Abraham is credited for restoring praise and worship of the One true God (Elohim, Jehovah, and the Holy Ghost) and restoring the lost ordinances of circumcision and Temple covenants. Elohim ( אֱלוֹהִים, אלהים) is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of Divinity. Yahweh|God in Abrahamic religions Jehovah is an English reading of, the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton, the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, in In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance
In July 1835, Michael Chandler brought a traveling exhibition of four Egyptian mummies and papyri contained Egyptian hieroglyphics to Ohio, then home of the Latter-Day Saints. Chandler asked Joseph Smith Jr. to look at the scrolls, due to Smith's notoriety and claims to translate the golden plates of the Book of Mormon. These Joseph Smith and two other LDS purchased for $2400. Smith declared two of the scrolls contained original writings of Abraham and Joseph. From this results the The Book of Abraham. The Book of Abraham is a scriptural text for Latter Day Saint movement denominations This translation became a book dealing with Abraham's journeys in Egypt, containing many distinctive Mormon doctrines. Considerable controversy surrounds the surviving papyri claimed as the source for the translation of the Book of Abraham.
While the Book of Abraham scrolls were reported to be longer than the Bible,[14] only a small portion was published by Latter-day Saint Founder Joseph Smith. This portion, published serially in 1842,[15] is now found in the Pearl of Great Price. The Pearl of Great Price is part of the standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church see also Mormonism) and some Chapters 1 and 2 include details about Abraham’s early life and his fight against the idolatry of Egypt (under rule of Pharaoh) and even of his own family. [16] It recounts how pagan priests of Pharaoh tried to sacrifice him, but an angel appeared and rescued him. Chapter 2 includes information about God’s covenant with Abraham, and how it would be fulfilled.
In addition to the text, there are three facsimiles of vignettes from the papyrus. The first and most disputed facsimile depicts Abraham about to be sacrificed by a priest; the second is the hypocephalus which contains important insights about the organization of the heavens (Cosmos) for order of the Temple ordinances and covenants to be officiated through the Priesthood Keys of Heaven. The Book of Abraham is a scriptural text for Latter Day Saint movement denominations A hypocephalus is a small disk-shaped object generally made of stuccoed Linen, but also of Papyrus, Bronze, Gold, Wood, or Clay The final picture shows Abraham teaching in the Pharaoh’s court. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods
"Abraham is always regarded in the Old Testament as founder of the covenant race, which is personified in the house of Israel. He is the “father of the faithful. ” Latter-day revelation has "clarified" the significance of the Abrahamic covenant and other aspects of Abraham’s life and ministry. He was greatly blessed with divine revelation concerning the planetary system, the creation of the earth, and the pre-birth activities of the spirits of people. One of the most valiant spirits in the pre-birth or "premortal" life, he was chosen to be a leader in the kingdom of God before he was born into this world (Abr. 1 - 5) and that he is now exalted and sits upon a throne in eternity (D&C 132:29, 37). "[17]
In philosophy
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. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French Kierkegaard goes into Abraham's plight in considerable detail in his work Fear and Trembling. Fear and Trembling (original Danish title Frygt og Bæven) is an influential philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 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.
Textual criticism
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. A traditional tribal chief is the leader of a Tribe, or the head of a tribal form of self-government Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding 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 on Babylonian contracts of about 2000 BC 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. Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî A fairly lucid treatment of the subject is given by Michael Astour in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (s. v. "Amraphel", "Arioch" and "Chedorlaomer"), who explains the story of Genesis 14 as a product of anti-Babylonian propaganda during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews:
"After Böhl's widely accepted, but wrong, identification of mTu-ud-hul-a with one of the Hittite kings named Tudhaliyas, Tadmor found the correct solution by equating him with the Assyrian king Sennacherib (see Tidal). The Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile, is the name typically given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Tudhaliya is the name of several Hittite kings Tudhaliya (also Tudhaliya I is a hypothetic pre-Empire king of the Hittites. Astour (1966) identified the remaining two kings of the Chedorlaomer texts with Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria (see Arioch) and with the Chaldean Merodach-baladan (see Amraphel). Arioch is a Hebrew name that means "fierce lion" It originally appears in the Book of Genesis chap In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Amraphel was a king of Shinar (Babylonia broadly speaking in Genesis xiv The common denominator between these four rulers is that each of them, independently, occupied Babylon, oppressed it to a greater or lesser degree, and took away its sacred divine images, including the statue of its chief god Marduk; furthermore, all of them came to a tragic end.
