ABRAHAM (Jewish Encyclopedia)
From BibleWiki
Contents |
Birth and Wanderings.
—Biblical Data:
According to the Bible, Abraham (or Abram) was the father of the Hebrews. The Biblical account of the life of Abram is found in Gen. xi. 26 to xxv. 10. According to this narrative, he was the son of Terah and was born at Ur of the Chaldees. Terah, with Abram, Sarai (Abram's wife), and Lot (Abram's nephew), left Ur to go to the land of Canaan; but they tarried at Haran, where Terah died (Gen. xi. 26-32). There the Lord appeared to Abram in the first of a series of visions, and bade him leave the country with his family, promising to make of him a great nation (ib. xii. 1-3), a promise that was renewed on several occasions. Accordingly, Abram with Sarai and Lot started for Canaan; and at the site of Sichem (or Shechem) the Lord promised the land as an inheritance to the patriarch's seed. After so-journing for a while between Beth-el and Hai (or Ai), Abram, on account of a famine, went to Egypt. Here, to guard against Pharaoh's jealousy, he passed Sarai off as his sister. Pharaoh took her into the royal household, but, discovering the deception, released her and sent Abram and his family away (ib. xii. 9-20). Abram returned northward to his former place of sojourn between Beth-el and Hai. There his shepherds quarreled with those of Lot, and the uncle and nephew separated, Lot going east to Sodom, while Abram remained in Canaan (ib. xiii. 1-12). Again the Lord appeared to the patriarch, and promised him an abundant progeny which should inherit the land of Canaan (ib. xiii. 14-17).
Abram now removed to Mamre (ib. xiii. 18) inHebron, whence he made a successful expedition against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and his confederate kings, from whom he rescued Lot, whom Chedorlaomer had captured in the course of an attack upon Sodom and Gomorrah. On his return from this expedition, Abram was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem, and refused to retain the recaptured booty offered him by the king of Sodom (ib. xiv.).
Birth of Ishmael.
Once more the Lord appeared to Abram with a promise of abundant offspring, at the same time foretelling their captivity for four hundred years in a strange land and their subsequent inheritance of the land between "the river of Egypt" and the Euphrates. "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (ib. xv. 6). Sarai had hitherto been barren. She now gave Abram her handmaid Hagar, an Egyptian, as wife; and the latter bore a son, Ishmael, Abram being at the time eighty-six years old (ib. xvi.). Again the Lord appeared to the patriarch with the promise of a numerous posterity. At the same time, in token of the promise, Abram's name was changed to Abraham ("Father of Many Nations"), and that of Sarai to Sarah ("Princess"). The Lord also instituted the "covenant of circumcision," and promised that Sarah should bear a son, Isaac, with whom he would establish it. Abraham thereupon circumcised himself and Ishmael (ib. xvii. 1-21). Soon after, three angels in human guise were hospitably entertained by Abraham in Mamre, where the Lord again foretold Isaac's birth, and when Sarah doubted the promise, the Lord himself appeared and renewed it (ib. xviii. 1-15).
In recognition of Abraham's piety the Lord now acquainted him with His intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah on account of their wickedness; but, after several appeals from Abraham, He promised that Sodom should be spared if ten righteous men could be found therein (ib. xviii. 17-32). The cities were destroyed; but Lot and his family, who had been warned, fled from Sodom before its destruction. Abraham now journeyed to Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur, and for the second time passed Sarah off as his sister. Abimelech, king of Gerar, took her into his house; but, on being rebuked by God, released her precisely as Pharaoh had done (ib. xx.).
Birth and Sacrifice of Isaac.
At the appointed time Isaac was born, Abraham being a hundred years old. Soon after, Ishmael, Hagar's son, was seen "mocking" by Sarah, and at her solicitation he and his mother were banished. Hagar was comforted in the wilderness by an angel of God (ib. xxi. 1-12). Abraham was now a powerful man; and at the solicitation of Abimelech, king of Gerar, he made a covenant with that monarch at Beer-sheba in the land of the Philistines. At Beer-sheba Abraham sojourned many days (ib. xxi. 22-34).
