Lives of Abraham
Abraham's biography is described in the Book of Genesis. He was born in Mesopotamia, the Chaldean city of Ur approximately 2000 years BC and bore the name Abram. At a young age, he came to the idea of one God and tried to convince his family members to give up idols.
His father, along with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, headed to the land of Canaan, but died along the way, in the city of Harran. Abram's wife, Sarai, was his half-sister and had no children.
When Abram was 75 years old, God commanded him to leave with his wife and servants for Canaan, promising to make Abram the ancestor of a great nation, to glorify and bless the Prophet himself, and through him, the entire human race. There was a famine in Canaan, and Abram headed to Egypt. Sarah was a beautiful woman. Fearing that he would be persecuted because of his wife, Abram began calling her his sister. Sarah ended up in Pharaoh's harem, but God punished Pharaoh and his family for this, after which Sarah was released back to her husband.
Abram and Sarah went to the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the city of Sodom. Arriving in Canaan, he began to lament that he was old and had no heir. God again confirmed that he would give him a son, and his descendants would possess the land of Canaan. Soon news came that Sodom was attacked by foreign troops and the inhabitants of the city, including Lot, were captured. Abram armed his slaves, went in pursuit and recaptured the captives and captured property. He did not want to take anything as a reward.
God again confirmed to Abram that from his root there would come a multitude of people who would live from Egypt to the Euphrates. To fulfill the promise, Abram was ordered to sacrifice one unit of three-year-old livestock (a cow, a goat and a ram), as well as a dove and a turtle dove. But Sarah remained barren and gave her slave Hagar to her husband as a concubine.
Hagar became pregnant by Abram and became arrogant towards Sarai. Sarah complained to her husband, and he did not stand up for the concubine. Hagar fled into the desert for fear of punishment from her mistress. In the desert, she met an angel who conveyed God’s command to return back and name the born baby Ismail.
13 years have passed. Abram turned 99 and Sarah turned 90. God appeared to Abram and repeated his words again, but set a condition: to circumcise all males, including 8-day-old babies. Abram was named Abraham, and Sarai was named Sarah. Soon Abraham, sitting at the tent, saw 3 travelers, in whose form God appeared to him. He washed their feet and treated them to the best food.
God said that He would appear in a year when Sarah gave birth to a son, who should be named Isaac. God instructed Abraham to verify the sinfulness of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and predicted their destruction. Abraham stood up for sinners so that they would be pardoned if 10 people among the townspeople remained righteous. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
Sarah gave birth to a son named Isaac. Ismail, who was 14 years older, mocked the child. Hagar, together with her son, with the consent of God, was expelled from the house. After several years, God decided to test Abraham's faith and ordered Isaac to be sacrificed. The righteous man, without hesitation or grumbling, prepared to fulfill the command of the Lord, but at the last moment he was stopped by an angel, a messenger of God.
Sarah died when she was 127 years old. Her place of rest was a cave near Hebron. After her death, Abraham had 6 sons from his concubine. Isaac became the ancestor of the Jews, the other sons became the ancestors of the Arab tribes. Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried next to Sarah.
Marked by the sky
In the middle of their lives, the Lord marked them with a special sign: he doubled the letters in their names. Sarah became Sarah. And Abram is Abraham. Soon, a family from their hometown of Ur (this place is today located in Iraq) headed to Canaan. Today, this territory is divided between Israel, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The couple did this at the behest of God, who said to them: “Get out of your land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” I will make you a great nation, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Arriving in Canaan with their belongings and servants (they were clearly not poor), Sarah and Abraham did not understand anything: famine and drought were raging in that area. But no instructions came from God. And the couple, of their own free will, decided to move to well-fed Egypt.
Meaning
Abraham was the harbinger of the birth and spread of Christianity. He is the herald of monotheism, for which he was blessed by God. His descendants became the ancestors of all nations according to the promise of the Lord. The righteous man was an example for other people by his faith. The name of the prophet was used to confirm Christian dogmas and spread the doctrine.
In Christian theology
Patriarch Abraham is a righteous man, obedient to the will of God. Christian theologians wrote about the meaning of the image of the Old Testament prophet: John Chrysostom (preacher of monotheism and faithful servant of the Lord), Augustine the Blessed (the forefather of all nations according to the promise of the Lord).
Other writings of the church fathers place events described in the Old Testament in the context of proving the existence of God, for example:
- bread and wine presented to Abraham - as a prototype of the Eucharist;
- the voice that stopped the sacrifice of Isaac - as proof of the existence of the Holy Spirit;
- readiness to sacrifice Isaac - as a harbinger of Golgotha and the way of the cross of Jesus.
