About (Hastings' Dictionary)

As an adv. about is used in AV in the following obsolete expressions : — 1. To lead about or go about = roam about, circuitously. The verb is mostly ^??, which simply means to • turn ' : Kx 13" ' God led the people about, through the way of the wilderne,ss' ; Jos 16'' 'The border went about ( K V ' turned about ' ) eastward' ; 1 S 15'- ' lie set him up a place, and is gone about and passed on'; Ec 2-' 'I went about (RV ' turned about,' t.e.

considered my past life) to cause my heart to despair.' 2. To go about = here and there, up and down : Jer. 31, ' How long wilt thou go about (RV 'hither and thither'), O thou backsliding daughter ? ' 3. To go about = to seek, attempt: .jn "i^ ' Why go ye about to kill .Me ?' RV gives 'seek' in .Jn 7'»- ^o, Ac 213', Rq 10^ 'assay' in Ac 24' 26-', and keeps 'go about' in Ac 9^. 4. To c;ist about = to turn round: Jer 41'*, ■ So all the people . . cast about and returned.' 5.

Thereabout = about that : Lk 24* ' They were much perplexed thereabout.' J. HASTINGS. "ABRAHAM. — The narrative of the patriarch Abraham is contained in Gn ll^'-25i', and, as it stands before us, consi-sts of a series of con- secutive stories or scenes from the patriarch's life. It make no pretence of being a complete biography. It may be doubted whether the compiler of the Ilex, had any intention of pre- serving all the extant traditions respecting A.

His purpose seems rather to have been to select from the traditions current among the Hebrews such narratives as would best illustrate the origin of the Isr. nation, and would best set forth how the divine Providence had sliielded the infancy of the chosen race, and had predestined it both to inherit the land of Can. and to be a blessing among the nations of the earth. As would be natural under the circumstances, the traditions relating to A. have special reference to sacred localities in Pal.

; but unfortunately they do not alford any very precise dntn for determining the age in which he lived. The compiler gives us a picture of A. which he derived apimrently from three groups of tradition. We will (irst briefly summarise the narrative, and then indicate the • Tho»f critics who (as Kolm, Jenu of Kat. v. 287-289 ; cf. IIi.1t/.inann. Uandkomm.\.'V»f.. Kinl.tiim yr>. |i.Hs«f.. with tliu refi-rencesi r.'Kard Mt 24'''-". Mk l;i>«". asnn InilcpiMiilunt .Ii-wlsli (or .

Jewish rhrlslian) a|Kicalypsc> orlclnatlni: shortly bc- fort' A.i». "tt. which has bfon Inmritonitcd with our Lord's ills- course, can, of course. wlo|>t still more reailily llie same .■xplanatlon ; but It Is illDlcult to thint that even tln'Se verses, th<ini?h particular phrases nniy hove been nio<llllefl In the course of oral trnnsnilsslun, arc wtihoul a subslanttal basis In the words of Christ. + Uousset (/Vr AntUhriHl, ISOT, pp. 14. »S, 100 f, 141 f.)

treating Mt ■J4i'i'(=Mk 1:)"') as purely eschatolotdcal, sup- poses the reference to be to the future Antichrist, who Is frequentlv (lescribeil (on the basis of ■-' 'I'h i') as slltlne In the Teliilile. anil recelvlni; divine honours {f.y. by Irenn-us. v. Ht. 1. SO. 4 ; see further passajres In Uousset. p. 104 f.); but it may be doubted whether the view of Mt -.'4"*, up.ui which this ex- planation depends, is correct. •• Convrinht.

1M»8, by portions which belong to the separate sources of tradition, according to the generally accepted results of critical analysis. Abiam, Nahor, and Haran are sons of Terah. Their home is in Ur of the Chaldees (Gn IT, '), where Haran dies. A. marries Sarai, who was his half-sister (Gn 20'-). A. and his wife, with their nephew Lot, Ilaran's son, accompany Terah, who migrates from Ur of the Chaldees, and journeys to Haran, where Terah dies (Gn II'- s^, Jos 24-).

