Meddz biography of abraham

However, Lot objected and offered his virgin daughters who had not "known" v. They rejected that notion and sought to break down Lot's door to get to his male guests, [ 39 ] thus confirming the wickedness of the city and portending their imminent destruction. Early the next morning, Abraham went to the place where he stood before God. He "looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah" and saw what became of the cities of the plain, where not even "ten righteous" v.

Abraham settled between Kadesh and Shur in what the Bible anachronistically calls "the land of the Philistines ". While he was living in Gerar , Abraham openly claimed that Sarah was his sister. Upon discovering this news, King Abimelech had her brought to him. God then came to Abimelech in a dream and declared that taking her would result in death because she was a man's wife.

Abimelech had not laid hands on her, so he inquired if he would also slay a righteous nation, especially since Abraham had claimed that he and Sarah were siblings. In response, God told Abimelech that he did indeed have a blameless heart and that is why he continued to exist. However, should he not return the wife of Abraham back to him, God would surely destroy Abimelech and his entire household.

Abimelech was informed that Abraham was a prophet who would pray for him. Early next morning, Abimelech informed his servants of his dream and approached Abraham inquiring as to why he had brought such great guilt upon his kingdom. Abraham stated that he thought there was no fear of God in that place, and that they might kill him for his wife.

Then Abraham defended what he had said as not being a lie at all: "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

Meddz biography of abraham

Further, Abimelech gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve as Sarah's vindication before all. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech and his household, since God had stricken the women with infertility because of the taking of Sarah. After living for some time in the land of the Philistines, Abimelech and Phicol , the chief of his troops, approached Abraham because of a dispute that resulted in a violent confrontation at a well.

Abraham then reproached Abimelech due to his Philistine servant's aggressive attacks and the seizing of Abraham's Well. Abimelech claimed ignorance of the incident. Then Abraham offered a pact by providing sheep and oxen to Abimelech. Further, to attest that Abraham was the one who dug the well, he also gave Abimelech seven ewes for proof.

Because of this sworn oath, they called the place of this well: Beersheba. As had been prophesied in Mamre the previous year, [ 46 ] Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, on the first anniversary of the covenant of circumcision. Abraham was "an hundred years old", when his son whom he named Isaac was born; and he circumcised him when he was eight days old.

During the celebration, however, Sarah found Ishmael mocking; an observation that would begin to clarify the birthright of Isaac. Ishmael was fourteen years old when Abraham's son Isaac was born to Sarah. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac's inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed by his wife's words and sought the advice of his God.

God told Abraham not to be distressed but to do as his wife commanded. God reassured Abraham that "in Isaac shall seed be called to thee. Early the next morning, Abraham brought Hagar and Ishmael out together. He gave her bread and water and sent them away. The two wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba until her bottle of water was completely consumed.

In a moment of despair, she burst into tears. After God heard the boy's voice, an angel of the Lord confirmed to Hagar that he would become a great nation, and will be "living on his sword". A well of water then appeared so that it saved their lives. As the boy grew, he became a skilled archer living in the wilderness of Paran. Eventually his mother found a wife for Ishmael from her home country, the land of Egypt.

At some point in Isaac's youth, Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son up as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah. The patriarch traveled three days until he came to the mount that God told him of. He then commanded the servants to remain while he and Isaac proceeded alone into the mount. Isaac carried the wood upon which he would be sacrificed.

Along the way, Isaac asked his father where the animal for the burnt offering was, to which Abraham replied "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was interrupted by the angel of the Lord, and he saw behind him a "ram caught in a thicket by his horns", which he sacrificed instead of his son.

The place was later named as Jehovah-jireh. For his obedience he received another promise of numerous descendants and abundant prosperity. After this event, Abraham went to Beersheba. Sarah died, and Abraham buried her in the Cave of the Patriarchs the "cave of Machpelah" , near Hebron which he had purchased along with the adjoining field from Ephron the Hittite.

He died at age , and was buried in the cave of Machpelah by his sons Isaac and Ishmael. In the early and middle 20th century, leading archaeologists such as William F. Albright and G. Ernest Wright and biblical scholars such as Albrecht Alt and John Bright believed that the patriarchs and matriarchs were either real individuals or believable composites of people who lived in the " patriarchal age ", the 2nd millennium BCE.