3. Relationship to Genesis 14. All attempts to reconstruct the link between the Chedorlaomer texts and Genesis 14 remain speculative. However, the available evidence seems consistent with the following hypothesis: A Jew in Babylon, versed in Akkadian language and cuneiform script, found in an early version of the Chedorlaomer texts certain things consistent with his anti-Babylonian feelings. " (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, s. v. "Chedorlaomer")
Another scholar, criticizing Kitchen's maximalist viewpoint, considers a relationship between the tablet and Gen. speculative, also identifies but identifies Tudhula as a veiled reference to Sennacherib of Assyria, and Chedorlaomer, i. e. Kudur-Nahhunte, as "a recollection of a 12th century BC king of Elam who briefly ruled Babylon. " ("Finding Historical Memories in the Patriarchal Narratives" by Ronald Hindel, BAR, Jul/Aug 1995)
The Anchor Bible Dictionary suggests that the biblical account was in all probability derived from a text very closely related to the Chedorlaomer Tablets, and this in a publication which can be said to do at least a reasonably good job of getting good scholarship. The Chedorlaomer Tablets are thought to be from the 6th or 7th century BC, well after the time of Hammurabi, at roughly the time when Gen. Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi through Deu. are thought to have come into their present form (e. g. see the Documentary Hypothesis). While Astour's identifications of the figures these tablets refer to is certainly open to question, he does cautiously support a link between them and Gen. 14:1. Hammurabi is never known to have campaigned near the Dead Sea at all, although his son had. Writes Astour, "This identification, once widely accepted, was later virtually abandoned, mainly because Hammurabi was never active in the West. " The Chedorlaomer Tablets, then, appear to still be the closest archaeological parallel to the kings of the Eastern coalition mentioned in Gen. 14:1. The only problem is, that in all probability, they refer to kings that were from widely separated times, having conquered Babylon in different eras. Linguistically, it seems, there is little reason to reject the identification of Hammurabi with Amraphel, but the narrative does not make sense in light of modern archeology when it is made. A number of scholars also say that the connection does not make sense on chronological grounds, since it would place Abram later than the traditional date, but on this, see the section on chronology below.
If Gen. ch. 14 is a historical romance (cf. , e. g. , the Book of Judith), it is possible that a writer who lived in an exilic or post-exilic age (i. e. during or after the Babylonian Captivity), and who was acquainted with Babylonian history, decided to enhance the greatness of Abraham by claiming 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 Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile, is the name typically given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת Melchizedek is an enigmatic figure twice mentioned in the Hebrew Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament. The historical section of the article Tithe deals more extensively with the historicity of the meeting with Melchizedek. A tithe (from Old English teogoþa "tenth" is a one-tenth part of something paid as a (usually voluntary contribution or as a Tax or levy
Many scholars claim, on the basis of archaeological and philological evidence, that many stories in the Pentateuch, including the accounts about Abraham and Moses, were written under King Josiah (7th century BC) or King Hezekiah (8th century BC) in order to provide a historical framework for the monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ Josiah or Yoshiyahu ( was king of Judah, and son of Amon and Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. Hezekiah (or Ezekias) ( Hebrew: Ḥizqiyyāhu Khizkiyahu or Yəḥizqiyyāhu Y'khizkiyahu " the {{LORD}} has strengthened" compare Some scholars point out that the archives of neighboring countries with written records that survive, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc. , show no trace of the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by William G. Dever (William B. William G Dever is an American Archaeologist, specialising in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times who was Professor of Near Eastern 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). Neil Asher Silberman (born June 19 1950 Boston Massachusetts is an Archaeologist and historian with a special interest in history archaeology public interpretation and Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M Even so, the Moabite Stele mentions king Omri of Israel, and many scholars draw parallels between the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I and the Shishaq of the Bible (1 Ki. Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I ( Egyptian ššnq) also known as Shishak, Sheshonk or Sheshonq I (for discussion of the spelling Shishak ( Hebrew: שישק Tiberian:) or Shishaq is the biblical Hebrew form of the first ancient Egyptian name of a Pharaoh mentioned 11:40; 14:25; and 2 Chr. 12:2-9), and between the king David of the Bible and a stone inscription from 835 BC that appears to refer to "house of David"--although some would dispute the last two correspondences.
