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Home , Covenant of the pieces, Judah (son of Jacob)

149 150 sophic and kabbalistic ideas. In a remarkable aside, In contrast to Wellhausen, Hermann Gunkel he relates part of a disquisition on the tabernacle (1910: XIX–XXVI, XXXIX–LIII), an exponent of the cherubs that he allegedly delivered “in the palace research on Saga-History, was confident that the of the pope.” Elsewhere, he tells of a conversation literary tradition could be used to reconstruct the with a Christian cleric regarding a midrash about figures of the oral tradition, which purportedly the “Suffering Servant poems” in . contains many reminiscences from pre-Israelite

Bibliography: ■ E. Lawee, “Graven Images, Astromagical times. Gunkel’s approach was continued by Al- Cherubs, and Mosaic Miracles,” Spec. 81 (2006) 754–95. brecht Alt (1966a and 1966b), Gerhard von Rad Eric Lawee (1966) and (1972), who argued that tradition history could establish a semi-nomadic milieu of the and a “religion of the fa- Abrabanel, ben Judah thers” practiced by them. Such research into the /Abarbanel, Isaac ben Judah oral precursors of the presumed earliest source, the Yahwist, understood the oral traditions surround- ing Abraham to be later than the traditions sur- Abraham rounding Isaac and . I. Hebrew /Old Testament These attempts to trace the patriarchal tradi- II. tions far back into the early history of fuelled III. the concern to accumulate more historical informa- IV. Christianity tion. With this aim in view, scholars sought ancient V. Islam Near Eastern analogies to corroborate elements of VI. Ecumenical Discussion the Abraham and other ancestral stories. Some VII. Other Religions found such corroboration in West-Semitic personal VIII. Literature names in the Mari texts from Old Babylonian pe- IX. Visual Arts X. Music riod (Huffmon) and evidence in Nuzi for the juridi- XI. Film cal institution that a female slave could bear chil- dren for her mistress (cf. ANET 220; Gen 16 : 1–4; I. /Old Testament Gen 30 : 1–13; see Speiser). Using such analogies, 1. Etymology. The name Abraham (MT Abra¯ ha¯ m some argued for a dating of the patriarchs in the and Abra¯ m; LXX Α ρααμ and Α ραμ; Arab. Ibra¯ - first half of the 2nd millennium BCE, rather than hı¯ m; etymologically identical with A¯ bira¯ m) is most the second (Albright 1946; Cross; de Vaux). probably West-Semitic in origin and represents a Disappointments followed soon thereafter. name-clause with the meaning, “the (clan) father/ Thomas L. Thompson and John Van Seters (1975) ancestor is exalted/eminent” (formed from b[y] “fa- voiced penetrating criticisms with regard to the ther/ancestor” and rw/ym “to be exalted,” cf. Grön- search for analogies, which was becoming ever dahl: 315, 360; Huffmon: 154, 261–62). Accord- more careless. Moreover, they called for a more in- ingly, the original form is Abram. The etymology tensive analysis of the texts in Genesis. Although suggests the existence of the same ancestor cult in the approach of illuminating the Abraham tradi- early Israel that was widespread throughout the an- tions with external evidence from the ancient Near cient Near East (Schmidt), though suppressed in East is still practiced (Kitchen; Millard/Wiseman the wake of the Deuteronomistic movement (cf. 1983), the literary analysis of the text of Genesis Deut 18 : 9–14). The longer form of the name, Abra- has long since occupied the focus of attention ham, seems to be, as Gen 17 : 5 presents, a name (Blum 1984; Carr; Köckert 1988; Levin; Van Seters change for theological reasons without a philologi- 1992). In the course of this research, Abraham has cal (onomastic) basis (see below). become thus 500 years – if not a whole millen- 2. Past Research. The scholarly study of the figure nium – younger. His status as chief patriarch ap- of Abraham is closely aligned with that of the other pears to be a later development still. Even the se- patriarchs. Therefore, the following review treats quence of the periods of the patriarchs and the only the most essential points of interest. Exodus – and the conception of a unified salvation Since the inception of source criticism, scholars history – is difficult to conceive as a pre-exilic de- have increasingly recognized that the traditions in velopment (Schmid). the Pentateuch do not provide a reliable basis for a 3. Biblical Evidence. The Abraham story is found critical reconstruction of Israel’s origins. Summa- in Gen 12 : 1–25 : 18. After this literary unit, the rizing the critical work on the Pentateuch in the Hebrew Bible contains no more stories about Abra- 19th century, Julius Wellhausen (1905: 316–26) re- ham. This agrees with the frequency with which marked that the Pentateuchal sources project vari- the forms Abram and Abraham appear: the former ous conceptions from later periods back to Israel’s occurs 61 times, while one encounters the latter beginnings; this applies equally to the Abraham 175 times. In Gen 17 : 5, Abram’s name is changed traditions. to Abraham. Aside from Gen 11 : 26, 27, 29, 31,

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1 Chr 1 : 27 and Neh 9 : 7, the form Abram is em- val History. Though the latter once existed as an ployed exclusively in Gen 12 : 1–17 : 5. The form independent account of primeval origins, it has Abraham appears 108 times in Gen 17 : 5–25 : 18 now been brought into a linear historical relation- and 25 times in Gen 25 : 19–36 : 43. ship with the Abraham narrative in Genesis, con- References to Abraham accumulate again only necting the history of the world’s beginnings (Gen in Exodus and Deuteronomy. In these books, Abra- 1–11) with that of Israel’s beginnings (Gen 12 : 1– ham is, however, mentioned solely in the stereotyp- 25 : 18). ical triad, “(God of) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Is- 4. The Abraham Story in Gen 12 : 1–25 : 18. Al- rael instead of Jacob in Exod 32 : 13 and in 1 Chr though it is no longer possible to precisely recon- 1 : 34; 29 : 18; 2 Chr 30 : 6). This triad appears 16 struct the pre-exilic remains of the Abraham story, times (Exod 2 : 24; 3 : 6, 15, 16; 4 : 5; 6 : 3, 8; 32 : 12; they are most likely to be found in the non-Priestly 33 : 1; Deut 1 : 8; 6 : 10; 9 : 5, 27; 29 : 12; 30 : 20; portions of texts such as Gen *12 : 1–8; *13 : 7–18; 34 : 4; also Num 32 : 11; similarly Lev 26 : 42), while *16; 18 : 1–15; *19; *21 : 1–7; *25 : 8, 11. Initially, otherwise one finds only scattered references to the such earlier material probably served the sole pur- patriarchs. All of the mentioned references belong pose of imparting to the Jacob story a longer genea- to texts of advanced Deuteronomism, already influ- logical prehistory with familiar narrative features enced by the Priestly theology of promise in the (relatives in the Aramean region, wanderings, bar- patriarchal narratives. This is supported by the fact renness of the ancestress, the mistress giving birth that Abraham is only mentioned in late supple- to a son). At some point, the story of Abraham was ments to the Deuteronomistic History (Josh 24 : 2– augmented with narratives modeled on the older 3; 1 Kgs 18 : 36; 2 Kgs 13 : 23). The image of Abra- narratives concerning Isaac (cf. Gen 12 : 10–20; 20; ham in Josh 24 : 2–3 is already developing toward 21 : 22–34 with Gen 26). Yet what allowed the Pa- that found in Jub. 11–12, which depicts Abraham triarch to exercise theological influence was not the departing for in order to abandon the idol- coordination of his depiction with those of his atry practiced by his family. progeny, but the gradual expansion of the Abra- The prophetic writings mention Abraham ham story through ever increasing focus on God’s seven times (Isa 28 : 22; 41 : 8 [Abraham as a friend promise to (and eventual with) him. of God, cf. also 2 Chr 20 : 7]; Isa 51 : 2; 63 : 16; Jer The introduction to the narrative in Gen 33 : 26; Ezek 33 : 24; Mic 7 : 20). All of these occur- *12 : 1–8 depicts Abraham coming from the space rences belong to exilic or later expansions of the and time of primeval history and wandering in a prophetical books. These texts present Abraham as strange land. Formerly, this text was thought to the recipient of the divine promise, according to be the Yahwist’s programmatic introduction to the which his progeny would become a great people. patriarchal story, yet it is increasingly difficult to Abraham, as with the other patriarchs, is a repre- ascribe the network of promises beginning here to sentative of the “days of old” (Mic 7 : 20). In gradu- a single source document. According to Gen 12 : 2– ally becoming a figure of mythical proportions that 3, Abraham will become a great “nation” (gôy, not established Israel, he provides the theological foun- am [“people”]), be given a “great name” (cf. Gen dation for all later periods. As the bearer of the 6 : 4; Gen 11 : 4), and be given superlative divine promise, he can be compared only to (Jer protection and blessing. The promise concludes 33 : 26; Ps 47 : 10 [MT]; Ps 105 : 6, 9, 42). with an unclear statement regarding the “clans of Finally, the contains several other the earth” (kol misˇpe˘høot ha¯ ada¯ mâ). Though some, references to Abraham (Add Esth 4 : 17–18 [= Vg. following the LXX and/or Paul (Gal 3 : 8) have un- 13 : 15]; 4 : 17y [= Vg. 14 : 18]; Jdt 8 : 26 [= Vg. 8 : 22]; derstood this to be a promise that the clans of the Tob 4 : 12; 14 : 7; 1 Macc 2 : 52; 12 : 21 [ and earth shall “be blessed through Abraham,” others Spartans from the lineage of Abraham]; 2 Macc 1 : 2; have understood this promise (on analogy with Gen 3 Macc 6 : 3; 4 Macc 6 : 17, 22; 7 : 19; 13 : 17; 14 : 20; 48 : 20) to be a promise that Abraham will be so 15 : 28; 16 : 20, 25; 17 : 6; Job 42 : 17c [Job as the de- blessed that other nations will “bless themselves by scendant of Abraham]; Sir 44 : 19–21 [MT and Abraham,” that is look to him as a paradigm of LXX]; Bar 2 : 34; Pr Azar 35 [= LXX 3 : 35]; blessing (Blum 1984). In either case, these prom- without explicitly mentioning his name: Wis 10 : 5; ises, apparently modeled on similar royal promises cf. 4 Macc 9 : 21; 18 : 1, 20, 23). (e.g., Ps 72 : 17), give support and hope to exiles All of the mentioned texts strongly suggest that and later Jewish audiences after the loss of their the figure of Abraham did not develop into a theo- national existence and the attendant threats to logically important figure until later periods of Is- their religious and ethnical identity. raelite history. These developments presuppose a The promise to Abraham that he would become version of the Abraham story already dominated by a great nation seems, however, to remain unful- programmatic accounts of promise and its endan- filled. Abraham and ’s deliverance from the germent. This increasing emphasis on Abraham hand of in (Gen 12 : 10–20) is de- has also influenced the development of the Prime- picted according to the pattern of the story of the

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 153 Abraham 154 plagues in Exodus. Despite the burlesque tone, the Gen 16, which probably belongs to the oldest danger to the ancestress has a quite serious back- layer of the Abraham story, tells of the birth of ground (cf. Gen 20 : 7 for a variant, Abraham pre- ’s son, , who is recognized as the sented as a prophet [cf. Ps 105 : 15 = 1 Chr 16 : 22]). child of the infertile Sarah, but not as the son of So too, the problems in Gen 13 between Abraham promise. As Abraham’s firstborn, however, he and regarding the distribution of land endan- nevertheless has a share in the promise (cf. Gen ger the promise. What should become of the bearer 16 : 10 with Gen 13 : 16; 15 : 5; 17 : 2, 20). of promise who henceforth settles in the much less In Gen 17, the Priestly version of the promise fertile South near Hebron? In stark contrast to the covenant, Abram becomes Abraham (interpreted as imperiled stagnation, the promise is renewed and the “father of a multitude of nations,” Gen 17 : 4– increased infinitely in Gen 13 : 14–17. The rela- 6) and Sarai becomes Sarah (interpreted as “prin- tively modest land promise in Gen 13 : 17 originally cess of nations,” Gen 17 : 15–16). Through these continued directly with the story of the birth of changes, the nations of the world form a large and Ishmael in Gen 16, which represents the first ful- all-embracing Abrahamic unity. This chapter also fillment – even if it is not the envisioned one. Later confirms the special role of Ishmael. Although he readers, however, have inserted material into the is not the recipient of the covenantal promise, he narrative, probably first Gen 15 and then Gen 14. is the first one with whom Abraham performs the In Gen 14, one of the later parts of the Abraham covenantal sign of circumcision. At the conclusion story, Abraham rescues Lot who has been taken of the Abraham story, Isaac and Ishmael bury their captive in battles between legendary kings of Elam, father together (Gen 25 : 9–10). Thereafter, Ish- Babylonia, Asia Minor and -Palestine. After- mael’s descendants are enumerated: 12 Arabian wards, Abraham accepts the blessing of Melchize- tribes (Gen 25 : 12–18). Here, the collective name dek, the king and priest from Salem (= Jerusalem) “Arabians” does not appear, yet is employed often and grants him the gift of tithes (Gen 14 : 17–24). in later texts (cf. 2 Chr 9 : 14; Neh 4 : 1; Isa 13 : 20; In this way, the story links Israel’s Abrahamic be- Jer 25 : 24; Ezek 27 : 21). ginning to the city of Jerusalem. The Priestly promise in Gen 17 is now placed Gen 15, also an exilic or post-exilic text, returns before the non-Priestly account of God’s promise of to the theme of promise. In two scenes (Gen 15 : 1– a son in Gen 18 : 1–15, presenting the latter ac- 6 and Gen 15 : 7–21), Abraham brings his concerns count as an unfolding of God’s covenant with Abra- to God. In the first, he implies that Sarai’s barren- ham. These paired promises of a son are then fol- ness renders God’s promise meaningless (Gen lowed by several texts – late parts of the Abraham 15 : 2–3). God, however, brings Abraham to the tradition – which depict Abraham playing a role starry heavens in order to provide him with a view among the nations and thus acting out his newly of his future progeny. The doubting Abraham attained standing. In Gen 18 : 16–33, Abraham en- trusts. His trust is also given a name: he believes joys God’s trust to such a great extent – a conse- (hee˘mîn), which is quite rare and late in the Hebrew quence of Gen 15 : 1–6 – that he can perform the Bible/Old Testament. God reckons this to him as role of an intercessor for the unrighteous in Sodom righteousness (Gen 15 : 6). Abraham believes here and Gomorrah. His intercession is, however, unsuc- not without knowledge of the , as Paul later cessful (Gen 19). Against the evil of this part of the thought (Rom 4; Gal 3 : 3–9). On the contrary, world, even Abraham is powerless, yet by means of Abraham foreshadows faith and obedience as they will be taught and expected by the Torah. his intercession a righteous nation is saved from In the second scene, Gen 15 : 7–21, however, dubious wrongs (Gen 20; cf. esp. Gen 20 : 4, 7, 17). Abraham does not yet believe everything. Here It is astonishing how laconic the Abraham story Abraham inquires skeptically and urgently about is with regard to the realization of the promised evidence for the land-promise made to him. The son in Gen *21 : 1–7, the original continuation of answer is sobering. The fulfillment will be pre- Gen 18 : 1–15. Above all, it is the ceded by 400 years of living as a stranger, which is that dominates the present text, followed by two an allusion to Israel’s stay in Egypt (cf. Exod remarks about the laughter that prompt the name 12 : 40). Although Abraham will not witness the fi- Isaac (Gen 20 : 6); the plenary form of the name was nal realization of the land-promise, the promise probably Yisøhøa¯ q- e¯ l (“God laughs”). After the defini- does not diminish. God even reinforces it in a tive separation between Isaac and Ishmael (Gen frightful way by employing the self-curse from the 21 : 8–21), as well as the proof for Abraham’s clever- ancient Near East treaty ratification ceremonies (for ness in surviving among the foreign nations (Gen the rite in various contexts, cf. Hallo 1997, 2000: I, 21 : 22–34; cf. 26 : 26–33), something unimaginable 160–61; II, 214 = TUAT I/2, 181–82; cf. also 155– happens; God himself calls the further fulfillment 56). The implicit self-curse (cf. Deut 2 : 8; 4 : 31; of the promise into question. 6 : 10; 7 : 8; 11 : 9, 21; 34 : 4 etc.) as an element of a It is the inscrutable story of Abraham’s tempta- covenant-ceremony stresses the reliability of God’s tion by God in Gen 22 (cf. Kundert: 29–82; Veijola). promises to Abraham. This text stands as the climax of the Abraham com-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 155 Abraham 156 position, linking in multiple ways with its begin- (Baltimore, Md. 1965). ■ K. A. Kitchen, The Bible in Its ning. Just as the story begins in Gen 12 : 1 ff. with, World (Exeter 1977). ■ M. Köckert, Vätergott und Väterver- “Go … to the land that I will show you,” so it ends heißungen (FRLANT 142; Göttingen 1988). ■ M. Köckert, “Verheißung: I. Altes Testament,” TRE 34 (Berlin/New York with, “Go into the land Moriah [identified in 2 Chr 2002) 697–704. ■ L. Kundert, Gen 22,1–19 im Alten Testa- 3 : 1 with the temple-mount in Jerusalem] and offer ment, im Frühjudentum und im Neuen Testament, vol. 1 of Die him [= Isaac], your only beloved son [Gen 22 : 2; cf. Opferung/Bindung Isaaks (WMANT 78; Neukirchen-Vluyn Gen 22 : 12], there for a burnt offering upon one of 1988). ■ J. D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Be- the mountains which I will tell you of” (Gen 22 : 2). loved Son (New Haven, Conn. 1993). ■ C. Levin, Der The way that formerly began with great promise (FRLANT 157; Göttingen 1993). ■ R. Martin-Achard, appears now to end, with God’s requirement of the “Abraham I. Im Alten Testament,” TRE 1 (Berlin/New York end of the promise. Abraham obeys once again. 1977) 364–72. ■ G. E. Mendenhall, “The Nature and Pur- pose of the Abraham Narratives” in Ancient Israelite Religions, This story does not advocate a general replacement FS F. M. Cross (eds. P. D. Miller Jr. et al.; Philadelphia, Pa. of human sacrifice with animal sacrifice (Gunkel; 1987) 337–56. ■ A. R. Millard, “Abraham,” ABD 1 (New cf. Levenson). Nor is it a test of faith. Rather, it York 1992) 35–41. ■ ld./D. J. Wiseman (eds.), Essays on the stresses the importance of obedience amidst unclar- Patriarchal Narratives (Winona Lake, Ind. 21983). ■ M. ity. Abraham – and all of his descendants – learn Noth, A History of Pentateuchal Traditions (Englewood Cliffs, anew the meaning of fearing God; allowing God to N.J. 1972); trans. of id., Überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch command and to act without demanding and ex- (Stuttgart 1948). ■ G. von Rad, The Problem of the Hexateuch plaining. and Other Essays (New York 1966) 103–71; trans. of id., Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs (BWANT IV/26; Abraham emerges from the trial with a new Stuttgart 1938) = id., Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament promise (Gen 22 : 15–18), which presupposes all of (TB 8; München 1958) 9–86. ■ T. C. Römer, “Recherches the great texts of promise in the Abraham story. actuelles sur le cycle d’Abraham,” in Studies in the Book of God’s oath, on the one hand, and Abraham’s belief Genesis (ed. A. Wénin; BEThL 155; Leuven 2001) 179–212. and obedience, on the other, are the pillars of the ■ K. Schmid, Erzväter und Exodus (WMANT 81; Neukirchen- future of Israel. Gen 23 : 1–25 : 18 treats the neces- Vluyn 1999). ■ B. B. Schmidt, Israel’s Beneficent Dead (FAT sary loose threads of the Abraham story so that the 11; Tübingen 1994 [= Winona Lake, Ind. 1996]). ■ E. A. tale of blessing and promise can continue: the Speiser, Genesis (AncB 1; New York, N.Y./London 1964). ■ T. L. Thompson, The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives death of Sarah and the purchase of the cave of (BZAW 133; Berlin 1974). ■ J. Van Seters, Abraham in His- Machpelah as the family grave (Gen 23; the burial tory and Tradition (New Haven, Conn./London 1975). ■ J. place as a foretoken of the future possession of Van Seters, Prologue to History: The Yahwist as Historian in Gen- land), the search for a bride for Isaac amongst the esis (Zurich 1992). ■ R. de Vaux, The Early History of Israel Mesopotamian relatives (Gen 24; YHWH as God of (Philadelphia, Pa. 1978); trans. of id., Histoire ancienne d’Is- heaven and earth in Gen 24 : 3 as in Gen 14 : 19), raël (Paris 1971). ■ T. Veijola, “Das Opfer des Abraham – the death and burial of Abraham, as well as the Paradigma des Glaubens aus dem nachexilischen Zeitalter,” genealogies from Abraham’s liaisons with Keturah ZThK 85 (1988) 129–64. ■ M. Weippert, “Abraham der He- ■ and Hagar (Gen 25 : 1–18). bräer?,” Bib. 52 (1971) 407–32. J. Wellhausen, Prolego- mena zur Geschichte Israels (Berlin 21883; quoted version: Ber- Bibliography: ■ W. F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christi- lin 61905 = reprint Berlin/New York 2001; translation: anity (Baltimore, Md. 21946). ■ W. F. Albright, “Abraham Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (Edinburgh 1885 = the Hebrew,” BASOR 163 (1961) 36–54. ■ W. F. Albright, New York 1957). ■ C. Westermann, Die Verheißungen an die Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London 1968). ■ A. Alt, Väter (FRLANT 116; Göttingen 1976). “The God of the Fathers” in Old Testament History and Reli- Hermann Spieckermann and David M. Carr gion (New York 1966a) 1–77; trans. of id., Der Gott der Väter (BWANT III/12; Stuttgart 1929) = id., Kleine Schriften zur Ge- II. New Testament schichte des Volkes Israel 1 (München 1953) 1–78. ■ A. Alt, “The Settlement of the in Palestine” in Old Testa- Although the New Testament recalls Abraham and ment History and Religion (New York 1966b) 133–69; trans. his story for several reasons, its chief interest lies in of id., “Erwägungen über die Landnahme der Israeliten in the patriarch’s status as father of the people of God. Palästina,” PJ 35 (1939) 8–63 = id., Kleine Schriften zur Ge- This is because, for early Judaism as for early Chris- schichte des Volkes Israel 1 (München 1953) 126–75. ■ E. tianity, the people of God are identified precisely Blum, Die Komposition der Vätergeschichte (WMANT 57; Neu- as the children of Abraham. kirchen-Vluyn 1984). ■ E. Blum, “Abraham. I. Altes Testa- ment,” RGG4 1 (Tübingen 1998) 70–74. ■ D. M. Carr, Read- 1. The Synoptics. a. Abrahamic Descent. The gene- ing the Fractures of Genesis (Louisville, Ky. 1996). ■ R. E. alogies in Matt 1 : 2–17 and : 23–38 both Clements, “A¯ bra¯ ha¯ m,” TDOT 1 (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 52– name Abraham. Luke, despite the emphasis upon 58. ■ F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cam- the promises to Abraham in Luke 1 : 55, 73, does bridge, Mass./London 1973). ■ F. Gröndahl, Die Personen- not highlight his name. In Matthew, by contrast, ■ namen der Texte aus Ugarit (StP 1; Rome 1967). H. Gunkel, the genealogy is preceded by reference to Jesus as Genesis (HK I,1; Göttingen 31910); trans. of the introduc- “the son of Abraham” (Matt 1 : 1); it begins with tion: The Legends of Genesis (New York 1965). ■ W. Hallo (ed.), The Context of Scripture, 3 vols. (Leiden 1997, 2000, Abraham begetting Isaac (Matt 1 : 2), and it men- 2002). ■ R. Hendel, Remembering Abraham (Oxford 2005). tions Abraham at the end (Matt 1 : 17). For Mat- ■ H. B. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts thew, Jesus as the son of Abraham is the fulfillment

