Abraham

Life and work

Abram (his original name) was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, the son of Terah, and migrated with his family to Haran. There God called him to leave his country, kindred, and father's house for a land God would show him, promising to make him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great — and through him bless 'all the families of the earth.' Abram departed at age 75 with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and their household, arriving in Canaan (Genesis 11:27-12:4).

A famine drove Abram down to Egypt, where, fearing for his life because of Sarai's beauty, he presented her as his sister; Pharaoh took her into his household, but God afflicted Pharaoh's house with plagues until the deception was uncovered and the couple was sent away with their wealth intact (Genesis 12:10-20).

After returning to Canaan, disputes between Abram's and Lot's herdsmen led the two to separate, with Lot choosing the fertile Jordan valley near Sodom. When a coalition of kings later captured Lot in a regional war, Abram led an armed rescue and, on returning, was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem and 'priest of God Most High,' to whom he gave a tenth of the spoils (Genesis 13; 14).

God reaffirmed his covenant with Abram in a formal ceremony, promising descendants as numerous as the stars; the text states that 'he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness' (Genesis 15:6) — the single verse that would become the foundation of Paul's New Testament theology of faith. God also foretold four hundred years of slavery for Abram's descendants before their deliverance.

Because Sarai remained childless, she gave her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram as a surrogate wife, a recognized legal custom of the period; Hagar conceived and bore Ishmael, though tension between the two women led Hagar to flee temporarily into the wilderness (Genesis 16).

When Abram was 99, God renewed the covenant, changed his name to Abraham ('father of a multitude') and Sarai's to Sarah, instituted circumcision as the covenant's sign, and promised that Sarah herself — despite her advanced age — would bear the promised son, Isaac (Genesis 17).

Three visitors (understood as the LORD and two angels) came to Abraham at Mamre, reaffirmed the promise of a son within the year, and revealed the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; Abraham interceded, bargaining God down to sparing the cities for the sake of just ten righteous people, though the cities were ultimately destroyed with only Lot's family escaping (Genesis 18-19).

Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old, fulfilling the long-delayed promise; sometime later, at Sarah's insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away after God assured him Ishmael too would become a nation (Genesis 21).

In the narrative's most severe test, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah; Abraham obeyed as far as raising the knife before an angel stopped him and provided a ram caught in a thicket instead — an episode Jewish tradition calls the Akedah ('the binding'). Sarah died soon after at age 127 and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham purchased as a family burial site; Abraham himself died at age 175 and was buried there beside her by Isaac and Ishmael together (Genesis 22-23; 25:7-11).

Dating

Dates follow the standard evangelical chronology built backward from 1 Kings 6:1 (480 years from the Exodus to Solomon's 4th year, c. 966 BC, yielding an Exodus of 1446 BC) combined with the 430-year sojourn of Exodus 12:40, placing Abraham's birth c. 2166 BC and his death at 175 (Genesis 25:7). Evangelicals who favor a 'late date' Exodus (c. 1260 BC) would shift these a couple of centuries later; either way, Abraham's call and covenant remain the hinge of redemptive history.

Questions and debates

Abraham twice presented his wife as his sister out of fear for his own safety — once to Pharaoh in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20) and again to Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 20) — exposing Sarah to being taken into a foreign ruler's household both times, an act many readers and commentators, ancient and modern, have judged as a serious moral failure and a betrayal of his wife's safety for his own.

Abraham's decision to have a child with Sarah's servant Hagar, and his later expulsion of Hagar and their son Ishmael into the wilderness at Sarah's demand, is likewise widely discussed as an ethically troubling episode, even though the narrative frames God as caring for Hagar and Ishmael independently.

Extra-biblical evidence

Scripture references

• Genesis 12:1-9 — God's call and covenant promise
• Genesis 15:1-6 — The covenant ceremony; 'he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness'
• Genesis 17:1-27 — Covenant of circumcision and name change to Abraham
• Genesis 22:1-19 — The binding of Isaac (the Akedah)
• Matthew 1:1-2 — Jesus's genealogy opens with 'the son of Abraham'
• John 8:56-58 — Jesus says 'before Abraham was, I am'
• Acts 7:2-8 — Stephen recounts Abraham's call in his speech before the Sanhedrin
• Romans 4:1-22 — Paul's central argument that Abraham was justified by faith, not works
• Galatians 3:6-9, 16, 29 — Paul argues believers are 'Abraham's offspring' through faith
• Hebrews 11:8-19 — Abraham commended as the model of faith, including the Akedah
• James 2:21-23 — James cites Abraham's works as evidence completing his faith

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Abraham
• Bible Odyssey: Abraham

Reflect

Abraham went out not knowing where he was going — could you obey a first step without seeing the whole path?