Reading: "Abraham" J. Oscar Boyd ISBE

ABRAHAM   a'-bra-ham:

I. Kindred

Genesis 11:27, which introduces Abraham, contains the heading, "These are the generations of Terah." All the story of Abraham is contained within the section of Genesis so entitled. Through Terah Abraham's ancestry is traced back to Shem, and he is thus related to Mesopotamian and Arabian families that belonged to the "Semitic" race. He is further connected with this race geographically by his birthplace, which is given as 'ur-kasdim (see UR), and by the place of his pre-Canaanitish residence, Haran in the Aramean region. The purely Semitic ancestry of his descendants through Isaac is indicated by his marriage with his own half-sister (Genesis 20:12), and still further emphasized by the choice for his daughter-in-law of Rebekah, descended from both of his brothers, Nahor and Haran (Genesis 11:29; 22:22 f). Both the beginning and the end of the residence in Haran are left chronologically undetermined, for the new beginning of the narrative at Genesis 12:1 is not intended by the writer to indicate chronological sequence, though it has been so understood, e.g. by Stephen (Acts 7:4). All that is definite in point of time is that an Aramean period of residence intervened between the Babylonian origin and the Palestinian career of Abraham. It is left to a comparison of the Biblical data with one another and with the data of archaeology, to fix the opening of Abraham's career in Palestine not far from the middle of the 20th century BC.

II. Career

Briefiy summed up, that career was as follows:

A. Period of Wandering:

Abraham, endowed with Yahweh's promise of limitless blessing, leaves Haran with Lot his nephew and all their establishment, and enters Canaan (Genesis 12:1-9). Successive stages of the slow journey southward are indicated by the mention of Shechem, Bethel and the Negeb (South-country). Driven by famine into Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20), Abraham finds hospitable reception, though at the price of his wife's honor, whom the Pharaoh treats in a manner characteristic of an Egyptian monarch. (Gressmann, op. cit., quotes from Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, 12, 142, the passage from a magic formula in the pyramid of Unas, a Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty: "Then he (namely, the Pharaoh) takes away the wives from their husbands whither he will if desire seize his heart.")

Retracing the path to Canaan with an larger and richer group, at Bethel Abraham and Lot find it necessary to part company (Genesis 13). Lot and his dependents choose for residence the great Jordan Plain; Abraham follows the backbone of the land southward to Hebron, where he settles, not in the city, but before its gates "by the great trees" (Septuagint sing., "oak") of Mamre.

B. Period of Residence at Hebron:

Affiliation between Abraham and the local chieftains is strengthened by a brief campaign, in which all unite their available forces for the rescue of Lot from an Elamite king and his confederates from Babylonia (Genesis 14:1-16). The pursuit leads them as far as the Lebanon region. On the return they are met by Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of 'el `elyon, and blessed by him in his priestly capacity, which Abraham recognizes by presenting him with a tithe of the spoils (Genesis 14:17-20). Abraham's anxiety for a son to be the bearer of the divine promises conferred upon a "seed" yet unborn should have been relieved by the solemn renewal thereof in a formal covenant, with precise specifications of God's gracious purpose (Genesis 15). But human desire cannot wait upon divine wisdom, and the Egyptian woman Hagar bears to Abraham a son, Ishmael, whose existence from its inception proves a source of moral evil within the patriarchal household (Genesis 16). The sign of circumcision and the change of names are given in confirmation of the covenant still unrealized, together with specification of the time and the person that should begin its realization (Genesis 17). The appearance of the LORD to Abraham in Genesis 18 symbolized outwardly this climax of God's favor and serves also for an intercessory conversation, in which Abraham is granted the deliverance of Lot in the impending overthrow of Sodom. Lot and his family, saved thus by human fidelity (Abraham's loyalty) and Divine clemency (God's mercy), exhibit in the moral traits shown in their escape and subsequent life the degeneration naturally to be expected from their corrupt environment - Lot and his family were influenced by the evil they had lived with in Sodom and Gomorrah as we see in his daughters' behavior in Genesis 19:30-38. Moabites and Ammonites are traced in their origin to these cousins of Jacob and Esau.