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 157 Abraham 158 of the sacred history that begins in Genesis. At the nents to reiterate their Abrahamic descent (John same time, Jesus as the son of Abraham also brings 8 : 39), which Jesus then immediately calls into salvation to Gentiles (cf. the Gentile women in the question: “If you were really Abraham’s children genealogy). Abraham could be associated with Gen- [τ%κνα], you would be doing what Abraham did, tiles as well as Jews because he was a Gentile by but now you are trying to kill me” (John 8 : 39–40). birth (cf. bHag 3a) and because the Old Testament The upshot is that being the physical, genetic seed promises that “all the nations” will be blessed in (σπ%ρμα) of Abraham does not guarantee being the him (Gen 12 : 3; 18 : 18; etc.). spiritual children (τ%κνα) of Abraham (cf. Matt Despite the importance of Abrahamic descent 3 : 8 = Luke 3 : 8 and Matt 8 : 11–12 = Luke in both Matthew and Luke, the two gospels pre- 13 : 28–29). serve a programmatic saying of John the Baptist In John 8 : 48, as the topic shifts and the antago- which relativizes such descent. Matt 3 : 8 = Luke nism increases, Jesus says that keeping his word cir- 3 : 8 (Q), after demanding fruit worthy of repent- cumvents death (John 8 : 49–51). His opponents re- ance, warns people not to depend upon being de- tort that he is possessed, because not even Abraham scended from Abraham, for “God is able from these escaped death (John 8 : 52). It is unclear whether stones to raise up children to Abraham.” This prob- this comment assumes knowledge of some form of ably alludes to Isa 51 : 1–2, where Abraham is the the Testament of Abraham, where Abraham fails to rock from which Israel has been hewn. The saying escape death and where God delivers a long speech denies that Abrahamic descent guarantees salva- affirming that there is no exception to the rule of tion, and it attacks something like the rabbinic no- death (T. Ab. 8). However that may be, Jesus goes tion of zakuth or “merit.” on to relate himself to Abraham as fulfillment to prophecy: “Abraham rejoiced that he would see my b. Abraham as an Eschatological Figure. Matthew day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8 : 56). Here 8 : 11–12 = Luke 13 : 28–29 (Q) foresees many com- Abraham is a prophet (as in L.A.B. 23 : 6; 4 Ezra ing from “east and west” (Matthew) or from “east 3 : 13–15; Apoc. Ab. 9 : 10; etc.) and he sees the escha- and west” and “north and south” (Luke). We may tological future, as in the Apocalypse of Abraham and think of Abraham’s dispersed children returning to CN 1 Gen 15 : 17. Jesus ends his speech by declaring the land, or of the eschatological pilgrimage of the his divinity and pre-existence with reference to Gentiles, or of both. The patriarchs, in any case, Abraham: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8 : 58). preside over the eschatological banquet. A related Jesus measures Abraham, not vice versa. image appears in Luke 16 : 19–31, the parable of 3. Acts. Three speeches name Abraham: Acts 3 : 12– the rich man and Lazarus, where a poor man is car- 26 (Peter in the temple), Acts 7 : 2–53 (Stephen), ried away by the angels to “Abraham’s bosom.” and Acts 13 : 16–52 (Paul in Pisidian Antioch). Here, the patriarch seems to be in charge of the Abraham’s name serves as a frame for the first afterlife. speech. Peter opens by referring to the God of Abra- Abraham is also an eschatological figure in ham, Isaac, and Jacob (Acts 3 : 13; the title is not Mark 12 : 18–27 par., where Jesus defends the res- common in early Christian literature), and he ap- urrection by quoting Exod 3 : 15 and urging that proaches his conclusion by speaking of the cove- God is not the God of the dead but of the living. nant God made with Abraham to bless all the fami- The argument seems to come down to this: God, lies of the earth (Acts 3 : 25). Whether “your speaking long after the death of the patriarchs, descendants” is a reference to Israel or to Jesus, the does not say, “I was the God of Abraham, etc.” but quotation from Gen 22 : 18 = 26 : 4 is clarified by “I am the God of Abraham, etc.” They therefore the comment that God sent Jesus “first to you, to cannot have ceased to be but belong to God’s escha- bless you by turning each of you from your wicked- tological future. ness” (Acts 3 : 26). In this way, the covenant with 2. The Gospel of John. Abraham appears on Abraham, which includes the Gentiles, becomes an John’s stage only in the last half of chapter 8 (John opportunity for repentance rather than a guarantee 8 : 31–59). The section begins with Jesus saying to of salvation. “the Jews who had believed in him” (probably a Stephen’s survey of Jewish history in Acts 7 be- cipher for John’s Jewish Christian opponents) that gins with Abraham (Acts 7 : 2–8). Surprisingly miss- his disciples know “the truth” which will bring ing from this overview are the stories in Gen 18 freedom (John 8 : 31–32). This draws a protest: “We (the visit of the three angels) and Gen 22 (the sacri- are descendants [σπ%ρμα] of Abraham, and have fice of Isaac); also absent are Abraham in Egypt, never been slaves to anyone” (John 8 : 33). Respond- Lot, Hagar, Ishmael, Sodom, and all extra-biblical ing, Jesus asserts that those who sin are slaves to legends. The focus seems to be on the promise of sin (John 8 : 34), the implication being that his op- the land. Yet Acts 7 : 6’s modification of Gen ponents are slaves because they sin. Also, while ac- 15 : 13–14 (which speaks of great possessions) by knowledging their Abrahamic descent (John 8 : 37), Exod 3 : 12 (which is about worship) marks a novel he observes that they seek to kill one who speaks reinterpretation; what matters is not the land but from the Father (John 8 : 38). This causes his oppo- freedom for true worship.

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The long speech attributed to Paul in Acts in turn are justified (Rom 4 : 17–25). The covenant 13 : 16–47 mentions Abraham in v. 26. The striking with Abraham does not establish Jewish privilege thing here is that the sons of Abraham are placed but is rather available to all peoples. beside “others who fear God.” This makes explicit As in Gal 3 : 6, Paul makes much of Gen 15 : 6 what has been implicit in the speeches in Acts 3 (see Hahn: 90–107), argues from a temporal order and 7, which is that the privilege of the Jews has in the Pentateuch (the promise to Abraham pre- been demoted to a chronological priority; with re- cedes the Torah to ), uses Abraham as the gard to salvation, the same opportunity now comes great exemplar of faith, and contends that all with to all. faith are Abraham’s children, whether Gentile or 4. Paul. Abraham is named in three Pauline epis- . Unlike Galatians, the argument of Rom 3 : 27– tles: Rom, 2 Cor, and Gal. The reference in 2 Cor 4 : 25 develops without explicit mention of Jesus 11 : 22 is of no importance, but Abraham is central Christ, who appears only at the end (Rom 4 : 24), to the arguments in Romans and Galatians. and Paul does not urge that the singular “seed” re- a. Galatians. Paul’s opponents in Galatia must have fers to Jesus Christ or that the law came through invoked the patriarch’s example to promote the no- multiple intermediaries. tion that Gentile Christians should undergo cir- Paul speaks of Abraham again in Rom 9–11. cumcision and keep Torah. They probably recalled Here he insists that not all descended from Abra- Abraham’s fabled obedience, taught that he ob- ham are Abraham’s children (Rom 9 : 6–9, quoting served the law before Moses (cf. Jub. 15 : 1–2; Gen 21 : 12 and 18 : 10). He nevertheless goes on to 16 : 20; Sir 44 : 20), claimed that he made proselytes insist that physical descent from Abraham still (cf. CD XVI, 4–6; ARN A 12), and contended that the counts, for in chapter 11 the belief that God’s blessings God promised through him would come promises will not fail entails that all of Abraham’s upon those who imitated his example (Martyn descendants will finally be saved (Rom 11 : 25–32; 1997). Paul angrily responds by making a novel dis- cf. mSan 10 : 1). tinction between hearing with faith and works of 5. Hebrews. Abraham makes multiple appearances the law (Gal 3 : 5), and he interprets Gen 15 : 6 and in the . He is first mentioned 12 : 3 (cf. 18 : 8) to mean that God justified Abra- in passing in Heb 2 : 16, which declares that the ham by faith alone and that the promise of Gentile Son of God became flesh and blood in order to blessing comes by faith (Gal 3 : 6–9). For Paul, Abra- help, not angels, but “the seed [σπ%ρματς] of Abra- ham’s faith and consequent righteousness have ham.” In this context, “the seed” probably refers their parallel in believing in Jesus and receiving not just to Abraham’s physical descendants but also God’s Spirit. Among the arguments designed to to his spiritual children. support this thesis are these: the promise to Abra- Abraham next appears in Heb 6 : 13–20, which ham came before the law and so is superior (Gal promotes trust in God’s promises. The author re- 3 : 15–18; the argument is not Jewish but has a dis- calls the aborted sacrifice of Isaac (cf. Heb 11 : 17– tant parallel in Mark 10 : 5–9); the promises were 18), after which God, in response to Abraham’s obe- to Abraham’s “seed,” a (collective) singular that re- dience, swore that the patriarch’s offspring would fers to Jesus Christ (Gal 3 : 16; cf. 3 : 19); the cove- be numerous (Gen 22 : 16–17). The text underlines nant with Abraham was communicated directly that it was precisely Abraham’s patient endurance through him whereas the Torah came through that obtained the promise (Heb 6 : 15). Abraham is multiple intermediaries and so is inferior (Gal implicitly, as in so much Jewish and Christian tra- 3 : 19–22; cf. Acts 7 : 58, 53). dition, here held up as an exemplar of utter obedi- b. Romans. Romans 3 : 27–4 : 25 develops the main ence. thesis of Rom 1 : 1–3 : 26, that the gospel is the : 13–20 introduces Heb 7 : 1–10, power of God unto salvation for all who believe. which uses the story of Abraham and Melchizedek Paul (anticipating that Abraham might be a coun- to show Jesus’ superiority to the Levitical priest- terexample to his thesis) urges that Abraham is no hood. Here, Abraham matters because of his sub- exception, for he was justified not by works of the servient relationship to Melchizedek. This section, law but by faith (Rom 4 : 1–8); that Abraham’s justi- in part a midrash upon Gen 14 : 17–20, seeks to es- fication occurred before he was circumcised (Rom tablish the existence of a non-Aaronic priesthood in 4 : 9–12); that faith (open to all) and the law (for contrast to the Levitical priesthood. Melchizedek’s Israel) are two different things, and if the promise blessing of Abraham proves, since the inferior is is through faith, it cannot be through law (Rom blessed by the superior, that he is greater than the 4 : 13–15); that God’s promise to Abraham was for Levites, descendants of Abraham. This is confirmed all peoples (Rom 4 : 16–18, citing Gen 17 : 5); and by Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek (Heb that, just as Abraham believed that God could raise 7 : 4–10; cf. 1QapGen XXII, 17 and Josephus, Ant. up descendants from his “dead” body and received 1.181). in return the benefits of his faith, so Christians be- : 8–19 concerns itself with Abra- lieve that God has raised Jesus from the dead and ham’s exemplary faith and endurance, common

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 161 Abraham 162 themes in Jewish sources (cf. Neh 9 : 7–8; Sir never let fears alarm you.” If, in John and Paul, 44 : 19–21; Wis 10 : 5; 4 Macc 16 : 20–17 : 6; etc.). those who believe and act rightly are the children Such faith enabled him obediently to leave his of Abraham, here women who behave properly, home not knowing where he was going (Heb 11 : 8), that is, exhibit obedience (despite being married to to sojourn in a foreign land in tents (Heb 11 : 9; cf. pagan men), are daughters of Sarah. The text recalls Gen 12 : 1–8), to look forward to God’s eternal city Gen 18 : 1–15, where Sarah calls Abraham “lord” (and not literal possession of the , Heb despite her laughter and then becomes afraid. Isa- 11 : 10; cf. 2 Bar. 4:4; BerR 44 : 21), to receive the iah 51 : 2 (“Look to Sarah who bore you”), the inter- power of procreation in old age (Heb 11 : 11–12; cf. text of the Baptist’s saying in Matt 3 : 8 = Luke 3 : 8, Rom 4 : 19–21, which also uses the phrase, “as good may also be in the background. as dead”), to greet the future realization of God’s Bibliography: ■ M. Cranford, “Abraham in Romans 4,” promises (Heb 11 : 13–16; cf. John 8 : 56), and – this NTS 41 (1995) 71–88. ■ N. A. Dahl, “The Story of Abraham is the last and climactic point – to offer his son in Luke-Acts,” in Jesus in the Memory of the Early Church (Min- Isaac (Heb 11 : 17–19; cf. Gen 22 : 1–10). When of- neapolis, Minn. 1976) 66–86. ■ M. Dibelius, James (Herme- fering Isaac, Abraham “considered the fact that neia; Philadelphia, Pa. 1976) 168–74 [excursus on “The God is able even to raise someone from the dead – Abrahamic Example”]. ■ C. H. Dodd, “Behind a Johannine and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” Dialogue,” in id., More New Testament Studies (Grand Rapids, ■ (Heb 11 : 19). Because Abraham had already deter- Mich. 1968) 41–57. F. Hahn, “Genesis 15 : 6 im Neuen Testament,” in Probleme biblischer Theologie, FS G. von Rad mined to kill his son, he was dead in his own mind; (ed. H. W. Wolff; Munich 1971) 90–107. ■ G. W. Hansen, thus when God stopped the sacrifice, it was a re- Abraham in Galatians (JSNT Supplement Series 29; Sheffield turn from the dead, a kind of resurrection. 1989). ■ J. D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Be- 6. James. James 2 : 18–26 is an exhortation to do loved Son (New Haven, Conn. 1993). ■ H. E. Lona, Abraham good works. There is a type of faith that is nothing in Johannes 8 (EHS.T 65; Bern/Frankfurt a.M. 1976). ■ J. L. more than belief (Jas 2 : 19), as well as a superior Martyn, Galatians (Anchor Bible 33A; New York 1997). ■ M. Neubrand, Abraham (FzB 85; Würzburg 1997). ■ J. S. sort of faith, one that must manifest itself in works Siker, Disinheriting the Jews (Louisville, Ky. 1991). and be completed by them (Jas 2 : 21–26). Such was Dale C. Allison, Jr. the faith of Abraham, exemplified in his sacrifice of Isaac (Jas 2 : 21–22). As scriptural warrant, the III. Judaism author cites Gen 15 : 6 and declares that Abraham ■ Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism ■ Rabbinic was God’s “friend” (Jas 2 : 23; cf. 2 Chr 20 : 7; Isa Judaism ■ Medieval Judaism ■ Modern Judaism 41:8; Jub. 19 : 9; CD III, 2; etc.). The conclusion is that a person “is justified by works and not by faith A. Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism alone” (Jas 2 : 24). Abraham was a popular figure for many Greco-Ro- The language of Jas 2 : 14–26 at many points man Jewish authors since many Jews believed he echoes Paul, whose teaching about faith, works, was the founder of their religion. Because Hellenis- justification, and Abraham were all controversial tic ideas had permeated their culture and religion, (cf. esp. Jas 2 : 21 with Rom 4 : 2, Jas 2 : 23 with Rom Jews looked to interpretations of Abraham for a 4 : 3, and Jas 2 : 24 with Rom 3 : 38 and Gal 2 : 16). sense of identity as his ethnic and spiritual de- It is hard to avoid surmising that Jas 2 : 14–26 con- scendants. Through their interpretations of Abra- tains some sort of reaction to Paul and his argu- ham, Hellenistic Jewish authors were able to pro- ments about Abraham and justification. Perhaps vide evidence of the glory and antiquity of their James was fighting Paulinists, whom he may or religion as well as its compatibility with, or superi- may not have understood aright, Paulinists who ority to, Hellenistic philosophies. may or may not themselves have fully understood 1. Abraham as Founder of Colonies, Cultures Paul, or maybe James was responding to the publi- and Astrological “Science.” Some of the earliest cation of Paul’s letters. Another possibility is that, Greco-Roman Jewish authors on Abraham wrote despite the parallels with Paul, James was not re- that he founded colonies and brought aspects of sponding to the latter; rather both were adopting culture and religion to various regions. For exam- common Abraham traditions from the synagogue. ple, in the fragment that remains of his work, Cle- Abraham is often a model of faith or faithfulness odemus Malchus (2nd cent. BCE) deals with three in Jewish sources. Furthermore, 1 Macc 2 : 51–52 sons of Abraham’s slave, Keturah, that are not recalls the “works” of Abraham, seems to allude to found in the biblical text (cf. Gen 25 : 1–6): Afera, the sacrifice of Isaac, and cites Gen 15 : 6, all of Surim, and Iafra (Josephus, Ant. 1.15; Eusebius, which is very close to James. Praep. ev. 9.20). According to Cleodemus Malchus, 7. 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3 : 6, exhorting wives to submit Africa and the city of Afra were named after the to the authority of their husbands, appeals to the first and third sons, while Assyria was named after example of Sarah: “Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham Surim. The Jewish Egyptian historian, Artapanus and called him lord. You have become her daugh- (2nd cent. BCE), supported the idea that the best ters [τ%κνα] as long as you do what is good and Greek ideas were actually derived from the Jews.