The Gospel mentions that in a dispute with the Pharisees, Jesus recognized them as physical, but not spiritual, heirs of the righteous man.
In the light of the New Testament
Abraham and Moses are the Old Testament prophets most often referred to in the New Testament. Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. As evidence of his dual essence (God in human form), the New Testament cites the words of Jesus: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8.58).
The Gospel of Luke conveys the words of Jesus, who entered the house of the tax collector Zacchaeus, that a repentant sinner will be saved because he, too, is the son of Abraham. John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul urge Christian converts to repent of their sins to avoid the wrath of God. Being a descendant of Abraham does not mean receiving forgiveness from the Lord.
Descendants of Abraham
The Lord fulfilled His promise. And indeed from Abraham came a multitude of people.
In addition to Ishmael and Isaac, the prophet also had children. But the Bible still focuses on Isaac. As the Apostle Paul said, Ishmael was born according to the flesh, and Isaac according to the promise of God. Each of the sons had a great family, but the genealogy of Jesus Christ himself is traced through the line of Isaac.
Biblical criticism
The sacred book of the Jews, the Tanakh (Old Testament), has existed unchanged for about 3,000 years. Criticism of the first part of the Bible has existed for the same amount of time. In relation to Abraham, this is a skeptical attitude towards the words of the Lord, who promised:
- to make from him a great nation;
- magnify his name;
- through him to bless other nations.
The descendants of the righteous man became the ancestors of the Jews, Arabs and other peoples who preserved the name of their ancestor for thousands of years. No other person in earth's history has such fame. The Jews are a great people because they were marked by God, and the whole world knows about it.
Abraham, in anticipation of the fulfillment of these promises, grumbled and cried out to the Lord. God told him again and again that he would have an heir, and his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. Abraham believed God, and for this he became righteous. Faith is the main thing that matters to God. People try to gain righteousness by works, forgetting about faith.
History of the character
The character's name is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 11, verse 26. The text reports that Abraham's father, Terah, gave birth to, in addition to the future prophet, two more sons - Nahor and Haran. Of all the brothers, Haran, who later became the father of Lot, died during Terah’s lifetime. Terah himself went to another world, according to the Bible, at 205 years old. Abraham's wife (at birth the character was given the name Abram) becomes Sarah, his half-sister, a woman who turns out to be infertile.
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Abraham kills Isaac
Analysis of the Old Testament allows us to see that the hero became the first person since the Flood to whom God spoke directly. The Almighty promised the character that from him there would come many nations inhabiting the earth. The name of the prophet appears not only on the pages of the Old Testament - in the Gospel, Jesus Christ repeatedly mentions his ancestor in speeches, tells the Pharisees that Abraham knew about the coming of the Messiah to the people.
Iconography
The image of Abraham is used in five iconographic storylines taken from biblical stories. On icons the righteous man is depicted as a gray-haired old man. One of the most common images is dedicated to the Old Testament Trinity. The icon depicts three angels, symbolizing the three hypostases of God, and Abraham. The basis of the plot is the appearance of the Lord to the righteous in the form of three travelers, in whom he recognized God.
Other scenes with the image of the righteous:
- son sacrifice;
- as the forefather of nations;
- with a scroll in his hands.
Early Christian icons show Abraham up to his waist or chest. In later iconography there are images depicting the two main Old Testament prophets: Moses and Abraham.