His thesis centered on the lack of compelling evidence that the patriarchs lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, and noted how certain biblical texts reflected first millennium conditions and concerns. Van Seters examined the patriarchal stories and argued that their names, social milieu, and messages strongly suggested that they were Iron Age creations.

Abraham's story, like those of the other patriarchs, most likely had a substantial oral prehistory [ 71 ] he is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel [ 72 ] and the Book of Isaiah [ 73 ]. As with Moses , Abraham's name is apparently very ancient, as the tradition found in the Book of Genesis no longer understands its original meaning probably "Father is exalted" — the meaning offered in Genesis , "Father of a multitude", is a folk etymology.

The completion of the Torah and its elevation to the centre of post-Exilic Judaism was as much or more about combining older texts as writing new ones — the final Pentateuch was based on existing traditions. According to Nissim Amzallag , the Book of Genesis portrays Abraham as having an Amorite origin, arguing that the patriarch's provenance from the region of Harran as described in Genesis associates him with the territory of the Amorite homeland.

He also notes parallels between the biblical narrative and the Amorite migration into the Southern Levant in the 2nd millennium BCE. Fleming and Alice Mandell have argued that the biblical portrayal of the Patriarchs' lifestyle appears to reflect the Amorite culture of the 2nd millennium BCE as attested in texts from the ancient city-state of Mari , suggesting that the Genesis stories retain historical memories of the ancestral origins of some of the Israelites.

He also suggests that the Patriarch's name corresponds to a form typical of the Middle Bronze Age and not of later periods. The earliest possible reference to Abraham may be the name of a town in the Negev listed in a victory inscription of Pharaoh Sheshonq I biblical Shishak , which is referred as "the Fortress of Abraham", suggesting the possible existence of an Abraham tradition in the 10th century BCE.

Furthermore, many interpreted blood ties between tribe members as common descent from an eponymous ancestor i. Abraham's Journey from Ur to Harran could be explained as a retrospective reflection of the story of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile. Indeed, Israel Finkelstein suggested that the oldest Abraham traditions originated in the Iron Age monarchic period and that they contained an autochthonous hero story, as the oldest mentions of Abraham outside the book of Genesis Ezekiel 33 and Isaiah 51 : do not depend on Genesis 12—26; do not have an indication of a Mesopotamian origin of Abraham; and present only two main themes of the Abraham narrative in Genesis—land and offspring.

Abraham is given a high position of respect in three major world faiths, Judaism , Christianity , and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God—leading to the belief that the Jews are the chosen people of God. In Christianity, Paul the Apostle taught that Abraham's faith in God—preceding the Mosaic law —made him the prototype of all believers, Jewish or gentile ; and in Islam, he is seen as a link in the chain of prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.

In Legends of the Jews , God created heaven and earth for the sake of the merits of Abraham. Before leaving his father's land, Abraham was miraculously saved from the fiery furnace of Nimrod following his brave action of breaking the idols of the Chaldeans into pieces. Abraham is generally credited as the author of the Sefer Yetzirah , one of the earliest extant books on Jewish mysticism.

According to Pirkei Avot , Abraham underwent ten tests at God's command. In Christianity , Abraham is revered as the prophet to whom God chose to reveal himself and with whom God initiated a covenant cf. Covenant Theology. Throughout history, church leaders, following Paul, have emphasized Abraham as the spiritual father of all Christians. He is also commemorated in the calendars of saints of several denominations: on 20 August by the Maronite Church , 28 August in the Coptic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East with the full office for the latter , and on 9 October by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

The first time is on 9 October for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar , 9 October falls on 22 October of the modern Gregorian Calendar , where he is commemorated together with his nephew "Righteous Lot". The other is on the "Sunday of the Forefathers" two Sundays before Christmas , when he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus.

Abraham is also mentioned in the Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great , just before the Anaphora, and Abraham and Sarah are invoked in the prayers said by the priest over a newly married couple. A popular hymn sung in many English-speaking Sunday Schools by children is known as "Father Abraham" and emphasizes the patriarch as the spiritual progenitor of Christians.