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According to Artapanus, Abraham was a cultural God (Abr. 68–70; Virt. 212–13; Migr. 177–79). Abra- benefactor who taught the Egyptians astrology ham reasons towards the existence of God through (Eusebius, Praep. ev. 9.18.1; 9.27–37). For Artapa- the observation of himself (Abr. 71; 74–75; cf. Dio- nus, Arabs were descended from Abraham in addi- genes Laertius vii. 138–139) and natural phenom- tion to (Praep. ev. 9.23.1–4). The author who ena (Abr. 84; 88) in the fashion of Stoic philosophy. is called Eupolemus or Pseudo-Eupolemus (2nd Even his change of name signifies this migration cent. BCE) adapted the biblical text to show how from his former belief in astrology to his recogni- Abraham discovered astrology, otherwise known as tion of the one who governs the world (Abr. 81– “Chaldean” science, and taught the Phoenicians 84; 88). and Egyptians astrology and “many new things” In contrast to Jubilees, where Abraham is strik- (Praep. ev. 9.17.1–9; 9.18.2). The theme of visits by ingly different from his family because of his wor- Greek philosophers to Egypt for the purpose of ship of one God (Jub. 11 : 16–17), Pseudo-Philo says philosophical inquiry and instruction recurs fre- that Abraham’s family, unlike all others who in- quently in Hellenistic writing (Holladay: 1.184, n. habited the earth, did not participate in idolatry 26). Pseudo-Eupolemus shows Abraham teaching (L.A.B. 4 : 16–17). Thus, while the author of Jubilees. not only Egyptian priests but also Pharaoh, demon- is concerned to warn unfaithful Jews of the folly strating that Abraham’s knowledge and philosophy of their ways, the author of the Biblical Antiquities are superior to those of the Egyptians and form the contrasts faithful Jews with Gentiles who follow foundation for their subsequent philosophical pur- idolatrous practices (Calvert-Koyzis: 45). suits. Josephus also portrays Abraham as the Pseudo-Philo also gives the Abraham narrative founder of culture. As a result of his philosophical a unique slant by including Abraham in the story debates with the Egyptians, Abraham teaches the of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11 : 1–9). Abraham and Egyptians astronomy (astrology) and arithmetic (Jo- 11 men refuse to participate in the building scheme sephus, Ant. 1.167–168) that he learned in Chaldea. because they believe that by contributing to the According to Josephus, the Egyptians then passed tower they would deny their monotheistic faith. these sciences on to the Greeks. Why this would be construed as idolatry is not clear 2. Abraham as the First Monotheist, Proselyte in the text; perhaps participating in a Gentile and Rejecter of Idolatry. One of the major ways scheme, particularly one intended to glorify the that Hellenistic Jewish authors reinterpreted the Gentiles themselves (L.A.B. 6 : 1), is understood to Abraham narrative (Gen 12–25 : 11) was by depict- be idolatrous. This would be especially true if Bibli- ing Abraham as the first proselyte to Judaism. Ac- cal Antiquities was written during the time of the cording to the author of the (2nd Jewish wars (66–70 CE), when many Jews believed cent. BCE), of all of the people of the earth, Abra- that the faithful among them should not associate ham was the first to leave behind idolatry for faith with Gentiles. in the one God (cf. Josh 24 : 2–3). In the eyes of the In any case, because of their refusal to partici- author of Jubilees, the separation of Abraham from pate in the building scheme, Abraham and his his idolatrous family is symbolic of the separation friends are thrown into prison with the under- of the people of God from the Gentiles and idola- standing that, should they repent, they would not trous Jews. In fact, in Jubilees Abraham reasons that be thrown into the fire with the bricks. Abraham’s idols are worthless (Jub 12 : 2b–5) and, in contrast friends escape the prison but Abraham alone to authors mentioned above who portray Abraham chooses to stay and face the furnace because of his as having introduced astrology to important cen- trust in God. A great earthquake occurs and Abra- ters of learning, Jubilees portrays Abraham as seeing ham is saved while those around the furnace are beyond astrology and recognizing the creator God killed (L.A.B. 6 : 6–18). Abraham’s rejection of idola- (Jub. 12 : 17–20; 22 : 16–18). In this way the author, try is later referred to in L.A.B. 23 : 5 when Pseudo- through Abraham, warns 2nd-century BCE readers Philo states that, in contrast to other people on the of the worthlessness of idolatry as compared to earth, “Abraham believed in me and was not led faith in the one God. The author of the Sibylline astray with them.” Oracles, also 2nd century BCE, alludes to Abraham Josephus describes Abraham as the prototypical and his race as those who do not practice astrology monotheist and premier philosopher. For Jose- although Chaldea, their homeland, is known for as- phus, Abraham was a man of superior rhetorical trological practices (Sib. Or. 3 : 219–230). ability who reformed universal ideas about God by For Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE–40 CE) Abra- declaring, “that God, the creator of the universe is ham is an exemplary figure, the prototype of the one” (Ant. 1.155; cf. 1.161). In contrast to the Stoics, proselyte (Virt. 219; cf. Gen. 15 : 6; Her. 93–95) whose teleological arguments rested on the regular whose migration from his homeland is both physi- movement of the stars and planets, Abraham rea- cal and allegorical (Migr. 184–85; 194–95). For sons that since the movement of the planets and Philo, Abraham’s true migration was from Chal- stars are irregular, then there must be a “com- dean astrological determinism in search of the true manding sovereign” or a God (Ant. 1.154–56).

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While Josephus, like Philo, portrays Abraham as author, is the only true natural law. Abraham then leaving behind astrological determinism, he is not obeyed the natural law that the Mosaic Law later as concerned with the practice of astrology itself copied (Abr. 3–6; Abr. 275–76; Migr. 129–30; cf. Gen but the tenet that the phenomena themselves de- 26 : 5). While Philo usually gives circumcision an al- termine what happens on earth and not God (Cal- legorical meaning (QG 3.46) or an etymological vert-Koyzis: 59). meaning (QG 3.49), he still maintains that the prac- Josephus attributes one of his sources to Heca- tice itself is important. For example, he states that, taeus of Abdera, who he states left a book com- although circumcision has a symbolic meaning, posed about Abraham (Ant. 1.159). Most scholars “let us not on this account repeal the law laid down today believe that the book about Abraham was not for circumcising” (Migr. 92). Parents who do not cir- actually written by Hecataeus but by a Jewish prop- cumcise their sons deserve a severe penalty because agandist they have called Pseudo-Hecataeus (ca. 1st they show contempt for the Torah and jeopardize cent. BCE–1st cent. CE). In a fragment from this the survival of Judaism (QG 3.52). For Philo, Abra- book entitled “On Abraham and the Egyptians” ham provided a prime example of one for whom that Clement of Alexandria cites (Strom. 5.14; cf. circumcision symbolized conquering passions, but Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.13), Pseudo-Hecataeus lauds who nevertheless went through with the act (QG the truth of monotheism while deprecating the 3.45–50). vanity of idol worship. The subjects of monotheism In his discussion of Abraham and circumcision, and the rejection of idolatry in the poem are associ- Josephus makes Abraham and Sarah the explicit ated with Abraham. It is possible that some of the models for subsequent generations (Ant. 1.214; cf. non-biblical material about Abraham in Josephus Gen 21 : 4), while explaining the origin of the prac- may derive from this source. tice to his non-Jewish readers. For Josephus, the The author of the Apocalypse of Abraham (late 1st covenant with Abraham was not central to the prac- cent. CE) portrays Abraham much like the author tice of circumcision; instead circumcision was insti- of Jubilees In the narrative section of the Apoc. Ab. tuted to prevent Abraham’s descendants from mix- (1–8), Abraham turns from the idolatry of his fam- ing with the members of other nations (Ant. 1.192; ily (his father makes idols) to faith in the one God. cf. 1.214). In Josephus’ portrayal of Abraham and In chapter seven, which is probably a later redac- Sarah, he contends that Sarah was Abraham’s niece tion, Abraham argues that one should not believe rather than his half-sister (Ant. 1.150–51). Marrying in the changeable, created, subduable things, in- one’s sister or half-sister was considered to be an cluding astrology, but in the God who created abomination according to the Mosaic Law (Lev them (Apoc. Ab. 7 : 1–12). 20 : 17). Josephus’ intention is to portray Abraham 3. Abraham and the Mosaic Law. For the author as law abiding; marrying one’s niece was well of Jubilees, because God is faithful to his covenant within the Law (Lev 18 : 12–14; 20 : 19–21). It is in- with Israel, one must obey covenant stipulations teresting that, in contrast to Josephus, the Qumran that are found in the eternal, heavenly tablets. Al- community strictly prohibited uncle-niece marria- though according to the biblical text the Mosaic ges (cf. 11QT; CD). Law had not yet been received by the time of Abra- 4. Abraham and the Covenant. Abraham is de- ham, Abraham is portrayed as abstaining from idol picted as central to Israel’s covenant with God in a worship (Jub. 12 : 2b–5; Jub. 17–20) and celebrating number of Greco-Roman Jewish documents. For ex- feasts (Jub. 15 : 20–31). As is found in the Genesis ample, in Jubilees, Abraham is a central transmitter account, Abraham also circumcises his sons and his of God’s covenant with Israel (Jub. 14 : 20; 15 : 1–20; household (Jub. 15 : 23–34; cf. Gen 17 : 9–27) in Jubi- 22 : 1, 10–24). In the Psalms of (1st cent. BCE), lees as a sign of covenant membership. For the au- a relationship exists between God’s covenantal rela- thor of Jubilees, circumcision is an eternal ordi- tionship with Abraham and God’s election of Abra- nance; whoever is not circumcised faces annihi- ham and his descendants (Pss. Sol. 9 : 9; 18 : 3). In Ez- lation and destruction (Jub. 15 : 25–27). ekiel the Tragedian (2nd cent. CE), Abraham is a Somewhat earlier, in the Hellenistic style of source (along with Isaac and Jacob) of promises to his epic poetry and meter, Theodotus (3rd to 2nd cent. ancestors (Ezek. Trag. 104–106) from which they BCE) glorifies Abraham saying that God called “no- gain a sense of their election and covenant with God. ble” Abraham out of his fatherland from heaven The Prayer of Manasseh (2nd cent. BCE–1st cent. CE) and commanded his family to circumcise them- contains statements that imply God’s covenantal selves. For Theodotus, the command remained un- unity with Israel is due in part to Abraham (Pr Man changed (Eusebius, Praep. ev. 9.22.7). 1, 8). The author of Pseudo-Jubilees (4Q225) is also con- For Philo of Alexandria, a fundamental prob- cerned with the covenant that was made with Abra- lem regarding Abraham was that if the Mosaic Law ham (4Q225 I, 4). was divine, how could Abraham have flourished 5. Apocalyptic Treatments of Abraham. In the without it? Philo answers this question by postulat- revelatory section of the Apocalypse of Abraham ing that the Law of Moses, which had God as its (9 : 32; late 1st cent. CE), Abraham receives a revela-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 167 Abraham 168 tion from God because he did not succumb to idol- sistence that Sarah should act as his sister in Egypt atry but searched for the true God (Apoc. Ab.9:5– is explained; he had a dream. In this dream he was 10). The revelation occurs when Abraham falls a cedar and Sarah was a beautiful date palm that asleep (cf. Gen 15 : 12) amidst the sacrificed animals was instructed to say they were both from one fam- (cf. Gen 15 : 9–11). The author of the Apocalypse of ily, thus saving the cedar (1QapGen XIX, 16). In Abraham. explains that the birds were not cut in this way, the author preserves Abraham’s reputa- half because they are to be Abraham’s vehicle to tion. In the same story, Abraham acts as an exorcist heaven (Apoc. Ab. 12 : 9–10). As Abraham ascends who is able to cure Pharaoh and his household of into the heavens he recites a hymn that the accom- the evil spirit at the root of the plague that had panying angel has taught him and prays for the come upon him for taking Sarah into his house revelation of God that has been promised to him (1QapGen X, 28–29). (Apoc. Ab. 17 : 7–21). Abraham then sees a vision of The major theme of the Testament of Abraham a throne and heavenly creatures (Apoc. Ab. 18–19; (1st to 2nd cent. CE) is Abraham’s refusal to die cf. T. Ab. 10–14). The voice of God calls Abraham and accompany the God-sent archangel, , to by name and he answers (Apoc. Ab. 20 : 1). As a result heaven (e.g., T. Ab. rec. A, 7 : 12). Abraham requests of the sacrifice, Abraham’s search for the true God to see the inhabited world (T. Ab. 9 : 6). During the is over. While he is in heaven, Abraham sees visions tour, the sinless Abraham calls down death upon of the future that generally have to do with the those engaged in a variety of sins (10 : 6–12) but is judgment and destruction of those who have not stopped because he has no mercy on sinners, unlike remained faithful to Abraham’s God (Apoc. Ab. 21– God who does (10 : 12–14). Abraham is called to re- 30) and the triumph of those who have remained pentance over those he destroyed through observ- faithful (Apoc. Ab. 31 : 4). ing the judgment of souls (11–14) according to a Other apocalyptic treatments of Abraham in- universalistic soteriology. Finally, Death tricks clude the Sibylline Oracles where Abraham is de- Abraham and takes his soul to heaven (20 : 8–15). picted as participating in the last judgment (Sib. Or. Bibliography. Primary: ■ J. H. Charlesworth, Old Testament 2 : 245; 1st cent. BCE–1st cent. CE). In 4 Ezra (late Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols. (Garden City, N.Y. 1983). ■ Dio- 1st cent. CE), Abraham sees visions and God reveals genes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (LCL; London himself to Abraham secretly by night and makes 1931). ■ J. A. Fitzmyer, The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran an everlasting covenant with him (4 : 12–15; Cave 1 (Rome 32004). ■ C. H. Holladay, Fragments from Hel- 6 : 7–8). In 4 Macc (1st cent. CE), Abraham, Isaac, lenistic Jewish Authors, 4 vols. (Chico, Calif. 1983). ■ Jose- and Jacob will receive the seven brothers (2 Macc 7) phus, Jewish Antiquities Books 1–4 (LCL; Cambridge, Mass. 1978). ■ Philo, Philo in Ten Volumes (And Two Supplementary after their martyrdom for keeping the Mosaic Law Volumes) (LCL; Cambridge, Mass./London 1968–1985). and following divine reason (4 Macc 13 : 17). Secondary: ■ N. Calvert-Koyzis, Paul, Monotheism and the 6. Miscellaneous Treatments of Abraham. In Jo- People of God (JSNT.S 273; London 2004). ■ J. H. Charles- sephus’ Antiquities, as in the biblical account of worth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research (SBLSCS 7S; Abraham and Sarah in Egypt (Gen 12 : 10–20), Chico, Calif. 1981). ■ J. Siker, Disinheriting the Jews (Louis- Abraham fears Egyptian reprisals because of ville, Ky. 1991). ■ M. E. Stone, Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (CRINT; Assen/Philadelphia, Pa. 1984). Sarah’s great beauty (Ant. 1.162). Abraham pretends Nancy Calvert-Koyzis to be her brother and instructs Sarah to play the part of his sister. Everything happens as Abraham B. Rabbinic Judaism predicted (Ant. 1.163–65); Pharaoh takes Sarah but As is to be expected from Abraham’s importance in his desire for her is thwarted by an outbreak of dis- the Torah, he is one of the biblical figures most ease and political disturbances sent by God. Phar- frequently mentioned in , most aoh then confesses his intentions, but in contrast commonly as “Abraham our father” (Avraham Av- to the biblical account, Josephus omits Pharaoh’s inu). A wealth of traditions developed around his complaint against Abraham for telling him that person and became ever more detailed. Elements Sarah was his sister (Gen 12 : 18–19; cf. 20 : 9–10). present from the very beginning are the impor- Although Josephus is adapting the account so that tance of his circumcision and his observance of the Sarah and Abraham come out looking blameless, in whole Torah: “Great is circumcision, for with all the context of the story Josephus is most concerned the commandments which Abraham our father ful- to show that Abraham is the supreme Hellenist filled, he was not called perfect until he circum- philosopher who originally traveled to Egypt in or- cised himself as it is said: ‘Walk before me and be der to examine the Egyptians’ beliefs about their perfect’ (Gen 17 : 1)” (mNed 3 : 11; tNed 2 : 5). When gods and convert them to his own beliefs should a child is circumcised, his father blesses God “who his beliefs prove superior (Ant. 1.161). In the course has commanded us to bring him into the covenant of their debates, Abraham’s beliefs are indeed of our father Abraham” (tBer 6 : 12). “We find that shown to be superior (Ant. 1.166–168). our father Abraham kept the entire Torah before it In the Genesis Apocryphon (Qumran; 1st cent. was given, since it says: ‘because Abraham obeyed BCE–1st century CE), the reason for Abraham’s in- my voice and kept my charge, my commandments,