The greatest trial of the patriarch's life came when God bade him offer up his only son as a burnt offering. Without a moment's hesitation Abraham took Isaac and proceeded to the land of Moriah, where he was just about to sacrifice him, when an angel of the Lord restrained him, once more delivering the prophecy that the patriarch's seed should be "as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore," and that in them all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Instead of Isaac a ram caught in a thicket was sacrificed (ib. xxii. 1-18). Abraham returned to Beer-sheba, and was sojourning there when Sarah died at Kirjatharba (also called Hebron and Mamre), at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven (ib. xxiii. 1, 2). Abraham went to Mamre and bought the cave of Machpelah as a burial-place; and there he buried Sarah (ib. xxiii. 3-20).
Isaac was now thirty-six years old, and Abraham sent Eliezer, his servant, to bring a wife for himfrom among Abraham's own people. Eliezer journeyed to Nahor, and returned with Rebekah, Abraham's grandniece, whom Isaac married (ib. xxiv.). Abraham now married again, taking as his wife Keturah, by whom he had several children. Before his death he "gave all that he had" to Isaac, and sent the sons of his concubines away after bestowing some gifts upon them (ib. xxv. 1-6). Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years; and Isaac and Ishmael buried him beside Sarah in the cave of Machpelah (ib. xxv. 7-9).
Prototype of the Jewish Race.
Abraham in Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature
Islamic tradition
Of all the Biblical personages mentioned in the Koran, Abraham is undoubtedly the most important. As is the case with all the Biblical material contained in the Koran, its source must be looked for not in any written documents, but in the stories, more or less tinged by midrashic additions, which Mohammed heard from his Jewish or Christian teachers and friends. Care must also be taken to distinguish the various periods in the preaching of the Arabian prophet; for in these matters Mohammed lived from hand to mouth, and his views as to the importance of Biblical personages varied with changing circumstances and changing needs. In his early preachings Mohammed shows very little knowledge of the patriarch. The only mention of him during the early Meccan period is found in sura lxxxvii. 19 (compare sura liii. 37), where Mohammed makes a passing reference to the "Suḥuf Ibrahim" (the Rolls of Abraham); these can not have reference, as Sprenger thinks ("Leben u. Lehre Mohammeds," ii. 348, 363 et seq.), to any real apocryphal books, but merely to a reminiscenceof what Mohammed had heard about the mention of Abraham in the sacred books of the Jews and Christians (Kuenen, "National and Universal Religions," p. 297, note 1, and pp. 317-323, New York, 1882). Similarly in sura liii. 37—a passage certainly not older than the end of the first Meccan period (Nöldeke, "Gesch. des Korans," p. 79)—he speaks of Abraham as of one that had fulfilled his word, giving as his reference the same Rolls of Abraham (Hirschfeld, "Beiträge zur Erklärung des Korans," p. 12; compare Gen. xxii. 16). To this later Meccan period may also belong what Mohammed has to say of Abraham as one who was oppressed for preaching the true religion and for championing his God. This part of Abraham's career appealed very strongly to Mohammed; for he saw in it a certain prototype of his own early and severe struggles with the patricians of his native city. As Mohammed is the last of the prophets, so Abraham is among the first. Abraham is evidently—though this is not directly stated—one of the seven bearers of Maṭani, the messages repeated from out of the heavenly book (sura xv. 87; compare xxxix. 24). The other six are the prophets of Ad, Thamud, and Midian, and Noah, Lot, and Moses. Abraham is a righteous man ( (image) ) and prophet (sura xix. 42).
"Great, Greater, Greatest."
In the later suras Mohammed seems to have learned more about Abraham. In sura vi. 75 he relates how the prophet came to worship God by watching physical phenomena: "Thus did we show Abraham the kingdom of heaven and of the earth, that he should be of those who are sure. And when the night overshadowed him he saw a star and said, 'This is my Lord'; but when it set he said, 'I love not those that set.' And when he saw the moon beginning to rise he said, 'This is my Lord'; but when it set he said, 'If my Lord guides me not I shall surely be of the people who err.' And when he saw the sun beginning to rise he said, 'This is my Lord, this is the greatest of all'; but when it set he said, 'O my people, verily, I am clear of what ye associate with God; verily, I have turned my face to Him who created the heaven and the earth.'"