Terah is said to have had Canaan in view when he set out upon his journey (Gn 11*'). A. in Haran receives the divine command to quit his country and kindred, and accompanied by Lot enters the land of Can. He traverses the whole countrj' ; and we are told in particular of Shechem and Bethel being places at which he halted, and, as his custom was, built an altar to .1" (Gn 12'-^). Driven by a famine, A.

journeys to Egj'pt, where, in cowardly fear for his own life, he says that Sarai is his sister, and does not acknowledge her as his wife. The princes of Egjpt bring the report of Sarai's beauty to I'haraoh king of Egj-pt, who sends to fetch her, has her placed in his own harem, and loads A. with presents on her account. The intervention of J" alone delivers the mother of the promised race from her peril. I'haraoh learns of the wrong he is doing, through the plagues which befall his house.

In great dudgeon he summons A., justly rejjroaches him for the decep- tion, and dismisses him and his belongings from E.gypt (1-J' ', ")• A. and Lot return from Egypt to the district of Bethel ; but their possessions in flocks and herd? have greatly increased. It proves impossible for two such large droves to keep close together. Constant disputes break out between the retainers of the two chiefs. It is evident that they must sei)arate. A.

, though the elder, proposes the separation, and offeis Lot the choice as to the region to which he shall go. Lot choo.scs the rich pasture-land of the Jordan valley, and departs. A. remains on the soil which has been promised him, and receives as a reward for his unselfishness a renewal of the divine prediction that his de- •scendants .shall inhabit it as their own (13). A. removes to Hebron (13'*) , and while he is encamped there war breaks out in the immediate neighbour- hood.

The kings of the towns in the .lordan valley rebel against Chediu-, Laoiuer (Kudur- Lagamar), the great Elamite king. The king of Elam with his vassals, the kings of Shinar, Ella.sar, and Goyyim (?), march against the rebels, defeat them in a great battle, and retire, carrying off many prisoners and rich booly from Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot is one of the captives. A.

is no sooner apprised of this than he arms his 318 retainers, and summons to his aid Mamre, Kshcol, and Aner, the three chieftains of the Hebron district, with whom he is confederate. The com- bined force overtakes the victorious army at Dan, in the N. of Canaan, sur])rises them by a night attack, routs them, and recovers Lot and the other prisoners, and all the booty. On the way back A. is met in the plain of Shavch by the king of Sodom, and Melchizeiiek king of Salem.

Mel- chizedek solemnly bles.ses A. for his heroic deed ; and the Heb. patriarch, in recognition of Mil- chizcdek's priestly office, gives him a tenth of the spoil. On the other hand, he proudly declines the offer which the king of Sodom makes, that A. should receive the spoil for him.self ; he asks only for the share that would compensate his con- federates, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, and their men (14). A., who by rea.

son of his childlessness cannot entertain hopes of the fultilmetit of the divine promise, n'ceives in a sjiecial vision assurance of Cfinrtft Sm'hnrr'i Snit.* 14 ABRAHAM ABRAHAM the great future of the race that shall spring from liim. By the gracious condescension of the Almighty, a covenant is nuuie by sacrifice between the patriarch and God ; and during the night, when a deep sleep has fallen upon A.

, he learns the future destiny of his descenilants, and the vision is ratified l)y an outward symbol (15<'»i'- ', ''). Sarai, who has no hope of having children, per- suades A. to take Hagar, her Egyp. maidservant, as a concubine. Hagar, finding herself with child, is insolent towards Sarai, who thereupon treats her so harshly that Hagar flees into the desert. She is there stopped by an angel, and sent back, comforted by the promise respecting the child that is to be born. This is Ishmael (10).

But Islimael is not the promised son. Thirteen more years elapse before God appears again to A., and again promises that his descendants will be a mighty nation.

In pledge of the fulfilment of his word, he changes Abram's name to Abraham, Sarai's to Sarah, and ordains that the rite of circumcision shall be the sign of the covenant between God and the house of Abraham, 'i'be promise that Sarah shall have a son, and the com- mand to call his name Isaac, prepare us for the long- expected consummation (17). But it is not to be yet.