Dating and historicity
Traditional dating
According to calculations directly derived from the Masoretic Hebrew Torah, Abraham was born 1,948 years after biblical creation and lived for 175 years (Genesis 25:7), which would correspond to a life spanning from 1812 BC to 1637 BC by Jewish dating. The Masoretic Text ( MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible ( Tanakh) term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to la Anno Mundi (Latin "in the year of the World " abbreviated as AM or A 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. Jubilee The Book of Jubilees (ספר היובלים sometimes called the Lesser Genesis ( Leptogenesis) is an ancient Jewish religious work considered Exodus ( Greek: έξοδος eksodos = "departure" is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. The Samaritan Pentateuch is the text of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah or Law that is used by the Samaritans The story of a Great Flood (also known as the Deluge) sent by a Deity or deities to destroy Civilization as an act of Divine retribution is a 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. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the
Other interpretations of Biblical chronology place Abraham's birth at 2008 AM (Anno Mundi). la Anno Mundi (Latin "in the year of the World " abbreviated as AM or A In Genesis 11:32 : Abraham was the youngest son of Terah who died in Haran aged 205, in year 2083 AM. In Gen. 12:4 we learn that at that time Abraham was 75 years old. In other words Abraham was born when his father Terah was 130 years old. (205-75 = 130). Therefore Abraham was born in year 2008 AM.
History of dating attempts
When cuneiform was first deciphered, Theophilus Pinches translated some Babylonian tablets which were part of the Spartoli collection in the British Museum. In particular, he believed he found in the Chedorlaomer Text, currently thought to have been written in the 6th to the 7th century BC, the names of three of the kings of the Eastern coalition fighting against the five kings from the Vale of Siddim in Gen. 14:1.
In 1887, Schrader then was the first to propose that Amraphel could be an alternate spelling for Hammurabi (cf. the ISBE of 1915, s. v. "Hammurabi").
Vincent Scheil subsequently found a tablet in the Imperial Ottoman Museum in Istanbul from Hammurabi to a king of the very same name, i. Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey e. Kuder-Lagomer, as in Pinches' tablet. Thus are achieved the following correspondences:
| Name from Gen. 14:1 | Name from Archaeology |
|---|---|
| Amraphel king of Shinar | Hammurabi (="Ammurapi") king of Babylonia |
| Arioch king of Ellasar | Eri-aku king of Larsa (i. In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Amraphel was a king of Shinar (Babylonia broadly speaking in Genesis xiv Shinar (Hebrew he שִׁנְעָר Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar 'land of the rivers' is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Arioch is a Hebrew name that means "fierce lion" It originally appears in the Book of Genesis chap Arioch is a Hebrew name that means "fierce lion" It originally appears in the Book of Genesis chap Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of e. Assyria) |
| Chedorlaomer king of Elam (= Chodollogomor in the LXX) | Kudur-Lagamar king of Elam |
| Tidal, king of nations (i. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Chedorlaomer ( Hebrew:; Tiberian vocalization: Kəḏorlāʻōmer LXX: Khodollogomór) is the name of the main figure in a narrative within Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the e. goyim, lit. 'nations') | Tudhulu, son of Gazza |
By 1915, many scholars had become largely convinced that the kings of Gen. 14:1 had been identified (cf. again the ISBE of 1915, s. v. Hammurabi, which mentions the identification as doubtful, and also The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917, s. v. "Amraphel", and Donald A. MacKenzie's 1915 Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, who has (p. 247) "The identification of Hammurabi with Amraphel is now generally accepted"). The terminal -bi on the end of Hammurabi's name was seen to parallel Amraphel since the cuneiform symbol for -bi can also be pronounced -pi. Tablets were known in which the initial symbol for Hammurabi, pronounced as kh to yield Khammurabi, had been dropped, such that Ammurapi was a viable pronunciation. Supposing him to have been deified in his lifetime or afterwards yielded Ammurabi-il, which was suitable close to the Bible's Amraphel.