Old Testament patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah
“Abraham and Sarah”
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Abraham (Heb. 'abraham - father of multitudes; father of heights) - Old Testament patriarch, ancestor of the Jews and through his sons from Hagar and Keturah - various Arab tribes. The blessing God gave Abraham makes him “the father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11; Gal. 3:6). Abraham's genealogy goes back to Shem (Genesis 11:10-26), his father was Terah, who had sons: Abram, Nahor, Aran (Genesis 11:26). With Abraham, a new stage in the “sacred history” of the post-Flood period begins: the previous course of God’s economy is contrasted with a new beginning of history with Abraham. After a confusion of languages occurred and people settled in different countries, faith in one God began to be forgotten, paganism reigned in the world - the worship of many gods, heavenly bodies and even inanimate objects. Righteous Abraham, one of the few, living among the pagans, retained faith in the true God. The Book of Acts of the Holy Apostles says that God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, before moving to Harran (Acts 7:2). Together with his father Terah, nephew Lot and wife Sarah, he left the then-large Lower Mesopotamian city of Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan (Gen. 11:31). Terah, who, like the fathers of Israel, served other gods (Joshua 24:2), did not reach the land of Canaan and died in Harran (Genesis 11:32). The Lord calls 75-year-old Abraham to go further: “... get out of your land, from your kindred [and go] to the land that I will show you” - and gives him a promise of great descendants and blessings: “And I will bring forth from you great people, I will bless you and magnify your name; and you will be a blessing; I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). Having moved to Canaan, Abraham reached Shechem. There the promise given to him was supplemented: the Lord promises to give this land to Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 12:7). God led Abraham to the land of Canaan, where nomadic shepherds lived, descendants of Canaan. This land was vast and fertile, but sparsely populated. So Canaan became the promised land, that is, the promised land. In the places where the Lord appeared, Abraham built altars to Him, which later became shrines (Gen. 12:7 - in Shechem; Gen. 12:8 - in Bethel; Gen. 13:8 - in the oak grove of Mamre near Hebron). Time passed, and a terrible famine began in Palestine, and Abraham and his people went to Egypt. Here he is forced to marry Sarah to his sister so that the Egyptians, seeing the beauty of the woman, do not kill him. But Sarah's chastity was preserved by God, who struck Pharaoh and his house; Abraham and his family returned to Canaan, having received great gifts from Pharaoh (Gen. 12: 10-20). Disputes arose between the shepherds of Abraham and Lot, who had large herds, which led to the division of their territories: Lot chose the land in the lower reaches of the Jordan, while Abraham retained the land of Canaan. After this, the Lord repeated the promise to give Abraham and his descendants forever the entire land of Canaan and to multiply Abraham’s descendants as “the sand of the earth” (Gen. 13:14-17). At the head of an armed detachment, Abraham defeated the Elamite king and his allies, who attacked the kings of the valley of Siddim and captured his nephew Lot (Gen. 14: 13-16). Upon returning from the war, there was a meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, the king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, who brought bread and wine to Abraham and blessed him, Abraham, in turn, allocated a tithe of the spoils to Melchizedek (Gen. 14: 17-24). To the childless, aged Abraham, who is ready to appoint Eliezer as his heir, God gives the promise of an heir and an increase in offspring, which will be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen. 15:5). Abraham believed this promise, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness. The Lord entered into a covenant with Abraham, which was accompanied by a sacrifice, predicted for him the fate of his descendants, up to their return to Canaan from Egyptian slavery, and determined the boundaries of the future Israeli state - “from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates...” (Gen. 15, 7- 21). In the land of Canaan, Abraham led the usual life of a cattle breeder. He grieved only that the Lord did not give him and Sarah children - Sarah was barren. Finally, after much deliberation, following the ancient custom, Sarah chose among her slaves a concubine for her husband, an Egyptian named Hagar, in order to raise the child she bore as her own. She invited Abraham to “enter” her maidservant Hagar so that Sarah could “have children by her.” Soon Hagar became pregnant. But to her misfortune, she immediately became proud and stopped showing respect to Sarah as her mistress. She complained to her husband: “I gave my maidservant into your bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, she began to despise me.” Abraham said to his wife: “Your maid is in your hands; do with her as you please.” Angered by Hagar's insolence, Sarah began to oppress her, and Hagar, unable to bear it, ran away from home. Not knowing where to go, she wandered through the desert all day, and at night she fell asleep under the open sky. An angel appeared to her in a dream and said: “Return to your mistress and submit to her!” Hagar listened to the angel, returned to Sarah and in due time gave birth to a son, who received the name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” The Lord again appeared to Abraham and told him a requirement that applied to his entire life: “Walk before Me and be blameless” (Gen. 17: 1). He made an “everlasting covenant” with Abraham, promising that he would become the father of many nations, and the Lord would be the God of Abraham and his descendants born of Sarah (Gen. 17:8). The entry into the eternal covenant was accompanied by a change in the names of Abram (the father is high) and Sarah to Abraham (the father of many nations - Gen. 17:5) and Sarah . In addition, as a sign of the covenant, God established the circumcision of every male child (vv. 9-14) and blessed Sarah, predicting that the heir of the covenant would be her son Isaac, and not Hagar’s son Ishmael, who, however, also received a blessing (vv. 16-21). Later, God once again appeared to Abraham in the form of three strangers (Gen. 18): one day three strangers passed by Abraham’s dwelling. Following the laws of hospitality, Abraham invited them to rest and refresh themselves. Sarah baked bread for the guests. Abraham slaughtered and ordered the calf to be