Another great scene intervenes, to try, as it were, the patriarch's faith, and make proof of the character of the father of the Heb. race. J", accom- panied by two angels, appears in human form to A. as he sits before his tent by the oaks of Mature. A.'s offer of hospitality is accepted ; and as the three strangers partake of the meal, the one who is J" promises to A. a son by Sarah, who overhears, and laughs incredulously (18'-'*).

The two angels proceed to Sodom and Gomorrah ; J" remains with A., and discloses to him tlie approaching destruc- tion of 'the cities of the plain.' A. pathetically intercedes, and obtains the assurance that if but ten righteous be found in the city it should be spared for their sake (18"'-^^). J" leaves A. ; and then ensues the description of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the vividness of which is enhanced by the brief reference to A.

, who in the morning looks forth from the hill country of Hebron, where he had stood during his colloquy with ,J", and sees thence the reek of the smoke rising as from a furnace (10^). Strangely out of place though it seems, we find interpo.sed at this point the story how A. Journeyed to the South-land or Negeb, and dwelt in the territory of Gerar, where Abimelech was king, and how A.

once more fears for his life on account of Sarah's beauty, repre- sents her to be his sister, and temporarily loses her, when she is taken to Abimelech's harem. As in the Egyp. story, Sarah is kept from harm by a special visitation ; Abimelech is warned by God, releases Sarah, and rebukes A. (20). At length the long-promised son is born to A. of Sarah ; he is circumcised the 8lh day, and receives the name of I.saac (21'-'). Sarah takes offence at the sight of Ishmael playing with Isaac ; and A.

is instructed by God to yield to Sarah's demand, and dismiss both Hagar and Ishmael from his tent (21). A.'s prosperity and success induce Abimelech to seek alliance with the patriarch. A covenant between them is struck ; the well, which Abi- melech's servants had taken by force from A., is restored to him, and receives the name of Beer- Sheba. A. dwells for some time in Phil, territory, encamped in the vicinity of the well (21', -').

Some years later, when Isaac has grown to be a lad, comes the last trial of A.'s faith. God orders him to sacrifice his only son upon a lofty hill, distant three days' journey from his place of encampment. He does not hesitate. All is done in perfect obedience ; the knife is raised to slay Isaac, wlien a voice from heaven is heard. God wishes not a hair of the lad's head to suffer ; He is satisfied with this proof of the patriarch's ab.

solute trust in God, his readiness to sacrifice that which was most precious in his eyes. A ram is sacrificed in the stead of Isaac ; and the holy covenant between .J" and A. is ratified anew (22'-'^). Then Sarah dies; and A., whose seed is to possess the whole land, has to purchase a Imrial- place. 'J'he field and cave of Miichpelah at Hebron is the portion of ground which he buys with all due formality from Ephron the Hitlile; and there he buries Sarah (23).

Feeling his days drawing to a close, A. causes his steward to swear not to let Isaac take to wife one of the daughters of the land, and .sends him to Harau, where he finds Rebekah, and brings her back to be Isaac's wife (24). It is strange next to read that A. takes Keturah to be his wife, and becomes the father of six sons, the patriarchs of Arabian tribes (25'-*). But at the age of 175 he dies, and is buried in the cave of Machpelah (25"-").

The foregoing outline shows the truth of what has been remarked above, that the life of A. in the Bk of Gn is not so much a consecutive biograjiliy as a series of scenes derived from groups of lleb. tradition, and loosely strung together.

How far the three main groups of patriarchal narrative — the J, E, and P — overlapped one another we cannot say, but the fact that the existing account is derived from different sources sufficiently explains some of the chief difficulties and dis- crepancies that strike the ordinary reader. J.— The narrative of .1 opens with A. bein^ in Ilaran, and migrating with Lot to Can. at the command of J ", It mention!! A.'s nomadic movements in Can., and the altars at Bethel and Shecliem.

