`dəĭz'əm, j..... Click the link for more information. , he is said to have instituted the rite of circumcision as a sign of the covenant between God and the Jews, who are descended from Isaac Isaac (ī`zək) [Heb.,=laughter], according to the patriarchal narratives of the Book of Genesis, Isaac was the only son of Abraham
..... Click the link for more information. , son of Abraham's old age. Abraham also received the promise of Canaan for his people. In response to divine command, Abraham left Haran, taking his wife Sara Sara or Sarah, in the Bible, wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. With Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, she was one of the four Hebrew matriarchs. Her name was originally Sarai [Heb.,=princess].
..... Click the link for more information. and his nephew Lot Lot, in the Book of Genesis, the son of Abraham's brother Haran. Lot settled in Sodom and received a warning of its destruction. As he fled with his family, his wife, disobeying God's orders, looked back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt.
..... Click the link for more information. to Canaan, where God promised him many descendants who would become a great nation. His devotion and trust in God and his promises are exemplified pre-eminently in Abraham's preparedness to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Book of Joshua confesses Abraham as a one-time worshiper of other gods before he entered Canaan.
Muslims believe that Arabs are descended from Abraham and Hagar through their son Ishmael 1 Son of Abraham and Hagar ; ancestor of 12 tribes in N Arabia. Through Sara 's jealousy he and his mother were sent into the desert, where the angel of the Lord encountered them at a spring. Ishmael married an Egyptian and fathered 12 sons and a daughter.
..... Click the link for more information. . Abraham is further regarded as an ancestor of Muhammad. According to the Qur'an, Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba Kaaba or Caaba (both: kä`bə or kä`əbə) [Arab.
..... Click the link for more information. in Mecca Mecca (mĕk`ə) or Makkah
..... Click the link for more information. and instituted pilgrimages there. The Qur'an depicts him destroying the idols of his father and of his clan; hence, Islam is the restoration of the religion of Abraham.
Other Abraham traditions are to be found in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha (s'dĭpĭ`grəfə) [Gr.
..... Click the link for more information. , especially in the Book of Jubilees. See also Josephus' Jewish Antiquities. Modern biblical scholarship has revealed anachronisms in Genesis that cloud attempts to place chronologically Abraham's historical existence.
Bibliography
See T. L. Thompson, The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974); J. van Seters, Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); A. R. Millard and D. J. Wiseman, ed., Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives (1983).
Abraham
(flourished early 2nd millennium BC) First of the Hebrew patriarchs, revered by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Genesis tells how Abraham, at 75, left Ur with his barren wife, Sarai (later Sarah), and others to found a new nation in Canaan. There God made a covenant with him, promising that his descendants would inherit the land and become a great nation. Abraham fathered Ishmael by Sarah's maidservant Hagar; Sarah herself bore Isaac, who inherited the covenant. Abraham's faith was tested when God ordered him to sacrifice Isaac; he was prepared to obey but God relented. In Judaism he is a model of virtue, in Christianity he is the father of all believers, and in Islam he is an ancestor of Muhammad and a model (in Sufism) of generosity.
Abraham
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