roasted. Having had their fill, the wanderers thanked their hospitable hosts, and one of them said to Abraham: “I will be with you again at this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Hearing these words, Sarah, who was already 90 years old at that time, thought: “Should I, when I am old, have this consolation? And my lord is old." But the wanderer, guessing her thoughts, edifyingly said that nothing is impossible for the Lord. After which the wanderers left. These three wanderers were actually angels in whom God Himself incarnated. (Their image - the so-called “Old Testament Trinity” - is one of the most common subjects of Russian icons, including the famous “Trinity” of St. Andrei Rublev). A year later, as predicted, ninety-year-old Sarah and hundred-year-old Abraham had a son. Sarah was happy and at the same time confused. She said: “God made me laugh; whoever hears about me will laugh.” Sarah named her son Isaac, which means “laughter.” Isaac was the legitimate son of Abraham, but Ishmael, although born of a slave, was the eldest and, according to custom, had more rights. Sarah's hostility towards Hagar flared up with renewed vigor, and she turned to her husband, demanding: “Cast out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman will not inherit with my son Isaac.” “This seemed very unpleasant to Abraham,” he did not want to part with his eldest son, but God commanded him to do as Sarah required, and not to worry about the fate of Ismail, who, like Isaac, was destined to become the ancestor of a great nation. Abraham gave Hagar bread and a waterskin for the journey and advised her to go with her son to Egypt, where she was from. Hagar obeyed... Many years passed, Ismail grew up, became a good hunter and got married. As the Lord promised, his numerous descendants formed a people known as the Ishmaelites, Hagarites, or Arabs. (There is still a sacred stone in Mecca, under which, according to legend, Ishmael and Hagar are buried). Meanwhile, Abraham, having lost his eldest son, focused all his fatherly feelings on Isaac. God, wanting to make sure of Abraham’s devotion, decided to put him to the test: he demanded that Isaac be sacrificed. He said to Abraham: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and there offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about.” Early in the morning, Abraham chopped wood for the fire, saddled the donkey and, taking Isaac and two servants with him, set off for the land of Moriah. Three days later, Abraham and his companions reached the mountain that God had indicated. Abraham said to the servants: “You stay here with the donkey, and I and my son will go there and worship and return to you.” Abraham ordered Isaac to carry the wood, and he himself took the fire and the sacrificial knife. Along the way, “Isaac began to say to Abraham: “My Father!” Abraham answered: “Here am I, my son!” Then Isaac asked: “Here is the fire and the wood, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham replied, “God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” Having climbed to the top of the mountain, Abraham built an altar there and, having bound Isaac, placed him on top of the firewood. Then Abraham took a knife to kill his son. But then an angel called to him from heaven and said in the name of God: “Do not raise your hand against the boy and do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your only son for Me.” Abraham saw a ram nearby, entangled in the bushes, killed it and sacrificed it. Then father and son went down the mountain to their servants and returned home safely. When Isaac grew up, his father found him a wife named Rebekah. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons - Esau and Jacob. And Abraham and Sarah lived to a ripe old age: Sarah died at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years, and was buried by Abraham in a cave he bought for that purpose, in the field of Ephron the Hatite, at Machpelah, opposite Mamre. Abraham, after the death of Sarah, married Keturah and had 6 more sons from her (Gen. 25: 1-4). He died at the age of 175 “in good gray hair, aged and full of [life]” and was buried in the cave of Machpelah - the burial place of Sarah (Gen. 25: 7-10). As God promised Abraham, the descendants of Isaac became an independent people - the Israelites... In the New Testament, Abraham, together with Moses, are the most frequently mentioned righteous people of the Old Testament. The blessing of Abraham and the covenant with him were fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Acts 3:25). The evangelist and apostle Matthew begins the genealogy of Jesus with Abraham (Matthew 1:2) to show that Jesus Christ is not only the Son of King David, but also a true descendant of Abraham (Matthew 1:1), on whom the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled. Evangelist Luke also mentions Abraham not only as one of the figures in the genealogy going back to Adam (Luke 3:34), but also as an outstanding figure in the history of Israel (Acts 3:13; Acts 7:32; Acts 13, 26; cf. Acts 7: 2-8, 16-17). The Fathers of the Church and Christian writers used the story of Abraham for instruction in virtue, as an edifying lesson in piety, they saw in it prototypes pointing to the New Testament truth of Christ, and even an allegorical image of the procession of the fallen soul under divine protection along the path of perfection. The name of Abraham is often used in Christian prayers as part of an appeal to God (“God of Abraham,” “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” “God of Abraham and Israel,” etc.). In the personality of Sarah, the Apostle Peter sees an image of true female beauty and greatness, consisting “not in external braiding of hair, not in golden headdresses, not in elegant clothing, but in the imperishable beauty of a meek and silent spirit. Thus, once upon a time, holy wives who trusted in God adorned themselves, obeying their husbands. So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him master. You are her children if you do good and are not troubled by any fear” (1 Peter III: 1-6). And the prophet Isaiah points to Abraham and Sarah as prototypes of the expected work of salvation. Just as Sarah, after a long period of barrenness, gave birth to Isaac, so Zion, after a long period of desolation, will have the joy and joy of a triumphant multitude of children around it. Even higher than the restoration of Israel will be the great work of the future: it will be the source of salvation for all the nations of the world (Isaiah, LI, 2; LIV, 1, seq.). The Apostle Paul sees in Sarah the great mother of nations, to whom all those born in the spirit belong; she is a prototype of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all (Gal. IV, 22-31).