It records the separation of A. and Lot, and A.'s sojourn at Hebron. It describes A.'s journey to Egypt, and his return to the S. of Can. It contains the promises made to A., and the covenant In ch. 15. It records the marriage with Hagar, Hagar's flight, and the birth of Ishmael. It gives ttie long epic narrative of the visit of the three men to A. ; A.'& intercession ; and the overthrow of the cities of tlie plain. It narrates the birth of Isaac, and the mission of A.'s servant to Haran.

,1 =i\;i-<. 0-131- '•"•- 1"^'" l!>. 16'-» IS. 19 (e.xc. v.'O) 21. (partially) 24. E. — The narrative of E opens with A.'s wandering to and fro, witli Lot, in Can. It reproduces, perhaps from souie se|>arate source, an account of the war between CIiedor-Laomcr and the rebel ' cities of the plain,' A.'s rescue of his nephew, and Mel- chizedek's blessing. It describes the blessing pronounced upon the patriarch In ch. 15. It records .\.'

s sojourn at Gerar, and the peril to which Sarah was exposed at the court of Abinu-U-ch (20). It contains an account of the birth of Isaac; and ihe mention of the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael implies that it als,) included an account of Ishmael's birth. It records the alliance of A. with Attimelech at lieershcba. And, so far as A. is concerned, con- chnles with the storv of the sacritlce of Isaac. E = 14. (possibly) 15. (partially) 2(1. 21"" 22, P.

- The narrative of T isamere skeleton outline of fiwts. A. is Terah's son. Terah, with A. his son and Lot his nephew, leave ITr-Casdim, and set out for Can. ; they stay at Haran, where Terah dies, 205 years old. A., 75 years old, accompanied by Lot. journevs to Ca"n. A. settles near .Mamre ; Lot goes K. to the Jordan valley. A. marries Hagar ten years after enter- ing Can. ; Ishmael'ls born in .\.'s Siith vear.

In his l»Oth year God makes a covenant with him, and ordains the rite of circum- cision, changing his name to Abraham, and Sarai's to Sarah. A. laughs at the idea of Sarah having a son ; and the son to be born to him is to be called Isaac. In his 1 (Kith year A_. has a s()n Isaac, who is circumcised. Sarah dies at Hebron 127 years old, and A. purchases the cave of Machpelah for a burylng-place. Ho blm.self dies at the age of 175, and is buried by Isaac and Ishmael in the cave. l>_]Srt. lib.

12 101-3. 15. 10 171.S7 ]9:»21''-"^23. 2.5'-". The combination of the three strata of tradition has only in a few instances led to apparent inconsistencies. The J narrative, which makes Haran A. s native country (Gn 12. 24). contains no allusion to Ur-Casdim. J's narrative contains tiie story of A.'s cowardice in Egypt; it Is E's narrative which contains the story of his cowardice at the court of Abimelech, The narratives of .

1 and E, which sjieak of Sarah's beauty attracting the notice of Egvptlans and Phili.stines, do not mention the ages of A. ami Sarah, .\ccordlng to .1. A . very prob. had died before the return of the servant with Kebekah, since vaN should prob. bo read ABRAHAM ABRAHAM 15 fur 12N in 24*^ ; for wecaii bardly Mippuse that Isaac's uiournin^' for his utother would have lastetl for three years. The mention of A. '8 nmrria^'e with Keturah in the foil. ch. Is derived from a diQerent source.

The foil, are the chief difficulties arising from the Abraham narrative : — 1. Th-' HiDiie of A.^s People. — From the fact that Tcrah is said to have lived at Ur-Casdim, and that Ur lias been identified by Assyrinlogists with Uru, the modern Muj;lieir, in S. Bab., the con- clusion has very commonly been drawn that A. migrated first from Chaldiea.