The name of Abraham's father is said to have been Azar, though some of the later Arab writers give the name correctly as Teraḥ. Others claim that Azar was his real name, while Teraḥ was his surname (Nawawi, "Biographical Dict. of Illustrious Men," p. 128; but see Jawaliḳi, "Al-Mu'arrab," ed. Sachau, p. 21; "Z. D. M. G." xxxiii. 214). Still a third class of authorities say that Azar means either "the old man" or "the perverse one." Modern scholars have suggested that the word is a mistake for (image) (B. B. 15a; see Pautz, "Mohammed's Lehre von der Offenbarung," p. 242). This Azar was a great worshiper of idols, and Abraham had hard work in dissuading him from worshiping them. The story is told in sura xxi. 53 et seq.: "And we gave Abraham a right direction before; for about him we knew. When he said to his father and to his people, 'What are these images to which ye pay devotion?' said they, 'We found our fathers serving them.' Said he, 'Both ye and your fathers have been in obvious error.' They said, 'Dost thou come to us with the truth, or art thou of those that sport?' He said, 'Nay, but your Lord is Lord of the heavens and of the earth, which He created; and I am of those who testify to this, and, by God, I will plot against your idols after ye have turned and shown me your backs.' So he brake them all in pieces, except a large one that haply they might refer it to [lay the blame upon] him. Said they, 'Who has done this with our gods? Verily, he is of the wrong-doers.' They said, 'We heard a youth speak of them, who is called Abraham.' Said they, 'Then bring him before the eyes of men; haply they will bear witness.' Said they, 'Was it thou who did this to our gods, O Abraham?' Said he, 'Nay, it was this largest of them; but ask them if they can speak. . . .' Said they, 'Burn him and help your gods if ye are going to do so.' We said, 'O fire! be thou cool and a safety for Abraham.'" In suras xxvii. and xxxix. Mohammed returns to this story, and adds the account of the messengers that came to Abraham, of the promise of a son named Isaac, and of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. "We turned these cities upside down and rained on them stones of baked clay" (compare sura li. 34). The destruction of the two cities served Mohammed as a warning, taken from history, which he desired to impress upon his opponents in Mecca.
The 'Aḳedah, or sacrifice of Isaac, is mentioned in several places in the Koran. The following account is found in sura xxxvii. 100 et seq.: "And when he reached the age to work with him he said: 'O my boy ! verily I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee; look, then, that thou seest right.' Said he, 'O my sire! do what thou art bidden; thou wilt find me, if it please God, one of the patient.' And when they were resigned and Abraham had thrown him down upon his forehead, we called to him, 'O Abraham! thou hast verified the vision; verily, thus do we reward those who do good. This is surely an obvious trial.' And we rewarded him with a mighty victim."
Prominence Given to Abraham.
Mohammed, however, went further than this, and, in order to strengthen his position against his Jewish opponents in Medina, made out of Abraham the most prominent figure in premohammedan religious history. He alleges that Abraham was the real founder of the religion that he himself was preaching; that Islam was merely a restatement of the old religion of Abraham and not a new faith now preached for the first time. Abraham is the "friend of God" (sura iv. 124), an appellation that the followers of Islam now usually apply to him, and on account of which to-day the city of Hebron is called Al-Halil (compare Isa. xli. 8; Ab. R. N. 61a). He is also said to have been an imam, or religious leader (compare suras ii. 118, xvi. 121), and perhaps also a "ḥanif"; "he was not one of the idolaters. . . . [God] chose him, and He guided him unto the right way. . . . Then we inspired thee, Follow the faith of Abraham, a ḥanif, for he was not of the idolaters." The exact meaning of "ḥanif" is uncertain; but it seems in general to designate a man who searched after the truth and despised idolatry (Kuenen, l.c. note 2, pp. 323-326; Wellhausen, "Skizzen," iii. 207).