Abraham in Judaism
In ancient Jewish written sources (mildrash), Abraham is the first of the people to realize that God is one and to reject paganism. He became the first preacher of monotheism and a fighter against idolatry. According to the mildrash version, the site of Isaac's supposed sacrifice was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. King Solomon erected a temple (where the name of the mountain came from) on the site of the altar of burning his son.
Abraham is considered the author of the book Sefer Yetzirah, the primary source of Kabbalah, a religious movement in Judaism.
Interesting Facts
- Abraham is a hero whose name is often mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. The birth of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant made by Abraham with God. At the same time, his death repeats the sacrifice that the prophet was going to offer in the name of faith. In the New Testament, Abraham is considered the bearer of faith and the teacher who transmits its main principles. By his example he is a model of righteousness.
- Abraham is a character who appears in different religions. In the Koran, he is the prophet of Islam, named Ibrahim. His biography is similar to the biography from the Bible. It is curious that in Jewish midrashim the idea of monotheism and monotheism belongs to Abraham. According to legend, the hero is the first to understand that God is one. At the age of three, he received his sight, realizing that the idols of his ancestors were not those who were worthy of his faith, and he became a follower of the Lord. In the tradition of Jewish beliefs, Abraham is considered the creator of the Book of Creation. This literary source turned out to be the basis of the Kabbalistic movement.
- The hero's sacrifice has been interpreted by scientists and philosophers in different ways. Biblical scholars hold to the idea that the sacrifice of the innocent Isaac becomes an example of the refusal of the tribute to the Lord in the form of human life. It is believed that over time the Bible has undergone changes and modifications. It is likely that in the original version of the plot Abraham kills his son, but after the abolition of sacrifices the text was edited.
- The meaning of the name Avram in translation is “high father.” His wife's name is Sarah, which means "lady." The Lord commanded the couple to change their names at the moment when he announced that their role for the future of humanity was significant. Subsequently, God's interlocutor was called Abraham. The name is interpreted as "father of multitudes." The prophet's wife began to be called Sarah - "the lady of the multitude." This technique in literature and the plot twist in scripture indicate the exaltation of the character in the eyes of believers and in religion.
Abraham in the Islamic tradition
In Islam, Abraham is identical to the prophet and preacher of Allah, Ibrahim. The proof is provided by biographical coincidences set forth in the Koran and the Old Testament. Ibrahim was a Hanif. Hanifism prepared the way for the emergence and spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
Ibrahim's eldest son, Ismail, is considered the ancestor of the Arabs and the ancestor of Muhammad. The youngest, Ishak, is the ancestor of the Jewish tribe. The Tomb of Ibrahim is one of the most revered Muslim shrines, located in Hebron (Palestine).
Character history
Abraham is a biblical character considered the father of many nations. Initially, the hero of biblical myths is named Abram, but later God changes it to Abraham. Also called the ancestor of the Jewish people, the first in the Bible to be called a Jew. Over the course of many years - according to the description in the text of the Old Testament, the character lived for 175 years - he repeatedly demonstrated complete devotion to God and faith in him. The hero is the spiritual ancestor of those who adhere to Abrahamic religions. The image gained popularity not only in mythology, but also in art.