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 169 Abraham 170 my statutes, and my laws (torotai)’ (Gen 26 : 5)” terpretation of Gen 15 : 4, when Abraham objects (mQid 4 : 14). The Tosefta adds: “It does not say ‘my to the promise of a son since he had seen by means law’ (torati), but ‘my laws’ (torotai). This teaches that of his astrology that he would not engender a son. to him were revealed the reasons of the Torah and But God “brought him outside” (Gen 15 : 5) of the all its finest details” (tQid 5 : 21 MS Vienna; MS - sphere of the stars to tell him that “Israel is not furt: “the words of the Torah and the words of subject to astrology” (bShab 156a). “You are a the scribes”). prophet, not an astrologer” (BerR 44 : 10). The text insists on the anticipated revelation of The 318 “trained men, born in his house” (Gen the Torah to Abraham since the early rabbis sharply 14 : 14), with whom Abraham pursues the kings opposed the idea of an autonomous recognition of who have taken captive his nephew Lot, are inter- the Torah or an autonomous ethics. Only late texts preted in PesRK 8 by as nobody else but say that Abraham “learned the Torah by himself as his servant Eliezer alone since the numerical value it is said: ‘a man is good on his own’” (Prov 14 : 14, of the letters of his name is exactly 318. On his as understood in the context: Tan Wa–yiggash 11). return, Abraham encounters Melchizedek who The very late text, BemR 14 : 2, repeats this tradition “brought out bread and wine” (Gen 14 : 18): “He and adds that Abraham was one of four men who revealed to him the laws governing the priesthood. recognized God on their own (the others are Job, The bread stands for the show-bread, and the wine Judah, and the Messiah). BerR 38 : 13 takes up the stands for the drink-offerings” (BerR 43 : 6). “The pre-rabbinic tradition that Abraham’s father, Omnipresent removed [the priesthood] from , was an idol manufacturer and merchant. and handed it over to Abraham … ‘You are a priest Once he put Abraham in charge of the shop, but forever after the matter of Melchizedek’ (Ps 110 : 4). Abraham would rebuke prospective customers; he It is on account of the matter of Melchizedek” finally destroyed all the idols but one, in whose (WayR 25 : 6). Ps 110 as a whole is applied to Abra- hand he placed a cudgel, claiming that they had ham who is invited to sit at God’s right hand and gotten into a quarrel over a sacrifice and that the is conferred the priesthood which qualifies him to survivor had smashed the others. Terah was infuri- carry out the sacrifice of Isaac (BerR 55 : 6; Abra- ated and handed Abraham over to Nimrod; the lat- ham’s blessing is the first of the Eighteen Benedic- ter threw Abraham into a fiery furnace, but God tions recited three times daily – only the second saved him (based on Josh 24 : 2–4 and Gen 15 : 7). benediction on resurrection refers to God).  While some rabbis would like to limit the com- This element of the Abraham story, the Aq- mandments fulfilled by Abraham to the seven com- edah, is important in rabbinic tradition from its mandments enjoined to the children of and very beginnings. According to mAv 5 : 3, it is one of “ten trials” with which “Abraham our father was circumcision, the general opinion is that torotai in- tried and he withstood them all”; the eventu- cludes both the written and the oral Torah. Accord- ally offered instead of Isaac is one of “ten things ing to some rabbis, “Abraham recognized his crea- created at twilight [lit. ‘between the suns’]” (on the tor at the age of 48 years,” but most commonly they sixth day of creation, i.e., predestined from the be- maintain that Abraham fulfilled the command- ginning of the world; mAv 5 : 6). In the liturgy of ments for 172 years (based on the numerical value fast days, the prayer leader intones: “He who an- of qb, “because” in Gen 26 : 5); he thus must have swered Abraham on Mount Moriah will answer you recognized God already at the age of three (BerR and hear the voice of your cry this day” (mTaan 2:4; 64:4; bNed 32a; according to BerR 95 : 3, already at tTaan 1 : 13). Abraham’s willingness to offer his son one year; according to others, at 48 years). is the basis of the efficacy of every Jewish cultic act. According to SOR 1, Abraham was 48 years old It is the prime example of the “merit of the fathers” at the time of the Dispersion (Gen 11 : 8). Most (zekhut avot) which sustains Israel. Whatever good other dates in Abraham’s life mentioned in this Abraham did, God repays many times over to his rabbinic chronography are found in the biblical children. Every single act Abraham performed text, but the ‘Vision between the Pieces’ (Gen 15) is while receiving his angelic visitors (Gen 18) finds dated to age 70, thus five years before Abraham left its echo in God’s care for Israel in Egypt and in at 75. It is from this date that the 430 years the desert (e.g., the wells of water Num 21 : 18, the of Egyptian bondage (Exod 12 : 41) have to be manna Num 11 : 8, etc.: tSot 4 : 1–6; other examples counted, whereas the 400 years of Gen 15 : 13 begin based on Gen 22: MekhY Be–shallahø 3–4). Concern- with the birth of Isaac when Abraham was 100 ing, “[Abraham] will be a blessing” (Gen 12 : 2), years old (thus explicitly SOR 3). God tells Abraham: “I shall provide a blessing for Rabbinic texts also speak of Abraham as an ex- you in the 18 Benedictions,” and “your [blessing] pert in astrology, a topic known already in the Sec- comes before mine, since people say first ‘… the ond Temple period. “In all things” (ba-kol; Gen shield of Abraham,’ and only afterward they say, 24 : 1) is understood as referring to “an astrological ‘… who resurrects the dead’” (BerR 39 : 6). instrument, on account of which everybody came A motif frequent in rabbinic literature is Abra- to him” (tQid 5 : 17). The topic is central in the in- ham making converts to the one God, based on Gen

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12 : 5 that when Abraham left Haran, he took “the binic development based on the intertextual read- persons whom they had acquired (lit. ‘made’) in ing of the Torah. Haran”: “Now is it not the case that if everyone in Bibliography: ■ K. Appel, “Abraham als dreijähriger Knabe the world got together to create a single gnat and im Feuerofen des Nimrod,” Kairos 25 (1983) 36–40. ■ G. ensoul it, they could never do so? [The text rather] Bodendorfer, “Abraham zur Rechten Gottes, ” EvTh 59 teaches that Abraham our father made converts and (1999) 252–66. ■ M. Delcor, “La portée chronologique de brought them under the wings of God’s presence” quelques interprétations du Targoum Neophyti contenues (Sifrei Deut 32). Abraham circumcised himself only dans le cycle d’Abraham,” JSJ 1 (1970) 105–19. ■ L. Ginz- at 99 years of age, “for had he circumcised himself berg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia 1909–38). [Esp. 1, 185–308; 5, 207–69] ■ C. T. R. Hayward, “Abra- at the age of 20 or 30, no stranger could have been ham as proselytizer at Beer-Sheba in the Targums of the able to convert to Judaism unless he was under the Pentateuch,” JJS 49 (1998) 24–37. ■ A. Houtman, “The age of 30” (MekhY Neziqin 18). “I have made you Role of Abraham in Targum Isaiah,” ArSt 3 (2005) 3–14. the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17 : 5) is ■ E. Kessler, Bound by the Bible (Cambridge 2004). ■ P. Man- understood as meaning that Abraham “is the father del, “The Call of Abraham,” Proof 14 (1994) 267–84. ■ G. of the whole world who entered under the wings Oberhänsli-Widmer, Biblische Figuren in der rabbinischen Lite- of God’s presence” (MidTan Deut 26 : 3). “Before ratur (JudChr 17; Bern 1998). ■ G. Vermes, Scripture and Abraham our father came into the world, it was as Tradition in Judaism (StPB 4; Leiden 1961) 67–126. ■ N. Zo- har, “The Figure of Abraham and the Voice of Sarah in Gen- if the blessed Holy One was king only over heaven esis Rabbah,” in The Faith of Abraham (eds. M. Hallamish et alone … But when Abraham our father came into al.; Ramat-Gan 2002) 71–85. [Heb.] the world, he made him king over heaven and also Günter Stemberger over earth” (Sifrei Deut 313, based on a comparison of Gen 24 : 7 and Gen 24 : 2). “Abraham planted a C. Medieval Judaism tamarisk tree (eshel) in Beer-Sheba, and called there In medieval rabbinic Judaism, Abraham is por- on the name of the Lord” (Gen 21 : 33) is inter- trayed as autodidact and iconoclast, missionary and preted as meaning that he founded an inn (eshel martyr. He faithfully and patiently suffers divine understood as an acronym for akhilah, shetiyyah, le- trials, and through his suffering accrues merit. This wayyah: ‘eating,’ ‘drinking,’ and ‘company’; thus “merit of Abraham” has eschatological and apoca- explicitly MidTeh 37) where he received all who lyptic significance. It will aid the Jews in the future, passed by, gave them something to eat and to in this world and the next. These motifs and im- drink, and when they wanted to thank him, he ages, found already in classical rabbinic literature, made them call [reading wa-yaqri instead of wa- were repeated, developed, and elaborated upon in yiqra] on the name of God since they “ate what be- the Jewish Middle Ages, under the influence of longs to the God of the world” (bSot 10a–b). Abra- Christianity, Islam, philosophy, and mysticism. ham thus becomes not only “the father of the pros- 1. Abraham in Medieval Midrash. Pirqei de-Rabbi elytes” (TanB Lekh 6), but also an example of Eliezer (PRE; 8th or 9th cent., Islamic East) 26–31 hospitality and of regular prayer. He is said to have retells the stories of Abraham according to his ordained the recitation of the Morning Prayer (bBer “ten trials”: 26b, based on Gen 19 : 27 where “standing” is un- 1) Abraham was hidden at birth, to escape the de- derstood as referring to the recitation of the Prayer; cree of wicked King Nimrod, who had ordered the Amidah or 18 Benedictions). the murder of all Jewish male children. Because of Abraham’s faith in God, God split 2) Abraham was imprisoned – and later thrown in the sea for his children; as a reward for his faith, a fiery furnace – for smashing his father’s idols Abraham inherited both this world and the world and challenging royal authority. to come (MekhY Be–shallahø 3 and again in 6 in the 3) After miraculously escaping Nimrod’s furnace, context of a long passage on the merits of faith). God commanded Abraham to abandon home This text is quoted in some later midrashim in the and family. context of story (ShirR; Tan). Thus, the 4) But no sooner had he arrived in Canaan than nearly complete absence of the motif of Abraham’s he was forced to flee once again due to famine, faith in BerR and the Talmudim is striking; it is this time to Egypt, where possible to see in it a reaction to the Christian em- 5) His wife Sarah was taken by Pharaoh. phasis on Abraham’s faith which justified him even 6) During the war with the four kings, Abraham’s before he had received the commandments. Such a nephew Lot was captured, forcing Abraham to reaction can also be detected in certain details of collect a military force to redeem him. Even the interpretation of the Aqedah, whereas, in other Abraham’s covenants with God were trying: elements of the rabbinic traditions about Abraham 7) He was shown his descendants’ Egyptian bond- (e.g., the interpretation of Ps 110 and Abraham’s age in the covenant of the pieces; priesthood, or also the visit of the three angels [Gen 8) And his own physical weakness in the covenant 18]), the contrast with Christian interpretation is of circumcision. The final two trials of Abra- better understood as an independent inner-rab- ham, according to PRE, were

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9) His exile of Hagar and Ishmael, and Abraham, who, through his rational explorations 10) The trial par excellence – the command to sacri- of nature – without any teacher – recognized that fice Isaac. there is one God, the final cause of celestial motion Although PRE is based on earlier rabbinic texts, (as Maimonides presents it, Abraham knew God there is evidence of Islamic influence as well. For through the “cosmological proof” of medieval the- example, in PRE 30, when discussing the trial of ology). Abraham then devoted himself to spreading Hagar and Ishmael, the author or compiler re- his doctrines throughout the ancient Near East, counts Abraham’s travels east. With Sarah’s permis- challenging the orthodoxies of his time, writing sion, Abraham visited Ishmael, but when he arrived books to disseminate his views, attracting converts, he was greeted by Ishmael’s wife Aisha, who re- and teaching his principles to Isaac, who taught fused him food and water, in response to which he them to Jacob, who created a religious community left a message for his son: “Remove the doorstep of based on the true belief of monotheism. your house.” Abraham returned three years later to In Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides’ brief his- find a new wife, named Fatima, who attended to tory of religion is modified and elaborated in im- him according to the highest standards of hospital- portant ways. In light of an book entitled ity. In response to this Abraham left a second mes- Nabatean Agriculture – a work of magic purporting sage: “Keep the doorpost of your house.” to represent the beliefs of “Sabian” idolaters at the This story is clearly borrowed from the Islamic time of Abraham – Maimonides, as historian and cycle of stories about Abraham, and seems to pre- anthropologist, attempted to reconstruct the exact serve a Shiite polemic against Sunni Islam. How it social setting of Abraham’s preaching and polem- entered this late midrashic text, however, and what ics. For example, in Guide 3 : 29, after briefly de- purpose it could have served in a Jewish context, scribing the star-worshipping religion of the Sabi- are questions that have not yet been fully answered. ans, Maimonides summarizes a text from the Several other medieval midrashim borrow from Nabatean Agriculture, which describes Abraham’s dis- and build upon the stories and motifs found in putations with his contemporaries: PRE. Three short narratives (Maaseh Avraham, When Ibrahim, who was brought up in Kutha, disa- Maaseh Avraham Avinu, and Midrash de-Avraham Av- greed with the community and asserted that there was an agent other than the sun, various arguments were inu) focus on the early life of Abraham, as do two brought forward against him … [which] set forth the 12th-century compilations: Sefer ha-Yashar and Sefer clear and manifest activities of the sun in what exists. ha-Zikhronot. The latter collects and synthesizes pas- Thereupon he … told them: You are right; it is like an sages from PRE, together with other sources (in- axe in the hands of a carpenter. Then they mention cluding a Hebrew version of Pseudo-Philo’s, Biblical a part of his argumentation … against them. At the Antiquities). The same stories are repeated, ex- conclusion of the story they mention that the king put panded, and elaborated in Pesiqta Rabbati and Tanna Abraham our Father … into prison [where … he perse- de-vei Eliyyahu, although within a more straightfor- vered for days and days in arguing against them. There- upon the king became afraid that he would ruin his ward homiletical and liturgical context, and with polity and turn the people away from their religions greater emphasis on the eschatological “merit of and therefore he banished him toward Syria after hav- Abraham.” ing confiscated all his property … 2. Abraham in Maimonides. Abraham is a central Abraham reappears in several additional passages figure, perhaps the central figure, in the writings of in the Guide.InGuide 3 : 22, Maimonides explains Moses Maimonides (Rambam: 1138–1204). Mai- Gen 22 in detail. In Guide 3 : 51, Abraham, together monides himself has justly been called “Abrahamic with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, is singled out not as man.” Abraham is the key figure in Maimonides’ philosopher, polemicist, and champion of the faith, schematic history of religion; and nearly every but as a Sufi sheikh of sorts, who creates a political work by the Master – including each part of the community, while not allowing his bond with God Guide of the Perplexed – begins with a motto drawn to be broken; he continues political engagement in from Gen 21 : 33: “In the name of the Lord, God of this world without compromising in any way his the world.” mystical attachment to God. In Maimonides’ code of law, Mishneh Torah (in Maimonides’ representation of Abraham had ch. 1 of the “Laws of Idolatry and Idolaters”), Abra- significant influence on all later Jewish discussions ham plays a central role in his history of religion. of Gen 12–25, exegetical and philosophical alike. There Maimonides describes a linear decline from His reconstruction of ancient paganism in light of monotheism to idolatry, beginning with the gener- the Nabatean Agriculture continued to influence bib- ation of Enosh, when the people directed their lical scholarship even into the early modern period. prayers towards representatives of God rather than The conception of Abraham’s philosophical con- God. In the succeeding generations, God, the first templation of God was repercussive as well as it cause, was completely forgotten. Instead, people was controversial. Later opponents of philosophy, considered the celestial bodies the only rulers of the such as Hasdai Crescas (ca. 1340–1410/11), at- sublunar world. This continued until the birth of tempted to undermine Maimonides’ rational reli-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 175 Abraham 176 gion through a re-reading of the same biblical and Abraham, followed by three men who are later rabbinic texts singled out by Maimonides. Accord- called angels. Does the text represent one God in ing to Crescas, Abraham recognized the existence the form of three (as in Christian interpretations), and unity of God not through philosophy and theo- a single divine epiphany followed by the separate retical speculation, but through prophecy and reve- visit of three angels, or a divine revelation followed lation. For Crescas, in other words, divine revela- by the visit of three “men” who are like angels? tion and prophecy – as represented by the first call Maimonides had resolved this problem by fiat. to “get thee out” – marks the beginning of a reli- God’s appearance to Abraham at Gen 18 : 1 marks gious life of obedience rather than the end of a the beginning of a single prophetic dream or vi- philosophical life of speculation. sion, which means that all subsequent events in the 3. Abraham in Nahø manides. Gen 12–25 was ex- narrative are internal psychic experiences. But this plicated in the Jewish commentary tradition as reading of the text creates additional problems; well, in the foundational commentaries by Saadiah when does the dream end and reality begin? After ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and the prophecy about Isaac? After the argument with Rabbi Solomon Yitsh aqi (Rashi). Most creative, God? After the destruction of Sodom? In his com- however, was the work of Moses Nah manides mentary, Nah manides responded to all these prob- (Ramban; 1194–1270). lems. Nevertheless, after rejecting the philosophi- Nah manides’ commentary on the Torah builds cal reading of Maimonides, he proceeds to upon midrash, Rashi and Ibn Ezra, borrows from introduce a kabbalistic explanation in its place. Ac- and criticizes Maimonides, but introduces new cording to him, the angels are called “men” be- ideas as well. Like the midrashim and Maimonides, cause they take on a fine corporeal garment allow- Nah manides introduces legends about the early life ing them to be recognized in the human world. of Abraham in Haran and Kutha, elaborating upon This, he says, is the “secret of the garment.” them in light of the Nabatean Agriculture. But he ap- As in so many other areas, the rival explana- peals to other sources as well, including Near East- tions of Gen 18 by Maimonides and Nah manides ern geography, based on reports by contemporary served as foundation for later reflections and con- travelers to the cities of Abraham’s youth. Nah ma- troversies. For example, Rabbi Yom Tov ben Abra- nides also introduces one distinctive idea of his ham al-Ishbili (Ritba, 1250–1330) devoted ch. 3 of own theology – “concealed miracles” – to help ex- his Sefer Zikkaron to reconciling the two great mas- plain why Abraham’s early-life conflicts with Sabi- ters of medieval Judaism. ans and Nimrod are alluded to but not clearly re- 4. Abraham in the Zohar. Nah manides was one ported in Scripture; God works concealed miracles of the earliest biblical exegetes to introduce kabba- for the righteous, to save them from difficult situa- listic notions into a biblical commentary. In gen- tions. eral, however, he was reserved in his use of Kabba- Nah manides was one of the few medieval Jew- lah. In the following generation, the stories of ish exegetes to use typology or prefigurative exege- Abraham were explained in detail in the Zohar (late sis, a method which was popular among Christians 13th cent.), which would become the most influen- rather than Jews. For example, citing a rabbinic tial work of Kabbalah. maxim – “everything that happens to the patri- In the Zohar, Abraham’s life and travels are ex- archs is a sign to the children” (maas´ eh avot siman plained with constant reference to the sefirot. Abra- la-banim) – he explains Abraham’s descent into ham himself is høesed (grace, love) or an individual Egypt as prefiguring the Egyptian bondage, the who seeks to rise to høesed through his spiritual war with the four kings as alluding to the four es- quests. His travels to Canaan were self-motivated; chatological kingdoms described in the book of he began the journey and only then did God say: Daniel, and Melchizedek King of Salem, priest of “Get thee to Canaan.” In Canaan he conjoined with the most high God, as prefiguring the high priest the Shekhinah, the lowest sefirah, but had to descend in the future temple in Jerusalem. This sort of pre- into Egypt, the realm of evil, in order to refine him- figurative exegesis also helps him to find extra self. Only if he could withstand the forces of evil meaning in the text’s seemingly insignificant de- could he rise to a higher level still. Although he tails. Thus, Abraham’s lie about Sarah was actually traveled frequently, he was always traveling toward a cause, a parallel foreshadowing, of the difficult the Negeb, which means south, and represents the trials in Egypt. Here the lie is not ignored or dis- sefirah høesed. missed apologetically, but is rather fit into a typo- Concerning the lie about Sarah being his “sis- logical reading of redemption history, which takes ter,” according to the Zohar Abraham did not really seriously the implications (really cosmic implica- lie, for Sarah is Shekhinah, and Shekhinah and høesed tions) of moral action. are siblings in the world of the sefirot, children of A detailed criticism of Maimonides is found in høokhmah (“wisdom”). The sacrifice of Isaac is also Nah manides’ commentary on Gen 18 : 1. The bibli- explained with reference to the sefirot. Abraham, cal text itself is problematic. God first appears to qua høesed, was all grace and love, therefore he