This, however, depends upon the correctness of the identification, of Ur-Casilim with Uru, which has been much dis- puted on the irrouiids, (1) that the genealogy of (in 11'' brings tiie Seiu. race as far as Jlesopolamia, from which the next movement in the direction of t^an. would be to Haran ; (2) that the name Ciisdira wa-s applied to an Armenian tribe ; and (.3) that it does not appear in connexion with S. Bab. until much later (upon the whole controversy see Kittel, Hist, of Uehrews, Kug.

tr. i. 180 f.; Dillmann, (tVh(>s(.<, p. 214 f. As to the position of Ur-C:usdim, see art. t'lt ok the Ch.vi.i>kks). The common early Heb. tradition .seems to be expressed in Gn 24, according to which A.'s kindred were the dwellers in N. Mesopotamia ; and it is this belief which also is reiterated in the story of .Jacob. Cf. ' A Syrian (i.e. Aramsan) ready to perish was my father' (Ut 2(i=). Whether Ur-Casdim is to be placed in N. Mesopotamia or in Chaldea, the impression remains that '.)

' believed A.'s home and kindred to have been in Haran. 2. Thp Chnrartir of the Xarrative related in Gn 14. — There appears to be no reason to question the hist, probability of an Klamite campaign such as is here described. There is nothing inherently im- probable in the event as has sometimes, in some quarters, been asserted. A.

did not defeat the Klamite army in a pitched battle ; he made a night attack, fell upon an unsuspecting foe, and recovered prisoners and baggage, — a very different exploit from the conquest of Damascus, which late legend a.ssigned to him. The primitive inv;usion of Chedor- Laomer has been claimed by some Assyriologists for an approximate date of 2150 (so Hommel, ISah.- A!<<<. fiesrh. p. 'A); and the invasion of W.

Asia by an Klamite will naturally be associated with the Klamite empire of that remote time. But upon what principle the events of A.'s life can be carried back to the 22nd cent. n.c. has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Biblical chronology does not suggest the interval of nearly a thousand years between A. and the Exodus. 3. The I'riimisfs nunle to A. are found eight timesrepeated,(i.)Gn 12-'' (ii.) 12" (iii.) 13'* (iv.) 15 (V.) 17 (vi.) 18 (vii.) 21'^ (viii.) 22'o.

The promises fall under three main heads, (a) the land of Can. shall be po.ssessed by the seed of A.; (&) the seed of A. shall become a mighty nation ; (c) A. shall have a .son born of Sarah, and the son is to be called Isaac. The number of times that the promise appears is due to the compiliTS having selected this as the mo.st conspicuoiLS feature in the narrative of A. in each of the sources of tr.adition. The seemingly strange fact, that the narrative in ch. 17 .

should take no notice of the mention of the same promise in ch. 15, is at once accounted for when it is seen to be an instance of the manner in which the different narratives overlap one another. The promises, contained in thi- different tnadilions, seemed to the compiler so imp<irlaiit in view of the general purpose of his book, that, at the risk of considerable repetition, he has incorporated them all. The.se promises ever ranked among the religious privileges of Israel (Ko !•*).

'I'hey pro- claimed God's covenant with His people, according to which He required of them simple obedience and justice (Gn 18") ; they also announced that through Israel all nations should be blessed. 4. The Sacrijce of Isaac marks the crowning event in the life of A. Obviously, it must rank as the surpassing act of the patriarch's faith in God. But a difficulty ari.ses in some minds from the wickedness of the act which God at fir.st commands A. to do. Even though He never intended A.

eventually to execute the terrible command, still is it consistent with divine goodness and justice to issue an order, to obey which seemed to have the result of placing blind trust in a positive command above the reasonable recognition of the natural demands of love, mercy, and justice ? But there are two considerations which cut the ground from beneath this objection. (1) We are tempted to a-ssume that in the patriarchal narrative the voice of God is an audible external communication.

But then, as now, God speaks in different ways, and by conscience most directly. The que-stion put by A.'s conscience was whether his complete trust in God extended even to the readiness to surrender his only son ; it wa-s in the truest sense a word of God to A. (2) That the answer to this que.stioning was given in the shape of human sacrifice on a mountain top, illustrates the importance of bearing in mind the imperfect development of the moral conscious- ness in that remote period.