Albright was instrumental in synchronizing Hammurabi with Assyrian and Egyptian contemporaries, such that Hammurabi is now thought to have lived in the late 18th century, not in the 19th as assumed by the long chronology. See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for Since many ecumenical theologians may not hold that the dates of the Bible could be in error, they began synchronizing Abram with the empire of Sargon I (23rd century in the short chronology), and the work of Schrader, Pinches and Scheil fell out of favor with them. Sargon I was a king of the old- Assyrian Kingdom and reigned from ca The short chronology is one chronology of the Near Eastern Bronze and Early Iron Age, which fixes the reign of Hammurabi to 1728 BC – 1686 BC and the Sack of
The objection resurfaced that Amraphel could not be derived from Khammurabi, in spite of the Ammurabi/Ammurapi spelling for Hammurabi that had already been found. More substantial objections were later made, including the finding that the days of the Kuder-Lagomer of Hammurabi's letter preceded the writing of the letter early in Hammurabi's reign led some to speculate that the Kuder-Lagomer of Gen. 14:1 should be associated with later Hittite or Akkadian kings with similar names. These scholars thus generally considered the passage anachronistic - the product of a much later period, such as during or after the Babylonian Captivity. The Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile, is the name typically given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Others pointed out that the Lagomer of Kuder-Lagomer was an Elamite deity's name, instead of the king's actual name, which some believe referred to a king that must have preceded Hammurabi. Other misreadings of the Chedorlaomer Text were pointed out, causing them to be associated with entirely different personages known from archaeology. It seemed that the theory of Schrader, Pinches and Scheil had fallen utterly apart.
Mainstream scholarship in the course of the 20th century has given up attempts to identify Abraham and his contemporaries in Genesis with historical figures. [18] While it is widely admitted that there is no archaeological evidence to prove the existence of Abraham, apparent parallels to Genesis in the archaeological record assure that speculations on the patriarch's historicity and on the period that would best fit the account in Genesis remain alive in religious circles. "The Herald of Christ's Kingdom" in Abraham - Father of the Faithful (2001) implies a historical Abraham by stating "At one time it was popular to connect Amraphel, king of Shinar, with Hammurabi, king of Babylon, but now it is generally conceded that Hammurabi was much later than Abraham. "
A traditional chronology can be constructed from the MT as follows: If Solomon's temple was begun when most scholars put it, ca. The Masoretic Text ( MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible ( Tanakh) 960-970 BC, using e. g. 966, we get 1446 for the Exodus (I Ki. 6:1). There were 400 years reportedly spent in Egypt (Ex. 12:40), and then we only need add years from Jacob's going into Egypt to Abraham. So, we can add that Jacob was supposedly 130 when he came to Egypt (Gen. 47:9), Isaac was 60 years old when he had Jacob (Gen. 25:26) and Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born, and we get 1446 + 400 + 130 + 60 + 100 = 2136 BC for Abram's birth.
A considerable variety of scriptural chronologies is possible. For example, unlike most modern translations, according to all the oldest Bible versions not dependent on the mediaeval rabbis -- the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Dead Sea Scrolls -- the 430 years of the sojourn is the period "in Canaan and Egypt" (probable text of Exodus 12: 42), thus reckoning from the time of Abraham. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the The Samaritan Pentateuch is the text of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah or Law that is used by the Samaritans The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of roughly 1000 documents including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven Caves Cf Paul's belief in Gal 3:17. Therefore the figure is more than two hundred years less (1446 + 430 = 1876 BC).
Thus, if one adheres to an Early Exodus theory, then Abram is usually synchronized with Sargon I, or sometimes other figures in the Sumerian Empire. Sargon I was a king of the old- Assyrian Kingdom and reigned from ca If one favors a Late Exodus theory, and then Abraham's life could overlap that of Hammurabi's empire.
Gen. 10:10 has it that Babel was the beginning of Nimrod's empire. Nimrod ( was a Mesopotamian Monarch mentioned in the Jewish Tanakh, and who figures in many legends and folktales Before the location of Sargon's capital city, Agade, was identified, it was sometimes supposed that Nimrod was Sargon I, and that Agade was Babel. You may be looking for the Assyrian kings Sargon I Sargon I was a king of the old- Assyrian Kingdom and reigned from ca But even so, there are reasons to prefer the equation of Hammurabi with Amraphel. The Nimrod of Gen. ch. 10 precedes the Amraphel of ch. 14, and Nimrod's kingdom began with "Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in Shinar" (Gen. 10:10). Mentions of Nimrod both precede and follow those of Abram. Furthermore, Nimrod is associated with the Tower of Babel, not the Tower of Agade, in the Bible. The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous
Rabbinic materials are full of an accounts of Abram being thrown into the furnace used for making bricks for the Tower of Babel by Nimrod, but Abram was miraculously unharmed, while the furnace spread to the rest of the city, causing the "Fire of the Chasdim". The conclusion then, based on these assertions, would be that Nimrod and Abram were more or less contemporaries. But only during the time of Hammurabi did Babylon become the beginning of an Empire in its own right.