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 177 Abraham 178 needed to combine with din/gevurah (“severe judg- a sign to show that a prophecy is from God – Abra- ment”) – Isaac – in order to achieve a proper bal- ham serves here as a primary case. When God ance. In other words, Abraham took on the form of promises to make a great nation of him, Abraham Isaac in order to bind Isaac, while Isaac, by submit- demands a sign. While Spinoza argues that this il- ting peacefully to the sacrifice, took on the form lustrates the inferiority of prophetic knowledge to of Abraham – passive love and grace. Only by this reason, which requires no such signs for its cer- merging of love and judgment can Jacob, true di- tainty, he does allow that prophecy, bolstered by vine compassion, come to be. signs, does offer moral certainty (ibid.). The most interesting aspect of the Zoharic Abraham further exemplifies Spinoza’s under- Abraham concerns circumcision, which is discussed standing of prophecy as limited not only by a at much greater length than any other subject in prophet’s imagination but also by his own mind, the Abraham narrative. Circumcision, of course, conditioned by his environment. Abraham had a was a central practice in rabbinic Judaism; the rab- more profound understanding of God than , binic sages were especially concerned with this sin- not surprising given that Abraham was born into a gle commandment, in response to Christian polem- fairly advanced culture. But Abraham seems igno- ics. With the Zohar, however, the concerns are rant of certain aspects of God’s nature, “that God is somewhat different. The mystical experience, in everywhere and foreknows all things,” for instance the Zohar as in other traditions, is often represented (ibid.: 35). The ultimate project of naturalizing as a union between male and female. In the Zohar, prophecy and rationalizing biblical studies, renders this applies from above and below; the mystic’s un- the Bible useless as a tool of political oppression; ion with Shekhinah from below and the union of in the process, Spinoza laid a rudimentary ground- tiferet (“adornment”) with Shekhinah through yesod work for modern biblical studies (Preus: 1–6, (“foundation”) from above. For the Jewish mystic, 208–11). moreover, this sexual-mystical union must take Moses Mendelssohn, a contemporary of Imma- place in a pure state. Thus, it is only after circumci- nuel Kant, had a deeply philosophical conception sion that there can be a true vision of the divine of the role of Abraham (and the patriarchs gener- world. In other words, for the author(s) of the Zo- ally) in history. In the ancient world, rampant idol- har, circumcision is a prerequisite for mystical un- atry led to the degradation of human nature; at ion. various points in history, philosophers sought to

Bibliography. Primary: ■ Ma‘aseh Avraham Avinu,inBet ha- intervene, first “through public or secret instruc- Midrash (ed. A. Jellinek; Jerusalem 1938) vol. 1, 25–34. tion,” then by attempting to separate “man’s ab- ■ Ma‘aseh Avraham,inBet ha-Midrash (ed. A. Jellinek; Jeru- stract concepts from their representation in images salem 1938) vol. 2, 118–19. ■ Midrash de-Avraham Avinu,in or imaginary configurations and expressing them, Bet ha-Midrash (ed. A. Jellinek; Jerusalem 1938) vol. 5, 40– instead, by symbols that by their very nature could 42. ■ The Book of Memory, that is the Chronicles of Jerahme’el not be mistaken for anything else: namely, by num- (ed. E. Yassif; Ramat Aviv 2001). [Heb.] ■ The Chronicle of bers” (Mendelssohn: 87–88). But all philosophical (New York 1971). attempts failed to hold back the corruption of idol- Secondary: ■ R. Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands (Albany, N.Y., 1990). ■ M. Hallamish et. al. (eds.), The Faith of Abra- atry and magical thinking. It was in this religious- ham (Ramat-Gan 2002). ■ S. Lowin, The Making of a Forefa- historical context that Abraham and his descend- ther (diss.; Chicago 2002). ■ M. Saperstein, “Jewish Typo- ants would be set apart by remaining “faithful to logical Exegesis after Nahmanides,” in “Your Voice Like a the Eternal and [trying] to preserve pure religious Ram’s Horn” (Cincinnati, Ohio 1996) 23–36. ■ E. R. Wolf- concepts free of all idolatry” (Mendelssohn/A. son, Circle in the Square (Albany, N.Y. 1995). ■ E. R. Wolf- Jospe: 89). The existence of this people descended son, “The Secret of the Garment in Nah manides,” Da‘at 24 of Abraham stands as a beacon, not of conversion, (1990) 25–49. ■ E. R. Wolfson, “‘By Way of Truth’,” AJSR 14 (1989) 103–78. but to “call wholesome and unadulterated ideas of James T. Robinson God and his attributes continuously to the atten- tion of the rest of humanity” (ibid.). D. Modern Judaism For Hermann Cohen, whose ethics are deeply In many ways, the thinker who decisively bridges rooted in Kantian moral universalism, thinkers like the gap between medieval Jewish thought and Spinoza and Mendelssohn give away far too much modernity is Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza (1632– to the critics of Judaism; both argue that the laws 1677). A student of Cartesian thought, Spinoza’s of Judaism are applicable only to that particular philosophical teachings concerning God and scrip- people (Melber: 39–40). Cohen will struggle, in his tures made him one of the most prominent Jewish interpretations, to overcome the view that Abra- heretics of the early modern period. According to ham originated a parochial, particularist religion. Spinoza, “prophecy depends upon imagination For Cohen, like Mendelssohn, the particular fate of alone,” and thus cannot provide any kind of cer- the Jewish people arises out of the context of Abra- tainty unless it “be assisted by something, and that ham’s resistance to idolatry. Where holiness had something is reason” (Spinoza: 28). Reason requires been defined merely as separateness, “ever since

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Abraham resisted the cult of the Sabeans, monothe- an “eternal people” who “never loses the untram- ism developed another conception of holiness … meled freedom of a wanderer who is more faithful there emerged this parallelism: ‘You shall be holy; a knight to his country when he roams abroad … for I the Lord your God am holy’ (Lev 19 : 2). With this people has a land of its own only in that it has this correlation, the mythic meaning of holiness a land it yearns for – a holy land” (Rosenzweig: was all at once converted into a new meaning of 300). The choice of the phrase, faithful knight, can- morality” (Cohen 1971: 140). Mendelssohn, how- not but call to mind the formulation Kierkegaard ever, had denied both Judaism’s desire to be propa- had given to Abraham, ‘knight of faith’, in philo- gated by the generation of proselytes (Mendels- sophical challenge to the universalistic, Kantian sohn/A. Jospe: 117, 133ff.) and the applicability of challenge to Abraham’s morality. But Rosenzweig’s its laws outside of the Jewish nation (Mendells- words strike at the heart of both camps. Abraham sohn/E. Jospe: 126). For Cohen, both Judaism and is neither the lonely knight suspending the ethical the moral law embedded in the Torah are universal nor a sign of a universal, mechanical morality; in both claim and significance. According to Cohen, Abraham is the father of a people, and “the will to Abraham both recognized God as God of the whole be a people dares not cling to any mechanical universe and tried to convert as many as possible means; the will can realize its end only through the to monotheism, i.e., attempting to universalize his people itself” (ibid.). faith (Melber: 40). Abraham’s attempt to spread his For Martin Buber, the philosopher who formu- religion beyond the bounds of his family bears an lated the ‘I-Thou’ relation, Abraham, the intimate implicit messianic seed, seeking as it did to turn all of God, must have been of particular interest. Three people to recognize the truth of the religion and things, according to Buber, trace back to Abraham: its morality, but Judaism seeks its universality not the origin of the people, the community of nations, through violence but through reason and argu- and prophecy (1956: 305). In his article, “Abraham ment (Melber: 355–56). The grounding for this the Seer,” Buber identifies seven prophetic instan- method is illustrated in Cohen’s humane reason- ces in the career of Abraham, but it is the final – ing: “Monotheism itself prevents any inner parti- the – which Buber sees as complet- tion between believers in monotheism and all non- ing and fulfilling Abraham’s spiritual journey. believers. The Israelite is a son of Noah before he Here we see the ‘I-Thou’ relation fully at work be- is a son of Abraham” (Cohen 1972: 119). The uni- tween God and a man: “God sees man, and man versality of Cohen’s monotheism, unlike that of sees God. God sees Abraham, and tests him by see- Christianity as he experiences it, must welcome all ing him as the righteous and ‘whole’ man who comers (even, or especially, the stranger) given that walks before his God, and now, at the end of his it must forsake coercion, having forsaken any road, he conquers even this final place, the holy ground for differentiating the believer from the un- temple mountain, by acting on God’s behalf … now believer for such purposes. the reciprocity of seeing between God and man is For Franz Rosenzweig, Abraham stands at the directly revealed to us” (ibid.: 304). No matter how head of revelation. God’s encounter with the cre- the face of Abrahamic religion changes, in and ated world, prior (in nature) to Abraham, is like a through Abraham, “this ‘correlation’ of guidance monologue; echoing the philosophy of his friend, and devotion, revelation and decision, God’s love Martin Buber, Rosenzweig asks, “where is the for man and man’s love for God, this unconditional Thou, independent and freely confronting the con- relationship between Him and man remains” cealed God … There is a material world, there is (Buber 1960: 36). the self-contained self, but where is there a Thou … ? So God asks too” (Rosenzweig: 175). But God Bibliography. Primary: ■ M. Buber, “Abraham the Seer,” reaches out “in a supreme definiteness that could Jdm 5 (1956) 291–305; trans. of id., “Abraham der Seher” (1939). ■ M. Buber, The Prophetic Faith (New York 1960); not but be heard, [and] now he answers, all un- trans. of id., Der Glaube der Propheten (Zurich 1950). ■ H. locked, all spread apart, all ready, all-soul: ‘Here I Cohen, Reason and Hope (New York 1971); selections from: am’” (Rosenzweig: 176). Rosenzweig refers to this id., Jüdische Schriften (Berlin 1924). ■ H. Cohen, Religion of as Abraham’s second birth, an event that individual Reason out of the Sources of Judaism (New York 1972); trans. of Jews, unlike individual Christians, do not require. id., Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums (Frank- For the Jew, such rebirth “is not a personal one, furt a.M. 21929). ■ M. Mendelssohn, Jerusalem and Other but the transformation of his people for freedom in Jewish Writings (ed. A. Jospe; New York 1969). ■ M. Men- the divine covenant of revelation … The patriarch delssohn, Selections from his Writings (ed. E. Jospe; New York Abraham heard the call of God and answered it 1975). ■ F. Rosenzweig, His Life and Thought (ed. N. N. Glat- zer; New York 21961). ■ B. de Spinoza, Theological-Political with his ‘Here I am,’ and the individual only in Treatise (Cambridge 2007); trans. of id. Tractatus theologico- Abraham’s loins. Henceforth the individual is born politicus (Amsterdam 1670). a Jew.” Secondary: ■ H. Abramovitch, “The Psychobiography of Abraham stands as the father, and archetype, of a Dialogue,” Jdm 34 (1985) 401–16. ■ L. E. Goodman, God a people that stands outside of both time and place, of Abraham (New York 1996). ■ J. Melber, Hermann Cohen’s

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Philosophy of Judaism (New York 1968). ■ J. Preus, Spinoza ham was common in the early and medieval and the Irrelevance of Biblical Authority (Cambridge 2001). church. James A. Grady Towards the end of the 2nd century, Melito of Sardis developed an explicit link between the Aq- IV. Christianity edah (the near-sacrifice of Isaac, Gen 22) and the ■ Greek and Latin Patristics and Orthodox Churches sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. In his Peri Pascha ■ Medieval Times and Reformation Era ■ Modern (Homily on the Passover, fragment 9), Melito stated ■ Europe and America New Churches and Movements that “Christ underwent the suffering and Isaac did A. Greek and Latin Patristics and Orthodox not, for he was only a prefiguration of him who Churches would suffer.” It is no accident that in early Chris- Patristic and early medieval appropriations of Abra- tian art the image of the sacrifice of Isaac was one ham drew squarely on the images of Abraham of the most popular depictions. found in Jewish tradition as mediated by the Chris- 2. Abraham as Model Believer. Abraham also tian scriptures. Thus, Paul’s notion of Abraham as served as a model believer to the faithful Christian. father of the Christian faithful, or as one who mod- His unwavering trust in God was paradigmatic. As eled Christian faith apart from circumcision and Ambrose of Milan reflected on the story of Abra- the Jewish law (e.g., Rom 4; Gal 3), or the image of ham: “You are commanded to believe, not permit- finding rest after death in the bosom of Abraham ted to inquire. To Abraham it was counted right- (Luke 16), or Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac as a eousness that he sought not reasons, but believed foreshadowing of God’s actual sacrifice of his son with most ready faith. It is good that faith should (Gen 22; Heb 11) were all readily picked up by Pat- go before reason, lest we seem to exact a reason ristic and early medieval Christian authors. from our Lord God as from a man” (Abr. 1.21). Sim- 1. Christological Readings of Abraham. Early ilarly, Origen (Hom. Gen. 4.2), Chrysostom (Hom. Christian authors continued the New Testament Gen. 46), Athanasius (Festal Letter 6 on John 8), and tradition of reading the Abraham story in light of Augustine all praised Abraham for his steadfast Christian faith. The Epistle of Barnabas made use of faith. Indeed, Augustine reasoned that Abraham gematria (finding symbolic meaning in numbers) had such faith that, even as he was about to sacri- to show how Abraham bore witness to Christ. fice his only son Isaac, he trusted that God could When Gen 17 : 23 (cf. 14 : 14) indicates that Abra- raise him from the dead (Civ. xvi.32). This faith also ham circumcised 318 men from his household, anticipated God’s sacrifice of his only son Jesus and Barnabas seized upon the number 318 (in Gk.: raising him from the dead. For Augustine, Abra- ΤΙΗ). As it was common to abbreviate names with ham marked the beginning of a new era of revela- the first two letters, Barnabas took the ΙΗ as a refer- tion that foreshadowed the ultimate coming of ence to ΙΗΣ2ΥΣ (Jesus), with the T standing for Christ, his death, and resurrection (Civ. xvi.12). the cross of Christ. Thus Barnabas viewed Abra- Throughout early and medieval Christianity, Abra- ham’s circumcision of 318 men as a hidden refer- ham remained a model of steadfast faith. Abraham ence to a deeper meaning, the salvific death of Jesus was also praised as a model for Christian hospital- on the cross. ity on the basis of his reception of the angelic fig- Similarly, in the mid-2nd century, Justin Mar- ures at Mamre (Gen 18; cf. Origen, Hom. Gen. 4.2; tyr drew extensively on Abraham in his Dialogue Chrysostom, Hom. Gen. 46). with Trypho the Jew. According to Justin, since Abra- 3. Resting in the Bosom of Abraham. The story ham was counted righteous by God before he re- from Luke 16 of the rich man and poor Lazarus ceived physical circumcision, the real circumcision received much attention from patristic and medie- was of the heart (Dial. 43.2), which now, for Justin, val commentators. In the story, the rich man dies corresponds to Christian baptism. The continued and goes to Hades, while poor Lazarus goes to rest practice of physical circumcision among the Jews in the bosom of Abraham. In torment, the rich man was intended by God as a mark of God’s curse upon asks Abraham to have Lazarus bring him water and those who put Jesus to death (Dial. 16.2–4). God’s to warn his brothers, but Abraham remarks that a promise that Abraham’s descendants would be “as great barrier is set between them, and that Lazarus the sand that is on the seashore” (Gen 22 : 17) be- is receiving his reward while the rich man is receiv- came for Justin an indication that, like sand on the ing his just punishment. The notion of repose in beach, the Jews would be “barren and fruitless” the bosom of Abraham led to great speculation apart from Christ (Dial. 120.2). As would be com- about the nature of the place where Abraham re- mon in later Christian tradition, Justin also used ceived Lazarus. According to Irenaeus, the bosom the story of the theophany to Abraham at Mamre of Abraham served as a temporary resting place for (Gen 18) as proof of Christ’s pre-existence (Dial. 55– souls awaiting the Day of Judgment, at which point 59). Finally, for Justin, Gentile Christians are the they would inherit a resurrected body (Haer. true descendants and children of Abraham, not the ii.34.1). Similarly, Tertullian argued that this story Jews (Dial. 119–120). Such Christianizing of Abra- shows how rewards to the faithful were not imme-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 183 Abraham 184 diately conferred. Rather, the souls of the departed, appearance of God to Abraham by the oaks of even Christians, went first to Hades to await judg- Mamre [Gen 18]; the offering of Isaac [Gen 22]; ment. Tertullian made it clear, however, that the the promise given to Abraham [Gen 12; 17; 22]; faithful found rest in Abraham’s bosom, which is a and Abraham’s Bosom [Luke 16 : 22]); separate place from Hades, or a separate upper re- c) In Christian iconography, where these stories gion of Hades that can be seen from Hades below are essential material. (An. 7.4; 55). Augustine’s approach to the story of In addition to commentaries on the whole Bible, the rich man and Lazarus was far less materialistic several medieval authors treated Abraham in their than Tertullian’s notion. Augustine identified the Genesis or Pentateuch commentaries; e.g., Isidore metaphor of Abraham’s bosom with paradise (cf. of Seville, Bede, Walafrid Strabo, Remigius of Aux- Div. Quaest. 53; 57.22; Conf. ix.3.6). Moreover, Au- erre, Alfonso Tostado and Rupert of Deutz. In these gustine disputed the notion that “Abraham’s commentaries the text of Genesis is interpreted in bosom” was in any way located in or affiliated with connection with the passages dealing with Abra- Hades (Gen. litt. 33.64–65). Augustine was less con- ham in the New Testament. This resulted in a cerned with the exact location of the repose in christological interpretation of the blessing and Abraham’s bosom, and more interested in the im- promise given to Abraham; the seed of Abraham, age of comfort and paradise it suggested. Medieval in whom all nations are to be blessed, was identi- Christians regularly interpreted Luke 16 and the fied with the coming of Christ. A prefiguring of the reference to “Abraham’s bosom” (sinus Abraham) as sacrifice of Christ on the cross is seen in the offer- a symbol of heaven and the resurrected life. Indeed, ing of Isaac. The three men who visit Abraham by Thomas Aquinas viewed the bosom of Abraham as the oaks of Mamre are seen as prefiguring the Eu- a reference to the highest heaven (Summa Theologiae, charist, but also as representing the triune nature Supp., Qu. 69, art. 4). A common image in medieval of God. Christian art was not only Lazarus in the bosom In medieval theological discussion on doctrinal of Abraham (cf. the 10th-cent. Liuthar Gospels), but questions, some key stories about Abraham ac- whole communities of the saved in Abraham’s quired an argumentative role. For instance, the of- bosom (cf. the 12th-cent. Hortus Deliciarum, the fering of Melchizedek and the sacrifice of Isaac Pamplona Bible, and the central portal of the Bour- served as biblical testimony for the offering of the ges Cathedral, west facade). Mass, “Abraham’s Bosom” was used as a biblical Bibliography: ■ J. Baschet, “Medieval Abraham,” MLN basis for the doctrine of limbus patrum (a part of 108 : 4 (1993) 738–58. ■ J. L. van der Lof, “Abraham’s hell), and God’s command to sacrifice Isaac was Bosom in the Writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Augus- used in the discussions between the thomistic and tine,” AugSt 26 : 2 (1995) 109–23. ■ J. S. Siker, Disinheriting scotistic traditions about the immutability of the the Jews (Louisville, Ky. 1991). ■ I. Speyart van Woerden, will of God. “The Iconography of the Sacrifice of Isaac,” VigChr 15 (1961) The theologians of the Reformation used and 214–55. ■ R. Wilken, “The Christianizing of Abraham,” CTM 43 (1972) 723–31. discussed patristic, medieval and rabbinic material Jeffrey Siker in their interpretation of Abraham. Abraham was treated for the most part in sermons, lectures and B. Medieval Times and Reformation Era commentaries. Abraham is the key figure in the Christian theology and spirituality in both medie- Hebrew Bible/Old Testament providing support for val times and in the Reformation era treated the the doctrine of justification by faith alone. patriarch Abraham in continuity with the early In Luther’s interpretations of Abraham (WA 9; Church and Patristic literature. Abraham was an 14; 24; 42–44), Abraham is the paradigm for his important biblical figure in attempts to prove the theology as a whole. Above all, Abraham is for Lu- continuity between the Old and New Testaments. ther the father of faith. The promise given to Abra- Abraham thus became one of the proofs of true ham is a promise of the coming Christ and there- Christian faith. fore identical with the Gospel. Abraham is not only Abraham appears in several settings in medie- the most important witness in the Old Testament val Christian traditions: for justification by faith, but also a paradigm for a) In commentaries on the whole Bible or on the hope and love. In his worship, Abraham is the ty- Pentateuch and the as glossa in- pos of the “true Church”; in his office, he is also terlinearis, glossa ordinaria and the Postilla of priest, bishop and “true monk.” For Luther, Abra- Nicholas of Lyra; ham is pater fidei sanctissimus, who in his holiness b) In dogmatic theological treatises, where key replaces traditional legendary hagiology. Sarah and stories about Abraham are used as biblical testi- Hagar also have an important role in Luther’s exe- monies for central Christian beliefs (the bless- gesis. Hagar especially is a paradigm for Luther’s ing given to Abraham [Gen 12; 18]; the meeting “theology of the cross.” of Abraham and Melchizedek [Gen 14]; the jus- Zwingli and Calvin interpret Abraham in their tification of Abraham by his faith [Gen 15]; the commentaries on Genesis (CR 100 and CR 23) as