Characteristic is the following saying: "Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian, but he was a ḥanif resigned, and not of the idolaters. Verily, the people most worthy of Abraham are those that follow him and his prophets, and those that believe" (sura iii. 60). With the same theological intent Mohammed makes various references to the Millat Ibrahim ("Religion of Abraham") as the one he desires his people to follow (suras xvi. 124, ii. 124, xxii. 77).
During the latest period of Mohammed's activity in Medina he became still bolder, and, in developing his theory in regard to Abraham, left entirely the beaten track of Jewish and Christian Midrash. It had become necessary for him to break entirely with the Jews, who refused to acknowledge him as prophet. The ḳiblah, or direction of prayer, was still toward Jerusalem. As the Jews had refused to follow Mohammed it was necessary to dissociatehis religion from theirs, and to turn the faces and thoughts of his followers from Jerusalem to Mecca. In order that the change might be effected with as little friction as possible, Mohammed connected Mecca and its holy house, the Kaaba, with the history of Abraham, the real founder of his Islam. It is here that Ishmael comes for the first time prominently forward. In one of the latest suras (ii. 118 et seq.) a passage reads: "And when we made the house a place of resort unto men, and a sanctuary, and (said) take the station of Abraham for a place of prayer; and covenanted with Abraham and Ishmael, saying, 'Do ye two cleanse my house for those who make the circuit, for those who pay devotions there, for those who bow down, and for those, too, who adore. . . .' And when Abraham raised up the foundations of the house with Ishmael, 'Lord, receive it from us. Verily, Thou art hearing and Thou dost know. Lord, and make us, too, resigned unto Thee and of our seed also a nation resigned unto Thee, and show us our rites, and turn toward us; verily, Thou art easy to be turned and merciful. Lord, and send them an apostle from amongst themselves, to read to them Thy signs and teach them the Book and wisdom, and to purify them; verily, Thou art the mighty and the wise'" (compare suras iii. 90-93, xxii. 27-31).
There is no local tradition connecting Abraham with Mecca; and we are forced to put this down as a pure invention on the part of the prophet, based on political as well as on theological reasons. According to Shahrastani (Arabic text, p. 430), this Kaaba was the reproduction of the one in heaven. The "Makam Ibrahim," or Station of Abraham, is still pointed out within the sacred enclosure at Mecca; and the footsteps of the patriarch are believed by the worshipers still to be there (Snouck Hurgronje, "Het Mekkaansche Feest," p. 40; Mekka, i. 11).
Mohammedan Midrash on Abraham.
The stories in regard to Abraham, told in a few words in the Koran, naturally form the basis for further midrashic expansion among the Arabs. The likeness of the history of Abraham to certain features in the life of their own prophet made him a favorite subject in the hands of commentators and historians. Mohammedan writers had two sources from which they drew their knowledge of the Bible and of its midrashic interpretation: verbal information from the akhbar ("rabbis"), and a study of the text of the Bible itself, and occasionally of comments upon it. The former source was undoubtedly the more prolific of the two. The material is to be found in the standard commentators on the Koran—Zamakhshari, Baidawi, Tabari; but more have been incorporated in the works of Arabic historians, who commenced their histories with the earliest accounts of man, and were thus bound to have a more or less close acquaintance with the Taurat (Torah) and the Midrash upon it. Some of the historians are quite exact, as Ibn Ḳutaibah, and the first philosopher of history, Ibn Khaldun; others, however, are less critical, as Tabari, Masudi, Ḥamza, Biruni, Maḳrizi, Ibn al-Athir, Abu al-Fida (compare Goldziher, "Über Mohammedanische Polemik gegen die Ahl al-Kitab," in "Z.D.M.G." xxxii. 357). They have much to say about the trials that Abraham underwent in fighting idolatry. They dilate upon the great furnace that Nimrod had built in Kutha for this purpose, and how the furnace was changed into a garden. A Kurd named Hayun, Haizar, or Haizan, is said to have advised Nimrod to have Abraham burnt. Abraham's father is said to have been a carver of images; and Abraham, in selling his father's wares, attempted to convert the people by crying out, "Who wishes to buy that which neither hurts nor betters?" Large midrashic additions are made in order to bring Nimrod into connection with Abraham. It is said that the stargazers warned him that a boy would be born that would in the future break all the idols; that Nimrod gave orders to put to death all children born; but that when Abraham was born his mother hid him in a cave in which, during a few days, he grew to man's estate, and thus foiled the purpose of the king.
