Abraham is a significant figure throughout the Bible, and plays an
important role in extra-Biblical Jewish tradition and in the Mohammedan religion.
1. In the Old Testament:
It is naturally as progenitor of the people of Israel, “the seed of Abraham,”
as they are often termed, that Abraham stands out most prominently in the Old Testament books. Sometimes the contrast between him as an
individual and his numerous progeny serves to point a lesson (<235102>
Isaiah 51:2; <263324>
Ezekiel 33:24; perhaps <390210>
Malachi 2:10; compare 15). “The God of Abraham” serves as a designation of Yahweh from the time of Isaac to the latest period; it is by this title that Moses identifies the God who has sent him with the ancestral deity of the children of Israel (<020315>
Exodus 3:15).
Men remembered in those later times that this God appeared to Abraham in theophany (<020603>
Exodus 6:3), and, when he was still among his people who worshipped other gods (<062403>
Joshua 24:3) chose him (<160907>
Nehemiah 9:7), led him, redeemed him (<232922>
Isaiah 29:22) and made him the recipient of those special blessings (<330720>
Micah 7:20) which were pledged by covenant and oath (so every larger historical book, also the historical <19A509>
Psalm 105:9), notably the inheritance of the land of Canaan (<050610>
Deuteronomy 6:10) Nor was Abraham’s religious personality forgotten by his posterity:
he was remembered by them as God’s friend (<142007>
2 Chronicles 20:7;
<234108>
Isaiah 41:8), His servant, the very recollection of whom by God would offset the horror with which the sins of his descendants inspired Yahweh (<050927>
Deuteronomy 9:27).
2. In the New Testament:
When we pass to the New Testament we are astonished at the wealth and variety of allusion to Abraham. As in the Old Testament, his position of ancestor lends him much of his significance, not only as ancestor of Israel (<441326>
Acts 13:26), but specifically as ancestor, now of the Levitical priesthood (<580705>
Hebrews 7:5), now of the Messiah (<400101>
Matthew 1:1), now, by the peculiarly Christian doctrine of the unity of believers in Christ, of Christian believers (<480316>
Galatians 3:16,29). All that Abraham the ancestor received through Divine election, by the covenant made with him, is inherited by his seed and passes under the collective names of the promise (<450413>
Romans 4:13), the blessing (<480314>
Galatians 3:14), mercy (<420154>
Luke 1:54), the oath (<420173>
Luke 1:73), the covenant (<440325>
Acts 3:25). The way in which Abraham responded to this peculiar goodness of God makes him the type of the Christian believer. Though so far in the past that he was used as a measure of antiquity (<430858>
John 8:58), he is declared to have “seen”
Messiah’s “day” (<430856>
John 8:56). It is his faith in the Divine promise, which, just because it was for him peculiarly unsupported by any evidence of the senses, becomes the type of the faith that leads to justification (<450403>
Romans 4:3), and therefore in this sense again he is the “father” of
Christians, as believers (<450411>
Romans 4:11). For that promise to Abraham was, after all, a “preaching beforehand” of the Christian gospel, in that it embraced “all the families of the earth” (<480308>
Galatians 3:8). Of this exalted honor, James reminds us, Abraham proved himself worthy, not by an inoperative faith, but by “works” that evidenced his righteousness (<590221>
James 2:21; compare <430839>
John 8:39). The obedience that faith wrought in him is what is especially praised by the author of Hebrews (<581108>
Hebrews 11:8,17). In accordance with this high estimate of the patriarch’s piety, we read of his eternal felicity, not only in the current conceptions of the Jews (parable, Luke 16), but also in the express assertion of our Lord
(<400811>
Matthew 8:11; <421328>
Luke 13:28). Incidental historical allusions to the events of Abraham’s life are frequent in the New Testament, but do not add anything to this estimate of his religious significance.
3. In Jewish Tradition:
Outside the Scriptures we have abundant evidence of the way that
Abraham was regarded by his posterity in the Jewish nation. The oldest of these witnesses, Ecclesiasticus, contains none of the accretions of the later Abraham-legends. Its praise of Abraham is confined to the same three great facts that appealed to the canonical writers, namely, his glory as Israel’s ancestor, his election to be recipient of the covenant, and his piety (including perhaps a tinge of “nomism”) even under severe testing (Ecclesiasticus 44:19-21). The Improbable and often unworthy and even grotesque features of Abraham’s career and character in the later rabbinical midrashim are of no religious significance, beyond the evidence they afford of the way Abraham’s unique position and piety were cherished by the Jews.
4. In the Koran:
To Mohammed Abraham is of importance in several ways. He is mentioned in no less than 188 verses of the Koran, more than any other character except Moses. He is one of the series of prophets sent by God.
He is the common ancestor of the Arab and the Jew. He plays the same role of religious reformer over against his idolatrous kinsmen as
Mohammed himself played. He builds the first pure temple for God’s worship (at Mecca!). As in the Bible so in the Koran Abraham is the recipient of the Divine covenant for himself and for his posterity, and
exhibits in his character the appropriate virtues of one so highly favored:
faith, righteousness, purity of heart, gratitude, fidelity, compassion. He receives marked tokens of the Divine favor in the shape of deliverance, guidance, visions, angelic messengers (no theophanies for Mohammed!), miracles, assurance of resurrection and entrance into paradise. He is called
“Imam of the peoples” (2 118)
7. INTERPRETATIONS OF THE STORY OTHER