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 185 Abraham 186 embodying in general the common lines of the Ref- that gives God himself his vitality. Schelling fo- ormation, seeing in Abraham’s faith the basis of the cuses on the names of the revealing God (Elohim doctrine of justification by faith alone. Zwingli’s and Malach YHWH). As an exclusive principle, the interpretation is more typological, while Calvin dark side of God (Elohim) is indeed demonic, but prefers a historical and literal approach. Calvin at the same time, before Malach is able to appear, agrees with Luther in many respects but also differs the dark side has to be transcended by Malach in some details. Calvin’s interpretation emphasizes YHWH (cf. Rosenau: 259–60). God’s covenant considerably more than Luther’s. While writing about Abraham, Kierkegaard For both, the story of Abraham is directive in the spent time in Berlin and listened to Schelling’s lec- life of the Church. tures. Schelling’s speculative thoughts, however, seem hardly to affect him. Instead, Johannes de Si- Bibliography: ■ J. Baschet, “Medieval Abraham,” MLN 108 : 4 (1993) 738–58. ■ J. Forsberg, Das Abrahambild in der lentio, Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, again discusses Theologie Luthers (Stuttgart 1984). ■ D. Lerch, Isaaks Opfe- the compatibility between revelation and reason. rung christlich gedeutet (Tübingen 1950). ■ E. Lucchesi Palli, He verbalizes a contradictory position to those of “Abraham,” LCI 1(Freiburg 1968) 25–30. ■ R. C. Zach- Kant and Hegel. In Gen 22, de Silentio finds evi- mann, “Calvin as Commentator on Genesis,” in Calvin and dence that there is an absolute duty to the Absolute the Bible (ed. D. McKim; Cambridge/New York 2006) 1– (God), which is in the concrete moment more evi- 29. dent to the individual as the universal law of rea- Juhani Forsberg son. An individual like Abraham is a religious ex- C. Modern Europe and America ception. Abraham’s devotion to God is his passion. In the modern era, the œuvre of I. Kant, the Ger- As a passion it is non-communicable and others are man Idealists and S. Kierkegaard have had an im- not able to comprehend it. This non-communicable mense influence on the history of theology. In ad- passion, however, is somehow heard in the few dition, these thinkers guided Christian reception words that Abraham utters in Gen 22 : 8. This verse and interpretation of Abraham. One of the main points nearly ironically at what de Silentio calls the problems they discussed is the compatibility be- “Dobbeltbevægelsen i Abrahams Sjæl” (“double tween revelation and reason. The Aqedah, above movement in Abraham’s soul”; Kierkegaard: 183). all, casts this question as unavoidable. In an act of resignation, Abraham sacrifices his son, Kant and J. G. Fichte agree that reason gives the and at the same time he expects to retain him. This guidelines to judge every (supposed) revelation. On latter movement is called “Troens Bevægelse i Kraft this account, Kant criticizes Abraham several times. af det Absurde” (“movement of faith in the power Abraham should have exposed the voice that of the absurd,” ibid.). Again and again, the pseudo- speaks to him in Gen 22 : 2 as the voice of an idol. nym deals with the question of how to preach the However, in obeying the voice and taking it for movement, that which is empowered by the ab- God’s order, Abraham instead acts “gewissenlos” surd. In this way, Kierkegaard unites poetry, phi- (Kant: 187), i.e., “without conscience.” losophy and theology. All of these three areas of Although impressed by Kant, the young Hegel 20th-century thought echo the thought of “Fear did not restrict his examination of Abraham to the and Trembling” (1843). Aqedah. Referring to Gen 12–24, G. W. F. Hegel de- The philosophical interpretation of Abraham – scribes Abraham’s life in “Der Geist des Christen- influenced by Kierkegaard but mainly returning to tums und sein Schicksal” (1798–1800). He inter- the position of Kant – continues in the works of M. prets Abraham as the “wahren Stammvater der Buber, J. Sartre, S. de Beauvoir and L. Kolakowski Juden” (Nohl: 243; “true ancestor of the Jews”) and (cf. Tschuggnall: 75–79). J. Derrida reads Gen 22 as uses him as a paradigm for the dialectic of freedom an insight into the history of religions. In the and love. Leaving his relatives, his fatherland and ‘Binding of Isaac’, he locates the distinction be- the gods of his fathers, Abraham tries to become tween “magischen Ritualität und mythischen Reli- independent. He is not breaking away because he gion” (Deuser: 6; “magic rituality and mythic reli- is attracted by someone else, rather – and that is gion”). The religion of Abraham focuses on his specific to Hegel’s interpretation – “Abraham inwardness and holds him responsible for his deci- wollte nicht lieben und darum frei sein” (ibid.: 246; sion. Furthermore, Derrida generalizes the situa- “Abraham did not want to love and therefore to be tion, arguing that in every true decision, such as free”). The God of Abraham is a monotheistic ideal, during one’s own dying, a human being becomes a an idea, which is rooted in Abraham’s “Verachtung self-responsible individual (cf. ibid.: 7). gegen die ganze Welt” (ibid.: 247; “contempt of the In the 20th century, systematic theology fo- entire world”). cused not only on Gen 22, but also on Gen 12 : 1–2, To a lesser extent, F. W. J. von Schelling draws 15 : 6 and 17 : 4. As an emigrant himself, P. J. Tillich attention to Abraham rather to the self-revealing developed a special view on the wandering Abra- God. In his 29th lecture of the “Philosophie der ham. The God in whom Abraham believes reveals Offenbarung” (1841/42), he exposes the tension himself as the God of time; in other words “die

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Götter des Raums und des Heidentums und des Abraham’s early life, his ordination to the priest- Polytheismus” prove to be idols (Tillich: 144). In hood and his fight against the idolatry of Egypt 1937, D. Bonhoeffer sees the unavoidable “Bruch and even of his own family. It records that pagan mit den Unmittelbarkeiten” (“break with immedia- priests of Pharaoh tried to sacrifice him, but an an- cies”) prefigured in Abraham. But unlike Abraham, gel rescued him. It includes information about most people treat this break (“Bruch”) as invisible. God’s covenant with Abraham, the guarantee of a Similar to Luther, Bonhoeffer reads the stories of , many descendants, priesthood au- Abraham explicitly as Christian stories (Bonhoeffer: thority, the choosing of a Redeemer, and the sec- 92–94). On the basis of critical exegesis, however, ond estate of man. There is a vision about astron- E. Hirsch argues against a Christian reading of omy, and an account of humanity’s premortal Abraham. For Hirsch, Gen 22 shows the typical He- existence as spirits, and of the creation of the world brew Bible/Old Testament image of God. Even by Gods (in the plural) who organized and formed though the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is histori- the heavens and the earth. Smith copied three cally close to Christianity, its relationship between drawings (he called them facsimiles) from the God and men should be displaced (cf. Hirsch: 66). scrolls and published them with commentary as In recent years, theologians like K.-J. Kuschel have part of his translation of the Book of Abraham.He referred affirmatively to the God of Abraham, interpreted the first as depicting an idolatrous wanting to rediscover an Abrahamic ecumenism in- Egyptian priest about to slay Abraham. The second clusive of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Being is a hydrocephalus, representing, so Smith be- decidedly critical of Abraham’s sacrifice-tradition, lieved, the star or planet Kolob, which is near to F. Hinkelammert has developed a liberation-theo- the throne of God. The third was, he maintained, logical approach. Abraham sitting on Pharaoh’s throne, lecturing courtiers on astronomy. In 1856, Smith’s widow Bibliography. Primary: ■ D. Bonhoeffer, Nachfolge (1937), Emma sold the mummies and the papyri, and it Werke IV (Munich 1989). ■ F. J. Hinkelammert, La Fe de Abraham y el Edipo occidental (San José [Costa Rica] 1989). was assumed that the Abraham papyrus was de- ■ E. Hirsch, Das Alte Testament und die Predigt des Evangeliums stroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871. But ten frag- (ed. H. M. Müller; GW 32; Waltrop 2006) [First edition Tü- ments were discovered in 1966 in the Metropolitan bingen 1936]. ■ I. Kant, Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen Museum of Art’s archives, and another in the LDS der bloßen Vernunft, AA VI (Berlin 1907) [First edition Königs- Church Historians’ office. Contemporary Egyptolo- berg 1793]. ■ S. Kierkegaard, Samlede Værker (eds. A. B. gists give quite different translations of the text Drachmann et al., 2nd ed., vols. 1–15, Copenhagen 1920– and interpretations of the facsimiles than Smith, 1931). ■ K.-J. Kuschel, Abraham (New York 1995); trans. of and regard the papyrus as a funerary text from id., Streit um Abraham (München 1994). ■ H. Nohl (ed.), He- gels theologische Jugendschriften (Tübingen 1907). ■ P. Tillich, about the 1st century BCE, about 2,000 years later “The Struggle between Time and Space,” in Theology of Cul- than Smith declared it to be. ture (ed. R. C. Kimball; New York 1959) 30–39; trans. of id., Mormons agree with the apostle Paul that Abra- “Der Widerstreit von Zeit und Raum,” in Gesammelte Werke, ham is the father of the faithful, not of those who vol. 6 (ed. R. Albrecht; Stuttgart 21963) 140–8. claim natural descent from him. But they give this Secondary: ■ H. Deuser, “‘Und hier hast Du übrigens a twist: God’s promises to Abraham, the Abrahamic einen Widder’,” in Opfere deinen Sohn! (eds. B. Greiner et al.; covenant, are for all who are worthy to be grafted ■ Tübingen 2007) 1–17. H. Rosenau, “Die Erzählung von in to the House of Israel, which means that it is for Abrahams Opfer (Gen 22) und ihre Deutung bei Kant, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Kierkegaard und Schelling,” NZSTh 27 (1985) 251–61. ■ P. Tschugnall, Das Abraham-Opfer als Glaubensparadox (Frank- day Saints. Moreover, later Mormon revelation furt a.M. et al. 1990). drawn from the Book of Abraham has cast light on Matthias Wilke aspects of Abraham unknown to the biblical tradi- tion, and touches explicitly or implicitly on beliefs D. New Churches and Movements that distinguish Mormon from mainstream Chris- Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus tian theology: Abraham was given divine revelation Christ of Latter-day Saints, published the Book of about the planetary system, the creation of the Abraham in 1842. He claimed that among four earth, and the pre-mortal activities of the spirits of mummies which he purchased from Michael Chan- humankind. He was chosen to be a leader in the dler, a traveling antiquities dealer in Kirtland, Ohio kingdom of God before he was born into this in 1835 was an original and hitherto lost papyrus world. Because of his faithfulness he is now exalted text written in Egypt by the patriarchal ancestor of and sits upon a throne in eternity. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and that he could translate it. It is now found in the Pearl of Great Bibliography: ■ D. J. Davies, An Introduction to Mormonism (Cambridge 2003). ■ J. Grooters (dir.), The Lost Book of Abra- Price. Its five chapters became part of The Church ham (Grand Rapids, Mich. 2002; www.bookofabraham.info, of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormon accessed April 7, 2009). ■ The Book of Abraham: Translated scripture in 1880, though many Latter-day Saint from the Papyrus by Joseph Smith (http://scriptures.lds.org/abr, Restoration communities do not recognize its au- accessed April 7, 2009). thority. The Book of Abraham contains details about Martin Forward