The incongruity of Mohammed's connecting Abraham with the building of the Kaaba was evidently clearly felt, and it is therefore added that his going to Mecca was due to the rupture between Sarah and Hagar. God told Abraham to take the bondmaid and her child, Ishmael, into Arabia; and it was at the Zemzem well within the sacred enclosure that the water rose up which slaked the thirst of the boy. On two occasions Abraham is said to have paid a visit to Ishmael's house in his absence; and, by the answers which each wife gave to her father-in-law, Abraham advises his son, in the one case, to send his first wife away, and in the other to keep his second wife. In the building of the Kaaba, Abraham was assisted by the Shekinah ( (image) ); others say by a cloud or by the angel Gabriel. Abraham acted as muezzin, delivered all the necessary prayers, and made the various circuits demanded by the later ritual. It was he also who first threw stones at Iblis (the devil) in the valley of Mina, a procedure which still forms part of the ceremonies connected with the ḥajj. It is natural that in these later accretions Ishmael should take the place of Isaac. Some authors even state that it was Ishmael who was to have been offered up; and that he therefore bears the name Al-Dhabiḥ ("Slaughtered One"). The place of the 'Aḳedah is also transferred to Mina, near Mecca. The ram offered up in lieu of the son is said to have been the same as the one offered by Abel. The slaughtering of Isaac is dwelt upon at length, as well as the firmness of Abraham in resisting the enticement of Iblis, who placed himself directly in his path. This is said to have been one of the trials (sura ii. 118) which Abraham underwent. Arabic commentators, however, speak of three trials only, and not of ten, as does the Jewish Haggadah.
Many of the religious observances that are now found in Islam are referred to Abraham; parallels to which, as far as the institution of certain prayers is concerned, can be found in rabbinical literature.
Abraham is often called by Arabic authors the "father of hospitality"; and long accounts are given of the visit of the angels. He is also said to have been the first whose hair grew white. Of his death an Arabic Midrash has the following: When God wished to take the soul of Abraham He sent the Angel of Death to him in the form of a decrepit old man. Abraham was at table with some guests, when he saw an old man walking in the heat of the sun. He sent an ass to carry the man to his tent. The old man, however, had hardly sufficient strength to put the food set before him to his mouth; and even then he had the greatest difficulty in swallowing it. Now, a long time before this, Abraham had asked God not to take away his soul until he (Abraham) should make the request. When he saw the actions of this old man he asked him what ailed him. "It is the result of old age, O Abraham!" he answered. "How old are you, then?" asked Abraham. The old man gave his age as two years more than that of Abraham, upon which the patriarch exclaimed, "In two years' time I shall be like him! O God! takeme to Thyself." The old man, who was no other than the Angel of Death, then took away Abraham's soul.
Rabbinical midrashic parallels can easily be found to most of the legends referred to above: a large number are given in Grünbaum ("Neue Beiträge zur Semitischen Sagenkunde"). It is of interest to observe that these Mohammedan additions have also, in some cases, found their way into Jewish literature. They are met with in works that have been written under Arabic influence in one form or another. Abraham's visit to Ishmael is found in the Pirḳe R. El. xxx. and in the "Sefer ha-Yashar." In the "Shebeṭ Musar" of Elijah ha-Kohen there is an appendix entitled "Tale of That Which Happened to Our Father Abraham in Connection with Nimrod." Elijah lived in Smyrna at the beginning of the eighteenth century, which fact will explain the Arabic influence.