Some Christian theologians equate the "three visitors" with the Holy Trinity , seeing in their apparition a theophany experienced by Abraham [ ] see also the articles on the Constantinian basilica at Mamre and the church at the so-called " Oak of Mamre ". Islam regards Ibrahim Abraham as a link in the chain of prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad via Ismail Ishmael.

In Islam, Abraham holds an exalted position among the major prophets and he is referred to as "Ibrahim Khalilullah", meaning "Abraham the Friend of God ". Besides Ishaq and Yaqub , Ibrahim is among the most honorable and the most excellent men in sight of God. The Druze regard Abraham as the third spokesman natiq after Adam and Noah , who helped transmit the foundational teachings of monotheism tawhid intended for the larger audience.

Mandaeans consider Abraham to have been originally a Mandaean priest, however they differ with Abraham and Jews regarding circumcision which they consider to be bodily mutilation and therefore forbidden. No one supported him except his nephew Lot and "one or two other individuals of no consequence". Abraham then came to "these regions", that is, to the Holy Land.

The purpose of God, moreover, was to sacrifice him as a ransom for the sins and iniquities of all the peoples of the earth. Paintings on the life of Abraham tend to focus on only a few incidents: the sacrifice of Isaac; meeting Melchizedek; entertaining the three angels; Hagar in the desert; and a few others. The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus depicts a set of biblical stories, including Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac.

These sculpted scenes are on the outside of a marble Early Christian sarcophagus used for the burial of Junius Bassus. He died in This sarcophagus has been described as "probably the single most famous piece of early Christian relief sculpture. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The Old Testament scenes depicted were chosen as precursors of Christ's sacrifice in the New Testament , in an early form of typology.

Just to the right of the middle is Daniel in the lion's den and on the left is Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham was the recipient of the first covenant close covenant An agreement or promise. Abraham was born in the city of Ur located in the country now called Iraq at a time when worshipping idols close idolatry The worship of an idol, object or person instead of God.

God instructed Abraham to leave his home and travel to Canaan, the Promised Land. Canaan was an ancient country close to modern-day Israel. In contrast with Abraham's home, Canaan was an arid wasteland. God asked Abraham to follow the rules he had set and be a good example to others. Also Read: Matthew in the Bible. This covenant is considered one of the most foundational in the Bible and plays a central role in the history and theology of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Also Read: Timeline of Abraham. Sarai was known for her beauty, and she accompanied Abraham on his journey. This event occurred when Abraham and Sarah were well advanced in years, and it seemed impossible for them to have children. However, God intervened, and Sarah became pregnant, giving birth to Isaac. Isaac would go on to become a key figure in the biblical narrative as well.

Perhaps one of the most well-known stories about Abraham is the test of faith involving his son, Isaac. So Abram took trained men from his household, recovered Lot, and defeated the kings allied against him. Abram and the King of Sodom met in the Valley of Shaveh when the battle ended. There, they encountered Melchizedek Gen. And blessed by God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.

A surprising encounter indeed. As mentioned in an article on the Order of Melchizedek , the Rev Dr. This panel shows the angels appearing before Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Michelangelo called the doors the ' Gates of Paradise. After this, Abram begins to question how he will be the father of a great nation when he has no children.

Abram still questions God—this time about the promised land, so God has him bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove and a young pigeon that are sacrificed. According to the Christianity. Animals would be literally cut in two. It was up to the junior member of the party to keep the terms of the covenant. Eleven years roughly had passed since God had told Abram that God would make him a great nation.

Sarai gets the mistaken notion that maybe God meant that Abram could have intercourse with her servant Hagar and have a baby that way. Abram goes along with it, and she has a son with Hagar, whom they name Ishmael. When Abram was 99 years old, and his son Ishmael was 13, God appeared to Abram again to confirm His covenant with man.

He fell on his face as God said his name would now be Abraham Gen. This would be a sacrifice to God for all generations. God then tells Abraham that he is to call his wife Sarah, and he will have the promised child with her. God tells Abraham that the eternal covenant would be established through the son of He and Sarah.