C. Period of Residence in the Negev:

Removal to the South-country did not mean permanent residence in a single spot, but rather a succession of more or less temporary resting-places. The first of these was in the district of Gerar, with whose king, Abimelech, Abraham and his wife had an experience similar to the earlier one with the Pharaoh (Genesis 20). The birth of Isaac was followed by the expulsion of Ishmael and his mother, and the sealing of peaceful relations with the neighbors by a covenant at Beersheba (Genesis 21). Even the birth of Isaac, however, did not end the discipline of Abraham's faith in the promise, for a Divine command to sacrifice the life of this son was accepted bona fide (in good faith), and only the sudden voice of the angel of the LORD calling to Abraham prevented its obedient execution (Genesis 22). The death of Sarah became the occasion for Abraham's acquisition of the first permanent holding of Canaanite soil, the center of his promised inheritance (Genesis 23), and at the same time suggested the probable approach of his own death. This thought led to immediate provision for a future seed to inherit through Isaac, a provision realized in Isaac's marriage with Rebekah, grand-daughter of Abraham's brother Nahor and of Milcah the sister of Lot (Genesis 24). But a numerous progeny not associated with the promise grew up in Abraham's household, children of Keturah, a woman who appears to have had the rank of wife after Sarah's death, and of other women unnamed, who were his concubines. Though this last period was passed in the Negeb, Abraham was interred at Hebron in his purchased possession - the cave of Machpelah, the spot with which Semitic tradition has continued to associate him to this day (Genesis 25:1-18).

III. Conditions of Life:

The life of Abraham in its outward features may be considered under the following topics:

A. Economic Conditions:

Abraham's manner of life may best be described by the adjective "semi-nomadic," and illustrated by the somewhat similar conditions prevailing today in those border-communities of the East that fringe the Syrian and Arabian deserts. Residence is in tents, wealth consists of flocks, herds and slaves, and there is no ownership of ground, only at most a proprietorship in well or tomb. All this in common with the nomad. But there is a relative, or rather, intermittent fixity of habitation, unlike the pure Bedouin, a limited amount of agriculture, and finally a sense of divergence from the Ishmael type--all of which tend to assimilate the seminomadic Abraham to the fixed Canaanitish population about him. As might naturally be expected, such a condition is an unstable equilibrium, which tends, in the family of Abraham as in the history of all border-tribes of the desert, to settle back one way or the other, now into the city- life of Lot, now into the desert-life of Ishmael.

B. Social Conditions:

The head of a family, under these conditions, becomes at the same time the chief of a tribe, that live together in the "beth ab" (pronounced "bait av" and meaning father's house) under patriarchal rule though they by no means share without exception the tie of kinship. There is one legal wife, Sarah, who, because she was childless, obtains the coveted offspring by giving her own maid to Abraham for that purpose. The son thus borne, Ishmael, is Abraham's legal son and heir. When Isaac is later borne by Sarah, the elder son is disinherited by divine command (Genesis 21:10-12) against Abraham's wish which represented the prevailing law and custom. The "maid-servants" mentioned in the inventories of Abraham's wealth (Genesis 12:16; 24:35) doubtless furnished the "concubines" mentioned in Genesis 25:6 as having borne sons to him.

Both mothers (concubines) and their children were slaves, but had the right to freedom, though not to inheritance, on the death of the father. After Sarah's death another woman seems to have succeeded to the position of legal wife, though if so the sons she bore were disinherited like Ishmael (Genesis 25:5). In addition to the children so begotten by Abraham the "men of his house" (Genesis 17:27) consisted of two classes, the "home-born" slaves (Genesis 14:14; 17:12,23,27) and the "purchased" slaves (ibid.). The extent of the patriarchal tribe may be surmised from the number (318) of men among them capable of bearing arms, near the beginning of Abraham's career, yet after his separation from Lot, and recruited seemingly from the "home-born" class exclusively (Genesis 14:14). Over this entire establishment Abraham ruled with a power more absolute, because Abraham was independent of any permanent superior human authority, and so combined in his own person the powers of the Babylonian paterfamilias (father of the family) and of the Canaanite "city- king". Social relations outside of the family-tribe may best be considered under the next heading.