If one insists that Gen. Ch. 14 reads as a testament of historical authenticity, then the Old Babylonian Empire, like Nimrod's, extended into the Trans-Jordan, but only during the reign of Hammurabi's son; whereas the Sumerian Empire by contrast did not. The city of Babel was not only the beginning of the Old Babylonian Empire, it was its capitol. After the end of the Old Babylonian Empire with the defeat of Hammurabi's son by the Elamites, there was not another empire ruled from the city of Babel until the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which was much too late to be synchronized with Abraham.
There are no archaeological correlates for the life of Abram, whereas the Exodus can be correlated with traces of a Semitic presence in Egypt, as per Bietak, as well as numerous transitions in Israel from Egypto-Canaanite material culture to proto-Israelite. An Early Exodus would preclude synchronizing Abram with Hammurabi's empire, pushing him back to Sumerian times.
Speculations on Hindu connections
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were isolated speculations about an identity of Abraham and Brahma, or of Abraham and Rama. Brahma is the Hindu god ( deva) of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. Rama ( IAST: rāma Devanāgarī: राम Khmer: Phreah Ream Thai: Phra Ram Lao: Phra Lam Tagalog: This was based on the similarities of the names (Abraham is a near anagram of Brahma). Voltaire summarised such speculations:
This name Bram, Abram, was famous in India and Persia: some learned men even allege that he was the same legislator as the one the Greeks called Zoroaster. François-Marie Arouet ( 21 November 1694 30 May 1778) better known by the Pen name Voltaire, was a French Zoroaster ( Latinized from Greek variants) or Zarathushtra (from Avestan Zaraθuštra) also referred to as Zartosht (زرتشت Others say that he was the Brahma of the Indians. [19]
Such arguments were taken up by later religious synchretists such as Godfrey Higgins, who argued in 1834 that "The Arabian historians contend that Brahma and Abraham, their ancestor, are the same person. Syncretism consists of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs often while melding practices of various schools of thought Godfrey Higgins ( January 30, 1772 in All Saints Owston &ndash August 9, 1833) was an Archaeologist, Freemason The Persians generally called Abraham Ibrahim Zeradust. Cyrus considered the religion of the Jews the same as his own. The Hindus must have come from Abraham, or the Israelites from Brahma…"[20]
One may also consider noteworthy the similarity of the names of Brahma's wife Sarasvati[21] compared to Abraham's wife Sarah.
The argument has been used by Biblical literalists to prove that Brahma is a corrupted memory of Abraham and by certain Hindu nationalists to suggest the converse. Biblical literalism (also called Biblicism) is a primarily pejorative term referring to the adherence to an explicit and literal sense of the Bible. For Veer Savarkar's book see Hindutva (book. Hindutva (Devanagari हिन्दुत्व "Hinduness" a word coined by Vinayak [22]
The argument has been used by Muslim missionaries to prove that Brahma is a corrupted memory of Abraham. They also have claimed that other characters in Hindu scripture are actually people mentioned in the Quran. [23] A. D. Pusalker, whose essay "Traditional History From the Earliest Times" appeared in The Vedic Age, claims a historical Rama dated to 1950 BC. So hence this cannot be true, since the historical dating of these scriptures were long before the biblical age. [24]
Notes
- ^ JewishEncyclopedia.com states, "The form 'Abraham' yields no sense in Hebrew". Many interpretations were offered, including an analysis of a first element abr- "chief", which however yields a meaningless second element.
- ^ The city of Haran was not named after this brother and is spelled differently in Hebrew.
- ^ "Walking the Bible" at pbs.org.