Bibliography: Koran, suras ii. iii. iv.vi. xi. xxix. xxxvii. li. lx. (the citations above are from Palmer's translation in the Sacred Books of the East, vols. vi. ix.), and the commentators mentioned in the article; Tabari, Annales, i. 254 et seq.; Ibn al-Athir, Chronicon, ed. Tornberg, i. 67 et seq.; Ibn Ḳutaibah, Handbuch der Geschichte, ed. Wüstenfeld, pp. 16 et seq.; Masudi, Les Prairies d'Or, ed. Barbier de Meynard, ix. 105, index; Pseudo-Masudi, Abrégé des Merveilles, tr. by Carra de Vaux, pp. 131, 322; Wüstenfeld, Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, Arabic text, i. 21 et seq., German tr. iv. 7 et seq.; Al-Yaḳubi, Historiœ, ed. Houtsma, i. 21 et seq.; Yaḳut's Geographisches Wörterbuch, ed. Wüstenfeld, vi. 266, index. For special histories of the prophets see Brockelmann, Gesch. der Arabischen Lit. i. 350. The traditions in the Koran and later works are collected in Al-Nawawi, Biographical Dict. of Illustrious Men, ed. Wüstenfeld, pp. 125 et seq.; and Abu al-Fida, Historia Anteislamica, ed. Fleischer, pp. 125 et seq. Abraham's position in the history of religion from the Mohammedan standpoint is considered by Al-Shahrastani, Kitab al-Milal wal-Naḥal, ed. Cureton, pp. 244, 247, 261 (German transl. by Haarbrücker, index, s.v.). Modern works on the subject: Geiger, Was Hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume Aufgenommen? pp. 121 et seq.; Hirschfeld, Beiträge zur Erklärung des Korans, pp. 43, 59; Grimme, Mohammed, i. 60 et seq., ii. 76, 82 et seq.; Pautz, Mohammed's Lehre von der Offenbarung, pp. 173, 228; Smith, The Bible and Islam, pp. 68 et seq.; Bate, Studies in Islam, pp. 60 et seq. For the later legends see Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, pp. 68 et seq.; Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge zur Semitischen Sagenkunde, pp. 89 et seq.; Bacher, Bibel und Biblische Geschichte in der Mohammedanischen Literatur, in Kobak's Jeschurun, viii. 1-29; G. A. Kohut, Haggadic Elements in Arabic Legends, in Independent, New York, 1898, Jan. 8 et seq.; Lidzbarski, De Profeticis, quœ dicuntur, Legendis Arabicis, Leipsic, 1893.
—Critical View:
Etymology.
The original and proper form of this name seems to be either "Abram" or "Abiram" (I Kings, xvi. 34; Deut. xi. 6), with the meaning, "my Father [or my God] is exalted." The form "Abraham" yields no sense in Hebrew, and is probably only a graphic variation of "Abram," the h being simply a letter, indicating a preceding vowel, a; but popular tradition explains it "father of a multitude" (ab hamon), given as a new name on the occasion of a turning-point in the patriarch's career (Gen. xvii. 5). The name is personal, not tribal; it appears as a personal name in Babylonia in the time of Apil-Sin (about 2320 B.C.; Meissner, "Beiträge zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht," No. 111), and is not employed in the Old Testament in an ethnical sense (for example, it is not so employed in Micah, vii. 20, nor in Isa. xli. 8).
National Significance.
In the earlier so-called Jahvistic narrative, Abraham embodies particularly the conception of Israel's title to the land of Canaan. He comes from the East to Canaan, receives the promise of the land, separates from Lot (Moab and Ammon), from Ishmael (Arabian tribes), and from the sons of Keturah (other Arabian tribes), thus eliminating any possible future contention as to the title to the country. A continuous process of selection and exclusion is here exemplified, the result of which is to identify Abraham with Canaan; such was the popular conception of him as late as the time of Ezekiel (Ezek. xxxiii. 24). In the narrative which the critics regard as postexilian, or the Priestly Code, Abraham further represents the formal covenant of God (El Shaddai) with the nation, sealed by the rite of circumcision (Covenant). He stands, in a word, for the premosaic religious constitution of the people.
Character.