C. Political Conditions:

It is natural that the chieftain of so considerable an organism should appear an attractive ally and a formidable foe to any of the smaller political units of his environment. That Canaan was at the time composed of just such inconsiderable units, namely, city-states with petty kings, and scattered fragments of older populations, is abundantly clear from the Biblical tradition and verified from other sources. Egypt was the only great power with which Abraham came into political contact after leaving the East. In the section of Genesis which describes this contact with the Pharaoh Abraham is suitably represented as playing no political role, but as profiting by his stay in Egypt only through an incidental social relation: when this terminates he is promptly ejected. The role of conqueror of Chedorlaomer, the Elamite invader, would be quite out of keeping with Abraham's political status elsewhere, if we were compelled by the narrative in Genesis 14 to suppose a pitched battle between the forces of Abraham and those of the united Babylonian armies. What that chapter requires is in fact no more than a midnight surprise, by Abraham's band (including the forces of confederate chieftains), of a rear-guard or baggage-train of the Babylonians inadequately manned and picketed ("slaughter" is too strong a rendering of the original hakkoth, "smiting" or "defeating" 14:17). Respect shown Abraham by the kings of Salem (14:18), of Sodom (14:21) and of Gerar (Genesis 20:14-16) was no more than might be expected from their relative degrees of political importance, although a moral precedence, assumed in the tradition, may well have contributed to this respect.

D. Cultural Conditions:

Archaeological research has shown that there was a high degree of culture in the area where Abraham was born and lived, so it is likely that Abraham benefited from it. The high level which literature had attained in both Babylonia and Egypt by 2000 BC makes it probable that a wealthy man like Abraham would have had opportunity for education. We may assert even for Abraham's maturer life the presence of this same culture, since Canaan in the second millennium BC was at the center of the intellectual life of the East.

IV. Character:

Abraham's inward life may be considered under the headings of belief system, human condition, and personal traits.

A. Belief System:

The belief system of Abraham centered in his faith in the one and only God, because he believed God to be possessor of heaven and earth (Genesis 14:22; 24:3), sovereign judge of the nations (Genesis 15:14) of all the earth (Genesis 18:25), disposer of the forces of nature (Genesis 18:14; 19:24; 20:17 f), exalted (Genesis 14:22) and eternal (Genesis 21:33). For Abraham Yahweh was also his personal God in a close fellowship (Genesis 24:40; 48:15). To Yahweh Abraham attributed the attributes of justice (Genesis 18:25), righteousness (Genesis 18:19), faithfulness (Genesis 24:27), wisdom (Genesis 20:6), goodness (Genesis 19:19), and mercy (Genesis 20:6). God manifested (showed) Himself in dreams (Genesis 20:3), visions (Genesis 15:1) and theophanies (Genesis 18:1), including the voice or appearance of the Divine mal'akh or messenger (angel) (Genesis 16:7; 22:11).

The bringing of offerings to God was diligently practiced by Abraham, as indicated by the mention of his erection of an altar at each successive residence. Alongside of this act of sacrifice there is sometimes mention of a "calling upon the name" of Yahweh (compare 1 Kings 18:24; Psalms 116:13 f). This public profession of his faith, doubtless in the presence of Canaanites, had its counterpart also in the public regard in which he was held as a prophet or spokesman for God (Genesis 20:7). His mediation (resolving disputes) showed itself also in intercessory prayer (Genesis 17:20 for Ishmael; Genesis 18:23-32; compare Genesis 19:29 for Lot; Genesis 20:17 for Abimelech), which was but a part of his general practice of prayer. The usual practice of sacrifice, a professional priesthood, does not occur in Abraham's family, yet he recognizes priestly office in the person of Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem (Genesis 14:20). In the time of Abraham it was considered a solemn vow to take an oath (Genesis 14:22; 24:3) and to seal covenants (Genesis 21:23). Other customs associated with Abraham's belief system are circumcision (Genesis 17:10-14), given to Abraham as the sign of the covenant; tithing (Genesis 14:20), recognized as the priest's due; and willingness to give his entire family to God as illustrated in the offering of his son Isaac to be sacrificed (Genesis 22:2,12).

B. Human Condition:

Abraham sought to pattern his life following the will of God. He did not do this perfectly of course. As with all humans, what we want to be and what we really are is a journey of transformation through God's power for those who believe. Examples of Abraham's journey are illustrated in his handling of the situations with Pharaoh and Sarah and Abimelech and Sarah. Abraham's journey also shows regard for life and property, both in respecting the rights of others and in expecting the same from them--the opposite of Ishmael's journey (Genesis 16:12).

C. Personal Traits:

Abraham knew how to love both God and others. This love showed itself toward men in exceptional generosity (Genesis 13:9; 14:23; 23:9,13; 24:10; 25:6), fidelity (Genesis 14:14,24; 17:18; 18:23-32; 19:27; 21:11; 23:2), hospitality (Genesis 18:2-8; 21:8) and compassion (Genesis 16:6; 21:14; and 18:23-32). Abraham displayed other admirable traits such as self-respect (Genesis 14:23; 21:22-33; 23:3-9,13,16; 24:4) and courage (Genesis 12:1-9; 14:14-16) .