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V. Islam monotheistic fervor rouses his people to condemn Abraham (Arab. Ibra¯ hı¯ m) is a figure of great spiri- him to be burnt, but God rescues him from this tual importance in Islam. He is acknowledged as a and other attempts against him (S 21 : 68–9, precursor of the Prophet Muh ammad and the S 29 : 24, S 37 : 97–8). While there are no biblical founder of the annual pilgrimage to Makka parallels to this episode, many details can be found (Mecca), and above all as a strict monotheist who in Jewish traditions (Ginzberg 1: 185–286, and put devotion to God above everything, including notes in Ginzberg 5: 207–55). his ties with his own father and son. Partial parallels to biblical narratives include Abraham’s departure from his native land (S 21 : 71, 1. Abraham in the Qura¯n. Abraham is men- tioned in over 240 verses of the Qura¯ n, more than S 29 : 26, S 37 : 99), his entering into a covenant any figure apart from Moses. These are found in 25 with God and establishing a place of worship to chapters, one of which, Su¯ ra 14, is named after him. him (S 2 : 124–5, S 33 : 7), his being reassured that They comprise both passing references and also God can revive the dead by witnessing portions of longer narratives that sometimes parallel stories in birds he had cut up being reunited and flying to Genesis or post-biblical and other traditions. Taken him (S 2 : 260), his being visited by messengers who together, they present a picture of a radical mono- inform him of the birth of a son and go on to de- theist who anticipates in many of his characteristics stroy the people of Lot, and his being ordered to the Prophet of Islam. sacrifice his son. The two latter references comprise Abraham is given a number of epithets in the further substantial narrative clusters that exem- Qura¯ n, including tender-hearted and forbearing plify Abraham’s singular dedication to God and his (S 9 : 114), truthful (S 19 : 41), and one who paid his implicit trust in him. debt (S 53 : 37). Among them, khalı¯ l (S 4 : 125) and In the first, messengers from God (their iden- høanı¯ f (S 2 : 135, S 3 : 67 etc.) are particularly signifi- tity is unknown to Abraham and his unnamed cant. wife) visit him and he serves them a roasted calf. Khalı¯ l, which is usually translated as “friend” But when they do not eat he grows suspicious of (the whole verse reading “Allah chose Abraham for them, and they have to reassure him that they have friend”), indicates a special closeness to God. To come with the good news that he will have a son some minds it suggests a unique privilege that even (S 15 : 51–3, S 51: 24–8), or, in one version, two sons strains the fundamental Islamic distinction be- named as Isaac (Ishøa¯ q) and Jacob (Yaqu¯ b) (S11:69– tween the divine and human. In fact, the mystic 71, cf. S 6 : 84, S 21 : 72, S 29 : 27). His wife reacts to Ibn Arabı¯ (d. 1240), drawing upon a meaning of this by laughing or striking her face because she its root verb khalla ‘to penetrate’, suggested that it and Abraham are too old (S 11 : 71–2, S 15 : 54–5, indicates Abraham penetrated God’s essence and S 51 : 29–30), but when the messengers affirm that was in turn penetrated by God in his essence (Ibn they bring this news from God, Abraham attests ‘Arabı¯ : 40). his belief in God’s mercy (S 15 : 56). The similarities Hø anı¯ f is taken in the Muslim tradition to mean between this and the Genesis account (as well as “monotheist,” and the høanı¯ fs who were known in the differences) are evident, as is the further detail Makka at the time of Muh ammad are regarded as that when Abraham is reassured about these mes- having affirmed this belief in a polytheistic milieu sengers he pleads for the people of Lot (Lu¯ øt) (Ibn Ish a¯ q: 99). Verses such as S 2 : 135, S3:67, (S 11 : 74, S 29 : 31–2). S 4 : 125, S 6 : 161, S 16 : 120 and S 16 : 123 appear to In the second (Aqedah), the motif of Abraham’s endorse this meaning, but many of them suggest implicit faith in the one God suffuses the narrative an additional quality that is made clear in S 3 : 95 of the sacrifice of his son so fully that the dramatic and S 6 : 79, that Abraham resisted associating and psychological tension of the Genesis parallel is other deities with God. completely absent. Here the childless Abraham One of the main narrative clusters about Abra- prays and is granted a “forbearing son.” When this ham illustrates this quality in his breaking with the son reaches working age, Abraham tells him that traditions of his family. As a youth (S 21 : 60), he he has dreamt that he must offer him in sacrifice. criticizes his father A¯ zar for worshipping idols, is The son unquestioningly complies with what he rejected by his people (S 6 : 74, S 19 : 42–6), and sees as a command from God, and the two obedi- smashes all their idols except the biggest (S 21 : 57– ently prepare. When Abraham forces his son down 8, S 37 : 93), taunting them that this idol was the to kill him, God orders him to stop, telling him he culprit and forcing them to see that they worship has already “fulfilled the dream.” The narrative is impotent images (S 21 : 63–7, cf. S 37 : 91–6). The concluded with the explanation that this was a reason why Abraham made this break is graphically trial, and that Abraham will be remembered by told in S 6 : 75–81, where he first takes a star as later generations for being a believing servant of Lord until it sets, then the moon and the sun until God. In place of the son, “a tremendous victim” is they set, and then he finally recognizes the One substituted (S 37 : 100–111). who has created all of them and asserts that he will The name of the son is not given in this narra- not be one who associates others with God. His tive, though, since Isaac (Ishøa¯ q) is named immedi-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 191 Abraham 192 ately afterwards in S 37 : 112, some interpreters liever in the one God and a prophet (S 19 : 41), he have taken this as an indication that he is involved looks forward to a prophet from among his de- in the incident. Others, however, have seen this ref- scendants who will “recite to them your signs and erence as an indication that Isaac was born after the instruct them in the Book and the Wisdom, and sacrifice, and have preferred Ishmael (Isma¯ ı¯ l) as the purify them” (S 2 : 129). There can be little doubt son whom Abraham was commanded to slaughter. from this that Abraham is portrayed, like Jesus Ishmael is associated with Abraham in several pla- after him (S 61 : 6), as anticipating Muh ammad, the ces (S 2 : 136, S 2 : 140, S 3 : 84, S 4 : 136, also last divinely-sent messenger and the bearer of the S 2 : 133), and is identified as Abraham’s close ultimate and complete revelation. helper in working on the kaba in Makka (S 2 : 125, The H adı¯ th of Muh ammad include a number S 2 : 127). In one place he is mentioned with Isaac of references to Abraham that agree with this por- as Abraham’s son (S 14 : 39), but nowhere is either trayal, and add that his picture hung in the kaba he or Isaac named as the child of the sacrifice. in Muh ammad’s own day (e.g., al-Bukha¯ rı¯ Book Abraham is of major significance in the Qura¯ n 55: “Prophets”). for his relationship with the kaba, and the ceremo- 2. Abraham in Islam. These details, which are nies of the annual Muslim pilgrimage that are asso- scattered throughout the Qura¯ n without reference ciated with it. According to S 14 : 35–41, Abraham to chronology or their mutual connection, became settles members of his family in a valley without the basis of stories about Abraham that are particu- cultivation near God’s “holy house,” so they can larly found in universal histories and in the Qisøasø establish proper worship. He prays that people’s al-anbiya¯  (“Stories of the Prophets”), books that tell hearts may be filled with love for them and that of the line of prophets leading up to Muh ammad. God will feed them, or, in a parallel version in In these accounts, the separate incidents and refer- S 2 : 126, that this region may be a place of peace, ences given in the Qura¯ n are combined with other and that God will feed believing people there. information, usually of biblical and Jewish origins, God commands Abraham and Ishmael to purify into connected biographies. the house, and they raise its foundations (S 2 : 125, The earliest substantial instance of this litera- S 2 : 127, S 22 : 26). This is the first house that was ture survives from the 8th century, forming part “appointed for people,” a place of security (S 2 : 125, of Muh ammad Ibn Ish a¯ q’s (d. 767) history of the S 3 : 97) and the goal of pilgrimage for people from Prophet Muh ammad and his predecessors. Al- all directions (S 3 : 97, S 22 : 27). Abraham himself though the original of this work has been lost, it declares the pilgrimage to people (S 22 : 27) and is can be reconstructed from later sources (Newby: 8– shown the rites of pilgrimage (S 2 : 128), circumam- 16). Here, Abraham features after Noah and the bulation, standing, bowing and prostrating, and qura¯ nic prophets Hu¯ d and Sa¯ lih , and his story in- performing retreats (S 2 : 125, S 22 : 26). The “Sta- cludes those of Ishmael, Isaac and his children tion of Abraham” is situated near the house (Newby: 67–82). (S 3 : 96–7). Ibn Ish a¯ q begins by identifying Abraham’s The Qura¯ n makes it abundantly clear that nei- birthplace as Ku¯ tha¯ , near Ku¯ fa in what was the ther Jews nor Christians can speak authoritatively kingdom of Nimrod (Namru¯ d), and goes on to tell about Abraham because their scriptures post-date how his mother hid his birth from his father, A¯ zar, him (S 3 : 65). He was, in fact, neither a Jew nor a who was Ta¯ rikh (or, by a small orthographic Christian but a høanı¯ f muslim (S 3 : 67), and so the change, Ta¯ rih = Terah), because the king, having precursor of Islam which is a reversion to the pri- been warned by his astrologers that a child born at mordial faith from which other faiths have devi- a certain place and time would uproot his religion, ated. ordered all boys born at that time to be killed. So As a radical monotheist, Abraham is portrayed Abraham was born in a cave and remained there like other messengers of God as the recipient of a until he grew, although “a day for Abraham … was revelation (S 2 : 136), which is called the søuhøuf like a month and a month like a year.” When he (“scrolls”), the same as was given to Moses emerged from the cave he saw a star, then the (S 53 : 36–7, S 87 : 18–19). It is strongly implied that moon and the sun, and he took each as his Lord the message and intention of this revelation is until they set, whereupon he put his trust in the identical with other revealed scriptures, and supre- one God (S 6 : 75–81; Newby: 67–68). His job was mely the Qura¯ n. to sell the idols his father made, but, armed with Abraham is thus seen as the ancestor of all true this faith, he made fun of them and smashed them believers in the one God. These are people who (S 37 : 91–3). Nimrod confronted Abraham, boast- show the same implicit trust in God as Abraham ing that he was lord of life and death, but Abraham did and surrender to God’s will in the same way, asked God for reassurance, and was shown the mir- and do not automatically include his own offspring acle of the birds he cut up and scattered being unless these remain true to his inspired faith made whole and coming to him (S 2 : 260). Nimrod (S 2 : 124, S 4 : 54–5, S 37 : 113, S 57 : 26). As a be- condemned him to be burnt, but Abraham sat un-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 193 Abraham 194 harmed in the fire for days, supported by an angel, the daughter of the king of H arra¯ n, and explains whereupon Nimrod began to realize his own error that Abraham married her because, like him, she (Newby: 68–71). had rebelled against her people’s religion (ibid.: Ibn Ish a¯ q goes on to tell how Abraham, with 62); he says that Hagar was given to Abraham by his wife (who is named Sarah [Sa¯ ra]) and Lot, mi- Pharaoh (ibid: 63); and he identifies the place grated “for his Lord” to H arra¯ n (Haran), and then where he sacrificed his son as about two miles from Egypt, and finally the Syrian desert, where he set- Bayt I¯ liya¯  (ibid.: 68; Jerusalem). Understandably, tled in Palestine, dug a well and made a place of he writes at length about the building of the kaba worship. When he moved from there the well dried and the establishing of the annual pilgrimage up, but he gave the people of the area seven goats (ibid.: 69–82), and about which son took part in the which drank from it and it flowed again (Newby: sacrifice (ibid.: 82–97). He concludes with the detail 72–73). that Abraham was buried at Sarah’s tomb in He- God sent angels to destroy the people of Lot. bron (ibid.: 130), and with a brief mention of some When Abraham entertained them they would not of the proverbs and parables he says were contained eat without paying. Then they told him about a in the “scrolls” revealed to the prophet (ibid.: son and Sarah laughed. But this son did not come 130–131). immediately, so Abraham slept with Hagar and she As with Ibn Ish a¯ q’s account, the many details bore Ishmael. Abraham took them with him when included by al-T abarı¯ give context and continuity he was commanded to visit the kaba and declare to the references in the Qura¯ n, while the stream of the pilgrimage; he settled them in the valley with- comments he quotes from earlier authorities shows out cultivation and left them. Ishmael grew thirsty, the popularity and importance of the Abraham and Hagar, in anxiety, ran between the hills of al- story in early Islam. Later historians and authors of Safa¯ and al-Marwa in search of water. When she Qisøasø al-anbiya¯ , among whom Abu¯ Ish a¯ q al- returned, her son had scratched a spring with his Thalabı¯ (d. 1035), Muh ammad b. ›Abdalla¯ h al- hand, known ever since as Zamzam (Newby: 73– Kisa¯ ı¯ (before ca. 1200) and Abu¯ al-Fida¯  Ibn Kathı¯ r 74). (d. 1373) stand out (Tottoli: 146–55, 172–5), con- Abraham and Ishmael built the kaba, and, tinued to add details to the story, though many when they had finished, Gabriel came and told were often uncritical and fanciful with little of the Abraham how to perform the rites of the pilgrim- detachment and carefulness shown by al-T abarı¯ . age in and around Makka, and then ordered him 3. Abraham and the Annual Pilgrimage. The fig- to announce the pilgrimage, which he did in a ure of Abraham is intimately connected with the voice that reached the whole world. He performed høajj, the annual pilgrimage to Makka. When Mus- the rites and taught them to Ishmael and others lims perform this fifth pillar of Islam they come (Newby: 74–76). close in spirit to their ancestor in faith as they enact The son whom Abraham was commanded to observances they believe he first proclaimed, and sacrifice was, according to this tradition, Ishmael recall experiences he underwent. not Isaac. When father and son were on their way The qura¯ nic basis of Abraham’s association to the place of sacrifice, the devil tried to dissuade with Makka is clear: he settled his family there and first Abraham, then Ishmael, and then Hagar, but was ordered to build God’s house, he declared to without success. Ishmael acquiesced in his father’s humankind the pilgrimage there and they were or- action, but God prevented the sacrifice from being dered to pray at the “Station of Abraham,” and he carried out (Newby: 76–78). Abraham finally died was instructed in the rites of the pilgrimage. Thus, in Syria. when pilgrims chant the talbiya, the call of obedi- It will readily be seen how Ibn Ish a¯ q weaves ence to God, circumambulate the kaba, worship qura¯ nic references in with details from the Bible and pause in contemplation near it, or when they and elsewhere into a connected narrative that gives pray at a spot where a stone said to bear Abraham’s context and meaning to the disparate verses. footprint is encased (the “Station of Abraham”), Later Muslim authors follow the same pattern, they are directly repeating what the Qura¯ n says often quoting from Ibn Ish a¯ q and adding details in he instituted. the name of other early experts. In the 10th cen- In addition, when pilgrims hurry between the tury, for example, the historian Abu¯ Jafar al-T abarı¯ low hills of al-Safa¯ and al-Marwa and drink from (d. 923), in his History of Messengers and Kings (Brin- the well of Zamzam, they re-enact the actions of ner: 48–131), compiles a long narrative of the ma- Hagar and Ishmael – it is, in fact, believed the two jor incidents in the prophet’s life, carefully listing are buried in the H ijr, the semi-circular enclosure different (and sometimes, contrary) reports in a at one end of the kaba (Brinner: 133). When they careful exercise that leaves readers to decide the throw pebbles at the three pillars, they repeat Abra- most likely course of events. He gives al-Su¯ s, Baby- ham’s repelling of the devil when he tried three lon, Ku¯ tha¯ and al-Warqa¯  as sites of Abraham’s times to stop him from sacrificing his son, and birthplace (Brinner: 48–49); he identifies Sarah as when they sacrifice an animal on the last day of the

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 195 Abraham 196 pilgrimage they re-enact Abraham’s sacrifice of the among all three faith traditions in the wake of the victim given to him in place of his son. The connec- Second Vatican Council in the late 1960s and early tions are unavoidable. Many may even remember 1970s. The writings and influence of Louis Mas- Abraham at the climax of the pilgrimage when they signon (1893–1962), the French Catholic and stand for hours on the plain of Arafa¯ t, for it is here scholar of Islam, were seen as pivotal for the Catho- that he was asked by the angel whether he now lic view of Islam expressed in the epoch-making knew (arafa) the rites he had enacted. declarations of the Council, Nostra Aetate and Lumen Gentium. Both documents identify the Islamic reli- ■  ■ Bibliography. Primary: Ibn Isha¯ q, Sı¯ rat Rasu¯ l Alla¯ h. Ibn gion with Abraham, recognizing that Muslims sub- Ish a¯ q, The Life of Muhammad (Oxford 1955); trans. of id., mit to God “just as Abraham submitted himself to Sı¯ rat Rasu¯ l Alla¯ h. ■ Ibn Kathı¯ r, Al-bida¯ ya wa-l-niha¯ ya (Beirut God’s plan to whose faith Muslims eagerly link 1990). ■ Al-Kisa¯ ı¯ , Qisøasø al-anbiya¯ , 2 vols. (ed. I. Eisenberg; Leiden 1922–1923). ■ Al-Kisa¯ ı¯ , The Tales of the Prophets of their own,” and that they “profess to hold the faith al-Kisa¯ ı¯ (Boston, Mass. 1978); trans. of id., Qisøasø al-anbiya¯ . of Abraham.” These declarations inspired Catholics ■ G. Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet, a Reconstruction of in Europe and the U.S. to open a trialogue with the Earliest Biography of Muhammad (Columbia, S.C. 1989). Muslims and Jews, and by 1969 the World Council ■ Al-T abarı¯ , Ta’rı¯ kh al-rusu¯ l wa-l-mulu¯ k. ■ Al-T abarı¯ , The of Churches broadened the discussion among other History of al-Tøabarı¯ , vol. III, Prophets and Patriarchs (Albany, Christians engaging in interfaith dialogue. Then N.Y. 1987); partial trans. of id., Ta’rı¯ kh al-rusu¯ l wa-l-mulu¯ k. and now, trialogues inevitably return to the figure ■ Al-Thalabı¯ , Qisøasø al-anbiya¯  (Beirut 1994). of Abraham who, in obedience to and with faith in Secondary: ■ L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. God, offers a common source for mutual under- (Philadelphia, Pa. 1909–1936). ■ Ibn Arabı¯ , Fusu¯ s al-hikam ø ø standing, joint endeavor, and peaceful coexistence. [The Wisdom of the Prophets] (Aldsworth 1975). ■ Y. Mouba- rac, Abraham dans le Coran (Paris 1958). ■ R. Tottoli, Biblical Bibliography: ■ B. Feiler, Abraham (New York 2002). ■ B. Prophets in the Qura¯ n and Muslim Literature (Richmond 2002); Hinz/I. Omar (eds.), Heirs of Abraham (Maryknoll, N.Y. trans. of id., I profeti biblici nella tradizione islamica (StBi 121; 2005). ■ K.-J. Kuschel, Abraham (New York 1995); trans. of Brescia 1999). id., Streit um Abraham (Munich 1994). ■ N. Solomon et al. David Thomas (eds.), Abraham’s Children (London 2005) 9–39. David W. Kling VI. Ecumenical Discussion VII. Other Religions In addition to ethical considerations surrounding Abraham and his role in the Aqedah, the figure of A few Enlightenment thinkers, notably Voltaire, Abraham has emerged in the modern period as a speculated that Abraham and Brahma were to be common reference point in interreligious dialogue identified, on the naïve basis of an approximation of their spelling in modern western European lan- (or so-called “trialogue”) among Jews, Christians, guages. Whatever cultural links there might have and Muslims. To be sure, each of these Abrahamic been between Hinduism and Judaism, however, faiths claims this prophet as their own. For Jews, cannot be proved from this simplistic assumption. he is primarily the patriarch of the children of Is- Bahá’í scriptures contain many references to rael, to whom God promised numberless descend- Abraham, and their texts often call him “Friend of ents and the land of Canaan (Gen 17 : 1–8). For God” and “Father of the Faithful.” The Báb and Christians, Abraham is the ancestor of Jesus Christ Bahá’u’lláh are regarded by Bahá’ís as among his (Matt 1 : 2–17; Luke 2 : 23–38) and the model of descendants. He is a divine messenger or a “Mani- faith (Gal 3 : 6–9; Heb 11 : 8–12). Muslims empha- festation of God.” Bahá’ís have no angelology or size Abraham as a friend of God (S 4 : 125), the “first demonology, except in a spiritual or symbolic Muslim” or first true monotheist (S 2 : 135, 3 : 67, sense. There exists: God, manifestations of God, etc.), a man of true faith, neither a Jew nor a Chris- and humans. Manifestations, unlike ordinary mor- tian (S 3 : 67), and the one who, with Ishmael, re- tals, pre-existed in the spiritual world before their built the kaba and establishes true worship in birth into this world. Like all such messengers, Mecca (S 2 : 125, 2 : 127, 22 : 26). Abraham taught the essential Bahá’í truths of a Interfaith trialogue concedes these and multitu- progressive revelation, appropriate to his time and dinous non-canonical rival views of Abraham but people, that would inevitably but gradually lead to affirms shared aspects of his spiritual character. the establishment of a universal human commu- Abraham is acknowledged as a universal figure nity. who believed in the one true God, exhibited right- Bibliography: ■ K. E. Bowers, God Speaks Again (Wilmette, eous behavior, modeled faith and humility, and Ill. 2004). ■ F. Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary (New York was the one through whom “all the families of the 1984); trans. of id., Dictionnaire Philosophique (Paris 1764). earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12 : 3b). Indeed, be- Martin Forward cause Abraham preceded Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he is seen as a source and symbol for these VIII. Literature monotheistic religions. Aside from his role in the Aqedah, which, of all Serious interfaith discussions between Chris- Genesis episodes involving him, has been the one tians and Jews ensued after World War II, and most often treated in Western poetry, drama, and

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 197 Abraham 198 fiction, Abraham figures in Western literature as a Abraham is featured in other English mystery paragon of absolute faith (cf. Gen 15 : 6; Heb 11 : 8) plays, such as the Histories of Lot and Abraham, one and as Jesus’ ancestor (Matt 1 : 1–17; Luke 3 : 23– of the plays in the Chester Mystery Cycle, which 38). Aggadic legends and the Quran feature him as recounts his associations with Lot and Melchize- the first monotheist and idoloclast, whom Nimrod dek, the divine covenant with Abraham, and the ordered cast into fire; the latter legend, filtered ap- Aqedah. French examples include F. Belcari’s parently through a Zoroastrian source, informs the Abramo ed Isaac (1449) and Le Mistère du Viel Testa- “Fire-Worshippers” section of Thomas Moore’s ment (ca. 1450). In Spain, Abraham was portrayed Lalla Rookh (1817), where “pitying Heav’n to roses in some of the autos sacramentales. His two main dra- turn’d / The death-flames that beneath him matic depictions in the 16th century were a tragedy burn’d.” Medieval Christian literary artists addi- by the French Protestant and humanist, Théodore tionally associate Abraham with ideas drawn from de Bèze (Theodore Beza), Abraham sacrifiant (1550), Christian typological and allegorical exegesis. and a work produced in Italy six years later, the Chief among these is the notion of Abraham as Rappresentazione de Abram e di Sara sua moglie.Inthe a primordial recognizer and explicator of the Trin- next century, the Marrano poet Moses ben Morde- ity. For example, as Bede, alluding to Abraham’s cai Zacuto (ca. 1620–1697) left incomplete the earli- supplication to his visitors at Mamre (Gen 18 : 1– est known scriptural dramatic poem in Hebrew, the 5), interjects that “seeing three men, he adored Yesod Olam, depicting major events in Abraham’s one” (tres viros videns, unum adoravit; PL, 91 : 238A– life based upon Midrashic tales: his idoloclasm in B), so the Old English poem Andreas, set in the the home of Terah, his condemnation by Nimrod, Christian era, shows Abraham rise from the grave his deliverance from the flames, and the death of to testify to the Jews that he knew Christ (= se ilca Haran. Beginning in the Renaissance, Abraham’s ealwalda God [the same omnipotent God], line 751) relation with Hagar was the subject of tragic dra- in times of yore. Later, as the Biblia pauperum con- mas in Europe. strues the Mamre visitation as prefiguring Christ’s Abraham’s literary images, including that of Transfiguration (with Abraham foreshadowing Je- Abraham’s Bosom, can hardly be dissociated from sus’ awed disciples), and hence as reflecting the his distinction as primal patriarch. The conception Trinity, so does the Middle English poem Piers of him as the common ancestor of Jews, Christians, Plowman (late 14th cent.; B 16–17) recount an alle- and Muslims unquestionably, if only implicitly, in- gorical dream in which Abraham expounds doctri- forms the timeworn “parable of the three rings,” nal subtleties of the Trinitarian Godhead while whose most celebrated rehearsals occur in G. Boc- himself embodying one third of the Trinity of caccio’s Decameron (1.3) and G. E. Lessing’s Nathan Christian virtues, “faith.” Composed around the der Weise (3.7). The divine assurance that he will be same time as Piers, the Middle English poem Clean- made “a great nation” through whom all nations ness likewise echoes Bede in telling that Abraham shall be blessed (Gen 12 : 2–3) is universalized by J. greeted his three visitors at Mamre as though they Milton, for whom Abraham’s “seed” becomes the were one Divine Being. “great Deliverer, who shall bruise / The Serpent’s While there emerged by the 12th century a He- head,” and “Not onely to the Sons of Abrahams brew tale about Abraham’s fabrication of a golem Loines / Salvation shall be Preacht, but to the Sons / with Shem, Abraham also appears in medieval Of Abrahams Faith wherever through the world” Christian literary adaptations of the legend, im- (Paradise Lost, 12.149–50, 447–49). Though dis- mensely popular then, of Christ’s descent into hell torted through the claim by C. Marlowe’s Jewish to release the captive souls of Old Testament he- anti-hero, Barabas, that worldly possessions com- roes. Whereas Dante’s Virgil lists “Abraàm patrï- prise “the blessings promised to the Jews / And arca” among those whose shades he saw taken by herein was old Abram’s blessing” (The Jew of Malta, “un possente” (Christ) from Limbo and made 1.1.106), Abraham’s promise is given a Baptist blessed (Inferno, 4.53, 58), a still extant version of twist centuries later in J. Baldwin’s novelistic depic- the Middle English poetic mystery play, The Har- tion of Deacon Gabriel Grimes, an African Ameri- rowing of Hell, actually depicts Christ’s encounter can Abrahamic figure who dreams of his own with the patriarch in hell; Christ tells Abraham he “seed” as the “elect,” but who, in a subsequent knows that his mother descended from Abraham’s phantasmagoric scene that harks back to the Aq- line, and he promises that Abraham will be released edah, is envisioned trying to stab his stepson with to ascend to paradise. Abraham’s bearing upon a knife (Go Tell It on the Mountain [1952], pt. 2, Christ’s infernal descent is further expanded in prayer 2; and pt. 3). The poet P. Celan, registering Piers. There, before that event (recounted in B 18), post-Shoah Jewish trauma, finds Abraham’s patri- Abraham proves himself Christ’s “herald on earth archal “root” to bear ambiguous associations with and in hell” (B 16.247) by announcing that John “the root of ” (Isa 11 : 1) and “nobody’s root” the Baptist has already alerted him and the other and “our root”: “Wurzel. / Wurzel Abrahams. souls in hell of Christ’s intention to free them Wurzel Jesse. Niemandes / Wurzel – O / unser” (B 16). (“Radix, Matrix,” 1963).