- ^ David Rosenberg, Abraham, the First Historical Biography 23 (2006) (reading "But she is also my sister my father's daughter yet not my mother's and she became my wife. ")
- ^ Abraham was 10 years senior to Sarah, who died at age 127. (Gen 23:1).
- ^ Gen 25:7
- ^ *Holweck, F. G. A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co. 1924.
- ^ Ibrahim, Encyclopedia of Islam
- ^ USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. The Encyclopaedia of Islam ( EI) is the standard Encyclopaedia of the Academic discipline of Islamic studies.
- ^ Antiquities of the Jews, book 1, 12:4
- ^ Antiquities of the Jews, book 1, 12:2
- ^ The Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya), Volume I, translated by professor Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr. Ahmed Fareed Garnet Publishing Limited, 8 Southern Court, South Street Reading RG1 4QS, UK; The Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, 1998, pp. 50-52;
- ^ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Abraham.” Bible Dictionary. Intellectual Reserve, 1979..
- ^ Peterson, H. Donl. The Story of the Book of Abraham, 25. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995.
- ^ Pearl of Great Price, Introductory Note.
- ^ Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism, 70–72; Beer, Leben Abraham's, 9–14
- ^ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Abraham.” Bible Dictionary. Intellectual Reserve, 1979..
- ^ The Encyclopedia Britannica article on "Amraphel" has: "Scholars of previous generations tried to identify these names with important historical figures—e. g. , Amraphel with Hammurabi of Babylon—but little remains today of these suppositions. "
- ^ Voltaire's article.
- ^ Higgins, G. , Anacalypsis; Vol. Anacalypsis is the short title of a lengthy two-volume treatise written by religious historian Godfrey Higgins, and published upon his death in 1833 I, p. 396.
- ^ Padma Purana, Srishtikhand, Chapter 17. "Accompanied by brahmanas and other devas, or demigods, Lord Brahma once went to Pushkara to perform a sacrifice. Such sacrifices are to be performed along with one’s wife, so when the arrangements for the sacrifice were complete, Lord Brahma sent Narada Muni, the sage among the devas, to bring Sarasvati, Lord Brahma’s consort. But Sarasvati was not ready to leave, so Narada returned to Punkara alone. " Translation quoted from Back to Godhead magazine, #32-01, 1998.
- ^ The Vedic Past of Pre-Islamic Arabia - Part 1.
- ^ Prophet Muhammad (s) in Hindu Scriptures.
- ^ Gene D. Matlock. Who Was Abraham?. Viewzone. com.
References
- 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica
- The Book of Genesis
- Rosenberg, David. Abraham: The First Historical Biography. Basic Books/Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006. ISBN 0-465-07094-9.
- Holweck, F. G. A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co. 1924.
- Latter-day Saint Bible Dictionary
- Nibley, Hugh W. Abraham's Temple Drama
- Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism
- Beer, Leben Abraham's
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, trans. Henrietta Szold (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909)
- Book of Abraham LDS scripture Pearl of Great Price
- Bloch, Israel und die Völker (Berlin: Harz, 1922)
- Torcszyner, "The Riddle in the Bible," Hebrew Union College Annual 1 (1924)
- Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews
- Kohler, "The Pre-Talmudic Haggada," Jewish Quarterly Review 7 (July 1895): 587.
See also
- Abrahamic religions
- Abraham's bosom
- Bram
- Biblical criticism
- Gathering of Israel
- Islamic view of Abraham
- List of founders of major religions
- The Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham
- Genealogies of Genesis
- Kabbalah
- Sons of Noah
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. See also Intermediate state Abraham's bosom ( Luke) refers to the custom of reclining on Couches at the dining table which was prevalent among the This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document The Gathering of Israel ( Hebrew: קיבוץ גלויות Kibbutz Galuyot, lit This article lists historical figures believed to have founded or inspired religions, religious philosophies; or people who first codified The Pearl of Great Price is part of the standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church see also Mormonism) and some The genealogies of Genesis record the descendants of Adam and Eve as given in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10 representing The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
| Preceded by Terah | Abraham | Succeeded by Isaac |
Dictionary
Abraham
-proper noun
- (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) A prophet in the Old Testament and Koran; the Semitic patriarch, father of the Jewish patriarch Isaac (by his wife Sarah) and the Arab patriarch Ishmael (by his concubine Hagar).
- A male given name.
- A patronymic surname.
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