V. Significance in the History of Religion.

Abraham is a significant figure throughout the Bible, and plays an important role in extra-Biblical Jewish tradition and in the Islamic religion.

A. In the Old Testament:

It is naturally as progenitor of the people of Israel, "the seed of Abraham," as they are often termed, that Abraham stands out most prominently in the Old Testament books. Sometimes the contrast between him as an individual and his numerous progeny serves to point a lesson (Isaiah 51:2; Ezekiel 33:24; perhaps Malachi 2:10; compare Malachi 2:15). "The God of Abraham" serves as a designation of Yahweh from the time of Isaac to the latest period; it is by this title that Moses identifies the God who has sent him with the ancestral deity of the children of Israel (Exodus 3:15). Men remembered in those later times that this God appeared to Abraham in theophany (Exodus 6:3), and, when he was still among his people who worshipped other gods (Joshua 24:3) chose him (Nehemiah 9:7), led him, redeemed him (Isaiah 29:22) and made him the recipient of those special blessings (Micah 7:20) which were pledged by covenant and oath (so every larger historical book, also the historical Psalms 105:9), notably the inheritance of the land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 6:10) Nor was Abraham's religious personality forgotten by his posterity: he was remembered by them as God's friend (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8), His servant, the very recollection of whom by God would offset the horror with which the sins of his descendants inspired Yahweh (Deuteronomy 9:27).

B. In the New Testament:

When we pass to the New Testament we see Abraham mentioned often. As in the Old Testament, his position of ancestor lends him much of his significance, not only as ancestor of Israel (Acts 13:26), but specifically as ancestor of the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7:5), of the Messiah (Matthew 1:1), and of Christian believers (Galatians 3:16,29). All that Abraham the ancestor received through Divine election, by the covenant made with him, is inherited by his seed and passes under the collective names of the promise (Romans 4:13), the blessing (Galatians 3:14), mercy (Luke 1:54), the oath (Luke 1:73), and the covenant (Acts 3:25). The way in which Abraham responded to this goodness of God makes him the type of the Christian believer. Though so far in the past that he was used as a measure of antiquity (John 8:58), he is declared to have "seen" Messiah's "day" (John 8:56).
It is his faith in the Divine promise, which, just because it was for him unsupported by any evidence of the senses, becomes the type of the faith that leads to justification (Romans 4:3), and therefore in this sense again he is the "father" of Christians, as believers (Romans 4:11). For that promise to Abraham was, after all, a "preaching beforehand" of the Christian gospel, in that it embraced "all the families of the earth" (Galatians 3:8). Of this exalted honor, James reminds us, Abraham proved himself worthy, not by an inoperative faith, but by "works" that evidenced his righteousness (James 2:21; compare John 8:39). The obedience that faith wrought in him is what is especially praised by the author of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:8,17). In accordance with this high estimate of the patriarch's piety, we read of his eternal blessing, not only in the current conceptions of the Jews (parable, Luke 16), but also in the express assertion of our Lord (Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:28).

C. In Jewish Tradition:

Outside the Scriptures we have abundant evidence of the way that Abraham was regarded by his posterity in the Jewish nation. The oldest of these witnesses, Ecclesiasticus, praises Abraham for the same three great facts that appealed to the Biblical writers, namely, his glory as Israel's ancestor, his election to be recipient of the covenant, and his piety even under severe testing (Ecclesiasticus 44:19-21).

D. In the Koran:

To Mohammed Abraham is of importance in several ways. He is mentioned in no less than 188 verses of the Koran, more than any other character except Moses. He is one of the series of prophets sent by God. He is the common ancestor of the Arab and the Jew. He plays the same role of religious reformer over against his idolatrous kinsmen as Mohammed himself played. He builds the first pure temple for God's worship (at Mecca!). As in the Bible so in the Koran Abraham is the recipient of the Divine covenant for himself and for his posterity, and exhibits in his character the appropriate virtues of one so highly favored: faith, righteousness, purity of heart, gratitude, fidelity, compassion. He receives marked tokens of the Divine favor in the shape of deliverance, guidance, visions, angelic messengers (no theophanies for Mohammed!), miracles, assurance of resurrection and entrance into paradise. He is called "Imam of the peoples" (2 118).

 J. Oscar Boyd