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Literary allusions are often made to Abraham’s young heir” (Jacobson: 46, 213–16, 244–45). As ex- hospitality (Gen 18), as in H. Vaughan’s poem “Re- emplified here, Abraham’s “binding” of Isaac is an ligion” (1650; “In Abr’hams Tent the winged especially controversial and recurrent motif in Isra- guests / … / Eate, drinke, discourse, sit downe, and eli literature. rest / Untill the Coole, and shady Even”); and to Bibliography: ■ R. M. Ames, The Fulfillment of the Scriptures: Abraham’s faithful willingness to sacrifice Isaac, as Abraham, Moses, and Piers (Evanston 1970). ■ D. C. Jacobson, in Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). Does David Still Play Before You? Israeli Poetry and the Bible (De- Yet Abraham’s literary reputation is not exclusively troit 1997) ■ J. Michman, “Zacuto, Moses ben Mordechai. positive. G. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath cites his polyg- Yesod Olam,” in EJ2 21 (Detroit 2007) 436. ■ P. Rogers, amy to defend her own serial marrying (The Canter- “Abraham,” in A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Lit- bury Tales, Ellesmere MS, Frag. III, D, 55–57), while erature (ed. D. L. Jeffrey; Grand Rapids, Mich. 1992) 9–11. ■ H. Rosenau, “Abraham: In the Fine Arts,” EJ2 1 (Detroit two characters in W. Scott’s novel Kenilworth (2.5 2007) 287–88. ■ Y. Zaluska, “Abraham,” in The Encyclope- [ch. 22]) disagree over the moral propriety of his dia of the Middle Ages 1 (Chicago 2000) 7–8. deliberate obfuscation of his marriage to Sarah Eric Ziolkowski (Gen 12 : 13). Aside from his matchless obedience, Abraham’s IX. Visual Arts itinerancy in alien lands, and hence his adumbra- tion of the legendary Wandering Jew, are among 1. Description of Normative Figure of Abra- those of his aspects that literary artists most em- ham. The visual paradigm for Abraham was a tall phasize, from, in poetry, James Thomson’s roman- and muscular patriarchal figure signifying physical ticization of “What Time Dan Abraham left the Chal- strength, and whose patrician bearing connotes his dee Land, / And pastur’d on from verdant Stage to stature in the world. His handsome, albeit weather- Stage” (The Castle of Indolence [1748] 1.37), through beaten, face represented his time in the wilderness Edwin Muir’s eulogies of him as “The rivulet-lov- and the desert, while his white or graying full ing wanderer” (“Abraham”) and “The old Chaldean beard and long hair signify simultaneously mascu- wanderer, / … / … like a star / That is in love with linity, sagacity, and age. Abraham was dressed typi- distances” (“The Succession”). In T. Mann’s novel- cally in the flowing robes of a desert chieftain, istic tetralogy, Joseph und seine Brüder, Abraham though medieval artists rendered him as a knight haunts the story’s past as the mythic “moon-wan- in full armor. derer” (Mondwanderer), prompted to journeying by 2. Attribute and/or Symbol. Abraham was the vis- spiritual unrest and a need of God. Among other ual symbol of unconditional obedience, faith, and explicitly Abrahamic wandering figures are: Parson trust in God. His most common accessory was a Abraham in H. Fielding’s Joseph Andrews;W. large knife in allusion to the Aqedah as a visual Faulkner’s Flem Snopes, who, having been intro- metaphor for the act of sacrifice and the initiation duced in a novel titled Father Abraham, is likened to of the rite of male circumcision. Additionally, he Abraham in Sartoris; and Reb Moshe Ber, the pro- was often accompanied or signified by the ram tagonist of I. B. Singer’s Yiddish short story known which connoted both the ritual of sacrifice and the in English as “The Old Man,” who marks the end sacrificial replacement for Isaac. Medieval artists of his own nomadism by comparing himself to portrayed Abraham as the “warrior king” or the Abraham and naming his newborn son Isaac. “knight of God,” dressed in full armor, signifying Abraham makes frequent appearances in mod- both his meeting with the priest-king, Melchize- ern Israeli literature. The novelist A. B. Yehoshua, dek, and the victory of God’s army. in an essay, describes Abraham as “the first Jew … 3. Scriptural Episodes. The presentation in one [and] the first oleh, the first immigrant to [the Land location of the full narrative cycle of all the scrip- of] Israel,” but also “the first yored, the first emi- tural episodes in the life and story of Abraham is grant from the country,” who “immediately set out rare. His narrative cycle is complicated by the nec- for Egypt” once the economic situation in Israel de- essary inclusion of the satellite stories of his teriorated. Israeli poets present Abraham in a wide nephew Lot, his concubine Hagar, and his son variety of ways, often negatively, as a madman, a Isaac. Abraham is one of the few Old Testament religious fanatic, a representative of philandering figures (the others being Adam and Eve) who are husbands or of fathers unable to acknowledge their depicted in the visual traditions of Judaism, Chris- inability to shelter their offspring fully from harm. tianity, and Islam; all of these visualizations were In his poem “’Avraham,” the secularist Meir Wiesel- rooted in the Bible. tier criticizes him for being overly obsessed with The Hebrew scriptural episodes related to the the divine: “The only thing in the world that Abra- story of Lot in which Abraham was represented in ham loved was God. / … / He refused to take any- the Fine Arts were: Journey to Canaan and Egypt; thing from anyone or to give anything to anyone, / Separation from Lot as Abraham settles in Canaan except God. This one, if He only came to ask / He and Lot in Jordan; Capture of Lot; Defeat of ene- would get. Anything. Even Isaac the only one, the mies of and restoration of Lot and his family; Cele-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 201 Abraham 202 bration of Victory in the Meeting with Melchize- Angels at Mamre and “played” upon the signifi- dek; Angel warns of the destruction of Sodom and cance of hospitality in the indigenous pre-Christian signals for Lot to escape. For the Christian scrip- culture and its almost sacramental continuation in tural episode referencing Abraham, see Abraham’s early and medieval Christianity. Visualizations of Bosom. The Hebrew scriptural episodes related to this episode were found throughout the history of the story of Hagar with reference to Abraham were: Christian art. There were three possible scenes Sarah’s barrenness and the dispatching of Hagar to which signified this story: Apparition of the Three Abraham; Meeting of Abraham and Hagar; Birth Angels, Washing of the Angels’ Feet (as an act of of Ishmael; Expulsion of Hagar; and Hagar in the hospitality), and the serving or eating of The Meal. wilderness/desert. Similarly, the Hebrew scriptural The three identical male figures (same body types, episodes in the narrative of Isaac including Abra- stature, visage, posture, and costume) were a fore- ham in the Fine Arts were: Annunciation of his type of the Christian Holy Trinity and the visual birth (Philoxeny/Hospitality of Abraham); Birth of focus of this motif. However, in any of the three Isaac; Aqedah; and the Marriage of Isaac and Reb- scenes, a female figure representing Sarah was seen ekah. Abraham was found in the imagery related usually in the background or in a shed-like struc- to the narrative of Sarah such as: the Meeting of ture. Her gesture of covering her mouth with her Abraham and Sarah; Marriage of Abraham and open right hand is significant as the artistic con- Sarah; Philoxeny/Hospitality of Abraham; Birth of vention for laughter. When Sarah overheard the Isaac; and Death and Burial of Sarah. Angels’ announcement of her miraculous preg- 4. Frequent Iconographic Motifs of Abraham. nancy, being past the age of childbearing she There were three crucial episodes in the Abraham laughed, and the Philoxeny became a foretype of narrative – Meeting with Melchizedek (see /plate the Annunciation to Mary. Following the Counter- 1.b), Philoxeny/Hospitality of Abraham, and the Reformation period, the artistic emphasis in ren- Aqedah – which were represented throughout the dering this story was on the religious significance history of Christian art. of hospitality in distinction from the liturgical or a. Meeting with Melchizedek (Gen 14 : 18–21). The historical importance. Eastern Orthodox Christian- priest-king Melchizedek’s offering of the gifts of ity interpreted the Philoxeny of Abraham as a fore- bread and wine, sometimes replaced or accompa- type of the Holy Trinity, as attested most beauti- nied by a crown and a chalice, was received by the fully in Andrei Rublev’s now-classic, Icon of the victorious warrior Abraham as God’s champion. Holy Trinity. This scriptural episode was a rich and multivalent Works: ■ Cycles of Abraham: Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome; foretype of Jesus as the Christ, the sacrament of the San Vitale, Ravenna; San Apollinare en Classe, Ravenna; Vi- Eucharist, the Priesthood of Christ, the Adoration enna Genesis; San Zeno, Verona; Nicolas de Verdun, Enamel of the Three Kings (or Magi), and the Mystic Meal. Altar; San Marco, Venice; St. Savin, Poitou; Capella Palatina, Popular in the Christian visual tradition from the Palermo; Ghiberti, Bronze doors, Baptistero, Florence; Tap- estries after Bernard Orley, Hampton Court Palace; Museo 4th century into the modern period, the rendering del Prado, Madrid. ■ Meeting with Melchizedek: San Vitale, of this episode in the 6th-century mosaics in the Ravenna; San Apollinare en Classe, Ravenna; Santa Maria Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, reflected its early Maggiore; Vienna Genesis, Theo GR 31, f. 7; St. Savin, importance and multivalency. Located on the north Poitou (nota bene: cross inscribed on round bread); Port wall of the high altar, the mosaic of the Meeting Nord, Notre-Dame, Chartres; Port Nord, Notre-Dame, Am- with Melchizedek effected the significance of this iens; Konrad Witz, Museum, Basel; Tintoretto, Scuola di Abrahamic episode in the liturgy, doctrine, and de- San Rocco, Venice; Peter Paul Rubens, Musée du Louvre. votional life of Western Christianity. Conjoined ■ Philoxeny of Abraham: San Vitale, Ravenna; Santa Maria with the offerings of and around the cen- Maggiore, Rome; Nicolas de Verdun, Altar, Klosterneuberg; Doors, San Zeno, Verona; Psalter of S. Louis; Window, Ca- tral altar in this mosaic, the figures of Abraham and thedral at Ulm; School of Raphael; Rembrandt van Rijn, Melchizedek were seen in mimesis of the liturgical Hermitage, St. Petersburg; Bartolomeo Murillo, National actions of the celebrant at the actual altar of San Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Andrei Rublev, The Trinity Vitale. Furthermore, the placement of this mosaic Icon, Tretyakov Museum, Moscow. in relation to the neighboring panel of the liturgi- Bibliography: ■ D. Apostolos-Cappadona, Dictionary of cal procession of virgins (led by the Empress who Christian Art (New York 1994). ■ G. Duchet-Suchaux/M. carried the eucharistic chalice and wore a garment Pastoureau. La Bible et les Saints (Paris 1994). [Esp. 12–14] decorated with the motif of the Adoration of the ■ E. Goodenough, “Dura Europos” in id., Jewish Symbols in Magi), affirmed the story’s sacramental signifi- the Greco-Roman Period (Bollingen Series 37; New York 1953). cance. Moreover, this figuration of Abraham was ■ E. Martin, “Abraham: Iconography,” NCE 1 (New York placed diagonally across from his participation in 1967) 34. ■ P. Murray/L. Murray, The Oxford Companion to the sacrificial offering of the Aqedah as illustrated Christian Art and Architecture (New York 1996). [Esp. 2–3] ■ on the opposite wall. He. R., “Abraham in the Arts,” EJ 1 (Corrected Edition Jerusalem 1986) 122–25. ■ L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chré- b. Philoxeny (Hospitality) of Abraham (Gen 18 : 1–15). tien. Livre III: Les Patriarches et Joseph. Chapitre Premier, I: Abra- This popular topos was also identified as the Three ham. (Paris 1955–59); 2.2: 125–38. ■ G. Sed-Rajna, L’ABC-

Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 12/12/18 3:27 AM Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 1 (© Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009) 203 Abraham (Sura 14) 204 daire du Judaisme (Paris 2000), esp. 23–25. ■ H. van de tory of the Jewish people from Abraham to the de- Waal, Iconclass (Amsterdam 1973–85; electronic updates struction of the temple in 70 CE. Steve Reich’s The from 1986–87). Cave (1990–93), for voices, percussion and string Diane Apostolos-Cappadona quartet, is a kind of documentary music video, made in collaboration with Beryl Korot (his wife), X. Music which centers on the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, In medieval liturgy, Abraham’s temptation (Gen the burial place of Abraham and Sarah (Gen 23; 22 : 1–18) was the first reading during the Vigil of Gen 25 : 9–10), with metaphorical, political impli- Pentecost. However, chants based on the Abraham cations. narratives are not frequent. According to the 12th- Cuando El Rey Nimrod, a Ladino song about the century monk Rupert of Deutz, the Feast of Pente- birth of Abraham (drawing largely from Christian cost celebrated the fulfillment of the promise God traditions surrounding the birth of Jesus) has be- made to Abraham for his obedience (Gen 22 : 16– come well known across the Jewish community. In 17). Rupert also made the point that, since the Bi- addition, L’chi lach, by American composer Debbie ble does not mention Abraham singing in response Friedman, combines English verses with passages to the Lord’s blessing, there was no tract (a chant in Hebrew based on Gen 12 : 1–2; Friedman’s mod- genre) after this reading. ern gloss adds the feminine forms of the original Among medieval chants referring to Abraham, Hebrew text to include Abraham’s wife, Sarah the Offertory for the medieval Mass of the Dead (here: Sarai) as part of the covenant. (Domine Jesu Christe) may be the most influential for In modern popular music L. Cohen (1969) for- the musical reception history of Abraham. It prays mulates his answer to Gen 22 and to the people of for deliverance of the faithful departed, referring to his time, echoing I. Kant: “You who build these the mentioned promise: “[…] let the holy standard- altars now to sacrifice these children, you must not bearer Michael lead them into the holy light, as do it anymore. A scheme is not a vision and you Thou didst promise Abraham and his seed.” This never have been tempted by a demon or a god.” text has been set to music by numerous composers since the 15th century. Since ca. 1800, Requiem Bibliography: ■ R. of Deutz, Liber de divinis officiis, 4 vols. Mass settings have increasingly also been per- (Freiburg 1999). ■ G. Massenkeil, Oratorium und Passion,2 ■ formed at (sacred) concerts. vols. (Laaber 1998−1999). H. E. Smither, A History of the Oratorio, 4 vols. (Chapel Hill, N.C. 1977–2000). Vernacular Christian and Jewish hymns (and Nils Holger Petersen and Marsha B. Edelman songs) form a kind of reception of a medieval litur- gical heritage, including musico-literary receptions XI. Film of Abraham. Medieval liturgy also influenced the musical reception of Abraham in more complex Even though he remains a prominent biblical char- ways. Polyphonic settings of various liturgical texts acter, the figure of Abraham has seldom found a featuring Abraham were produced since the 15th role in motion pictures, especially curious given his century. In subsequent centuries, composers con- abundant imagery in painting and sculpture. One tinued to write motets and sacred songs of various or two straightforward character films have been kinds based on such texts, often referring to the done, most notably the made-for-television film God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob (for in- Abraham (dir. Joseph Sargent, 1984; starring Rich- stance, Exod 3 : 6; Exod 4 : 5; Regis, Waelrant, Bou- ard Harris). For various reasons, however, Abraham zignac, H. Schütz, Johann Michael Bach and has not been adapted into film in the way charac- others). ters such as David or Moses have. Much more pop- Altogether, the musical reception of Abraham ular than the patriarch himself is that critical event is heavily concentrated on the narrative of the sacri- in his life, the Aqedah. fice of Isaac. Occasionally, however, other Abraham S. Brent Plate narratives have been represented in music, espe- See also /Abraham (Sura 14); /Abraham, cially Luke 16 : 19–31 incorporating the image of Apocalypse of; /Abraham, Testament of; Abraham’s Bosom, but also (in an oratorio by the /Abraham’s Bosom; /Aqedah 19th-century American composer, Isaac Baker Woodbury) the narrative concerned with Abra- ham’s son Ishmael, by Hagar (Gen 16–21). Abraham (Sura 14) A different Abraham reception (treating Abra- This chapter of the Qura¯ n, named for Abraham be- ham as a symbol of the Jewish people and religion) cause of his prayer (vv. 35–41; inserted rather ab- is manifest in two experimental works of the 20th ruptly into a passage denouncing human ingrati- century which are neither operas nor sacred musi- tude to God and threatening eschatological cal works. Kurt Weill’s Der Weg der Verheißung,a punishment), demonstrates several of the scrip- stage work created in collaboration with Max Rein- ture’s typical stylistic and thematic features. Its hardt and Franz Werfel (1934) and produced in structure is characteristic of the middle to late Mec- New York (1935) as The Eternal Road, treats the his- can period (Neuwirth). These show clearly how the

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