Abraham's singularly majestic and attractive personality, as it appears in Genesis, is in this view the outcome of generations of thought. Each age contributed to the portrait of what it held to be purest and noblest and worthiest of the first forefather. The result is a figure, solitary, calm, strong, resting unswervingly on God, and moving unscathed among men. Later he was thought of as "the friend of God" (Isa. xli. 8). Paul calls him the father of all who believe (Rom. iv.). Mohammed takes him as the representative of the absolute primitive religion, from which Judaism and Christianity have diverged, and to which Islam has returned. The character shows, however, a commingling of high and low. There are generosity (Gen. xiii.), bravery (Gen. xiv.), a fine sense of justice (Gen. xviii.). But tradition, in order to bring out God's special care of the hero, twice makes him guilty of falsehood (Gen. xii., xx.); this last fact throws light on the ethical ideas of the eighth century.
Relation to History.
Is there any historical kernel embedded in the narrative? Obviously it contains much legendary matter. The stories of Lot, Hagar, and Keturah are ethnological myths; the theophanies and the story of the destruction of the cities are legends; circumcision was not adopted by the Israelites in the way here represented; and the story of the attempted sacrifice of Isaac is a product of the regal period. Abraham's kinsfolk (Gen. xxii. 20-24) are personifications of tribes, and his predecessors and successors, from Noah to Jacob, are mythical or legendary. What is to be said of the much debated fourteenth chapter? First, it must be divided into two parts: the history of the Elamite invasion, and Abraham's connection with it. The first part may be historical, but it no more follows that the second part is historical than the reality of the miraculous rôle assigned to Moses follows from the reality of the Exodus. On the contrary, the mention of Salem and of tithes points to a postexilian origin for the paragraph. The invasion may be historical— (image) (Chedorlaomer) and (image) (Arioch) are Elamite, and a march from Babylonia to Canaan is conceivable—but no mention of it has been found in inscriptions, and it is not easy to reconcile it with known facts. If (image) (Amraphel) be Hammurabi, Abraham's date is about 2300 B.C.
The biography of Abraham in Genesis is probably to be regarded as legendary; it has grown up around sacred places, ideas, and institutions. Yet there can be little doubt that the name involves some historical fact, and that this fact has to do with tribal migration: the name, though personal, not tribal, may represent a migration. By reason of the paucity of information the whole question is obscure, and any conclusions must be largely conjectural.
The text represents Abraham as coming to Canaan from the Tigris-Euphrates valley. A migration of Hebrew ancestors from that region is not necessary for the explanation of what we know of Hebrew history. But weight must be attached to the wellformed and persistent tradition, and a migration ofthis sort, as the Tell-el-Amarna inscriptions indicate, must be regarded as possible. If a motive for the movement be sought, it may be found in the wars which were constantly going on between the thickly settled and feebly organized inhabitants of the valley between the rivers. Distinct indications of an Abrahamic migration from Babylonia are found by some scholars in the similarity between Babylonian and Hebrew institutions (as the Sabbath) and myths (Creation, Flood, etc.); by others this similarity is referred to Canaanite intermediation, or to later borrowing from Assyria or Babylonia.
The supposed relation of the names "Sin" (the wilderness) and "Sinai" (the mountain, and a Canaanite tribe) to the Babylonian moon-god, Sin, is doubtful. The migrating tribes would speak Babylonian or Aramaic, but would speedily become absorbed in their new surroundings and adopt the language of the region. If such a body settled in northern Arabia, this might account for the connection of Abraham with Hagar and Keturah. The Hebrew tribes proper, coming to dwell in that region, may have found his name as that of a local hero, and may gradually have adopted it. But of the condition of things in Canaan from 2300 to 2000 B.C. nothing is known, and between Abraham and Moses there is almost an absolute blank in the history.
Bibliography: Tomkins, Studies on the Time of Abraham, 2d ed., 1897; W. J. Deane, Abraham: His Life and Times, New York ("Men of the Bible Series"); Kittel, Hist. of the Hebrews, i. passim; Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, passim; Hommel, Ancient Hebr. Tradition, v.
