Angry with Abram, Pharoah returned Sarai and asked them to leave Egypt. Abram left with carts of wealth. Abram returned to Canaan with Lot and Sarai, but Lot and Abram had a dispute over grazing land for their herds. Breaking with tradition, Abram allowed Lot—the younger of the two—to chose the land he would take.
Lot chose the fertile plain to the east, and Abram took the hills to the west. Lot's land included the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. After Abram was again settled, God came to Abram and renewed his promise; that Abram would inherit for his descendants all the land he could see in every direction. Lot moved to Sodom and was captured when local tribes attacked the city.
Abram—who had grown wealthy and distinguished—armed his men and pursued Lot's kidnappers, regaining Lot and his possessions. Again God affirmed his promises to Abram, Abram now being well advanced in years and without offspring. God reaffirmed that He would give the land from the Nile to the Euphrates to Abram's descendants, but only after they had spent years as slaves. With God having more than once affirmed his promise of numerous progeny to Abram, Sarai made a suggestion.
In the ancient world, it was a custom to offer a substitute to bear a child to ensure the continuation of the family. Sarai offered her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, to Abram to bear them a child. Abram consented, and at the age of 86 Hagar bore him a son, Ishmael.
Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, God once again appeared to Abram and renewed His covenant with Abram through the sign of circumcision and even expanded the promises: if Abram would "walk before [the LORD] and be upright" then God would make Abram the "father of a multitude of nations.
Abraham laughed at this seemingly absurd promise, because Abraham was 99 at the time and Sarah was When Abraham laughed, God said the boy's name would be Isaac, which means "he laughs. God came again to speak to Abraham, in the guise of a traveler with companions who were two angels. They were on their way to Sodom to destroy the city for its wickedness.
Abraham boldly bargained with God on behalf of Lot, and because of Abraham's favor, God relented: if there were just ten righteous people in Sodom, God would not destroy it. During God's and the angels' visit, Abraham served them Bedouin hospitality: a goat, water, and other food. Later, God could not find even ten righteous in Sodom, but spared Lot's family by warning them to leave before he destroyed the city. Lot's wife was turned to a pillar of salt when she turned to view Sodom as she fled.
A year later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Sarah grew increasingly jealous of Hagar and Ishmael, and Abraham relented to allow Sarah to send them out into the wilderness. God saved Hagar and Ishmael and promised Ishmael would also father a great nation through 12 sons, assumed by tradition to be the 12 Arab tribes. According to Christian and Jewish scripture, God stipulated, though, that the covenant would flow through Isaac's line. In Talmudic tradition, Ishmael was later down-played, cast as a bully to younger brother Isaac.
According to the Koran, Hagar and Ishmael made a journey to Mecca where they build a home and Abraham often visited them. According to Judaism and Christianity, Isaac is the son whom the offering story is about. According to Islamic interpretation, Ishmael is the son in the story. Either way, Abraham was asked in a test of faith by God to take one of his sons onto Mount Moriah and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.
At the time, children were often sacrificed as burnt offerings to a variety of deities. Abraham submitted, despite the fact that he "loved" his son. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. Muslims know Abraham as Ibrahim, and regard his as an important prophet of their faith. Ibrahim's first son Ishmael, known as Isma'il, is regarded as the father of the Arab people.
The story of Abraham and his descendents is found in the book of Genesis. We first meet him in Genesis chapter 11, although at this stage his name is Abram.
There is very little biographical detail about him apart from the fact that he was a shepherd and came from Ur in Mesopotamia - modern day Iraq - after which he and his family moved, with his father Terah, to Haran. This is a polytheistic age, an age when people believed in and worshipped many gods.
Yet within this atmosphere, Abram answers the call of God and it is because of this that he accepts and realises the reality of there being only one true God. In the Jewish tradition called Midrash a Hebrew word which means 'interpretation' and relates to the way readings or biblical verses are understood , there are a number of stories about Abraham smashing his father's idols when he realises that there can be only one God of heaven and earth. It doesn't matter whether the stories are true or not.
They acknowledge that Abraham was the first person to recognise and worship the one God. And so, monotheism was born. At the beginning of Genesis chapter 12, God asked Abram to leave his home and country and he makes Abram three promises: the promise of a relationship with God, numerous descendents and land. I will make you a great nation And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you, And whoever curses you I will curse; And all the peoples of the earth Will be blessed through you.
The only problem is that both Abram and his wife, Sarai later called Sarah are old people and childless. They will have to leave their homeland and they don't even know who this God is! They seem to be an almost impossible set of promises for God to keep. But the amazing fact about Abram is that he does what he is asked. There are no signs or miracles; he has no scriptures or traditions on which to draw, so Abram has to place his trust in this nameless God. Consequently, Abram has gone down in history as a man of tremendous faith.
As a result of his obedience, God changes his name to Abraham, meaning 'father of the people'. The ultimate test of Abraham's obedience, however, comes in Genesis 22 when he is asked to sacrifice his son by Sarah - Isaac. God had promised that Abraham's descendents would come through Isaac, so the level of faith he displays is quite astonishing.
Abraham trusts God and takes his son, as directed, up a mountain. At the very last minute, God intervenes and spares Isaac's life by providing another animal a ram for sacrifice. The test is complete and God once more reiterates his promises to Abraham of land, descendents and a personal relationship.
According to the Bible, Abraham is humanity's last chance to establish a relationship with God. At the beginning of the Bible in the creation narratives, Adam and Eve set in train a pattern of disobedience to God's commands which takes root. Even after the Great Flood, in which only Noah was saved, humanity once again comes perilously close to alienating themselves from their creator God. Of or related to a religious system characterized by belief in the existence of a single deity. A minor deity personally attached to a particular family; often represented by venerated idols cf.
Genesis Associated with a deity; exhibiting religious importance; set apart from ordinary i. A building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia that is one of the most sacred sites in Islam.
A pilgrimage to the Kaaba, at least once in a lifetime, is mandatory for all Muslims who are able to go. Site HarperCollins Dictionary.
People Home Abraham. Add this:. Abraham by Ronald Hendel Abraham is remembered in the Bible as the father of faith and the ancestor of the Israelites Gen ; Rom The three major monotheistic religions— Judaism , Christianity, and Islam—call Abraham their father. The importance of Abraham to these religions raises many questions, both theological and historical.
Did you know…? Abraham is the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? Abraham is portrayed as the first monotheist? The stories of Abraham are a mixture of history, folklore, and fiction? Ask a Scholar. Related Articles 7 Abraham and Islam Islam, considered to be the religion of Abraham, knows numerous traditions about Abraham, some of which do not appear in the Bible. Emergence of Judaism The Babylonian exile, the ascendance of Near Eastern Hellenism, and the formation of Christianity are each regarded as potential formative contexts for the emergence of Judaism.
Names of God The Hebrew Bible employs different names and titles for Yahweh that make use of conceptual imagery to communicate a variety of character traits and relationships. Abraham Jean-Louis Ska on the appeal of Abraham today. Monotheism and the Bible The word monotheism was coined in the 17th century and is often understood as the belief in one god with a denial of the existence of other deities.
HarperCollins Dictionary Amorites. The tribes. Related Passages Gen
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