Human sacrifice was frequently practised in Sem. races. If the wor- shippers of other Sem. deities were ready to sacrifice their firstborn to their gods, was A. to be behind Assyria, Amnion, and Moab in devoticui ? The moral standard of the age would not be shocked at a deed too fatally common. The ideas of mercy and justice were, in that period, low, and needed to be raised. To propitiate the Deity by child murder was regarded as the height of religious devotion.

The narrative, therefore, fulfils the twofold object of giving the crowning proof of A.'s absolute faith in .J"; and further, of demonstrating the moral superiority of faith in J" over the religious customs of other Sem. races. 1" forbade the sacrifice of the firstborn : .1" upheld the instinct implanted in human nature which shrunk in horror from the act. He taught that .1" had no pleasure in the infliction of suffering upon the innocent ; that the cliaracter of .

1" was raised above that of the heathen gods by higher love and truer justice. ii. A. IN THE History of Iskaki,. — The attempt has been made to deprive the story of A. of all hist, value, and to represent the patriarch either as a mythical personage or as the typical impersonation of the virtues of the religious Isr. ; but as yet no evidence has been found to ctmnect the name of A.

with that of a tribal deity, wliile the endeavour to find in his story a iiliilosophical description of abstract qualities seems to jire- suppose a stage of literary development to which the materials of the Hex. can make no claim, and to desiderate a literary unity which those materials emphatically contradict.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that recollections of the nomadic age, committed to writing (in the form that has come down to us) in a post-Mosaic era, and evidently strongly coloured by the teaching of the prophets of .

1", are likely to have preserved the hist, facts of the remote past ill a form in which personal details are inex- tricably intertwined with racial movements, ami, for simplicity's sake, the destinies of a future nation are anticipated in the features of family experience. According to this view, A. was the leader of a greiit nomadic movement of the Heljrews (Gn 10" 14'^), who migrated from Mesoiiotamiainto Canaan. 'I'liese Hebrews penetrated as far .

as Egypt (Gn 12), but for the mosi part established themselves in tlio 16 ABRAHAil ABRAHAM S. of Canaan, and in Hebron and Beeisheba formed friendly relationships witli the dwellers of the land (Gn 14. 21, ). The story of Lot seems to indicate that the peoples of Amnion and Moab had originally belonged to the Heb. migration which was led by A., and, having separated themselves from their comrades, occupied the territory of the Rephaim, the Emim, and the Zamzummim (I)t 2"- '9-21).

Again, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that some of the references to Ishmael and the allusion to Keturah contain an Isr. picture of the relationship of the Arabian tribes and clans to the Heb. stock rather than the record of personal history. The Egyp. origin of Hagar ((Jn Iti') and of Ishmael's wife (Gn 21-') will then indicate that the new settlers received into their community a con- siderable admixture of an Egyp. element at the time when they dispersed throughout N. Arabia.

The fact that • the sons of Nahor ' (Gn 22'-2), ' the sons of Ishmael ' (Gn 25i, '), ' the sons of Edom ' (Gn 30'^-i), form groups of twelve, and that 'the sons of Keturah' thus form a half-group of six, is an additional sign of the probability that the record is not only that of the domestic life of a family, but also that of the political distribution of a race. While this consideration must modify the accept- ance of a uniform literal historicity for the narra- tive of A.

, it is not incompatible with the view that in A. we have the great leader of a racial movement, and one who left his mark upon his fellow-tribesmen, not only by the eminence of his superior gifts, but by the distinctive features of his religious life, the traditional features of which were the devotion to one God, the abandonment of the polytheism of his ancestors, and the adoption of circumcision as the symbol of a purer cult. iii. A. intheTheolooyofOT.

— Thescattered reminiscences of the patriarchs were collected and compiled, even more for the purpose of illustrating the fundamental principles of the Isr. revelation than with the object of retailing any exhaustive biography. The religion of Israel dates, according to OT, from A., not from Moses. A. 's servant addresses J" a.s the God of his master A. (Gn 24i-') ; .1" is to Isaac the God of A. (Gn •26-*); to Jacob He is 'the God of A. and the fear of Isaac' (Gn 31"). A.

never speaks of J" as the God of his fathers. A. is the founder of the religion ; he is the head of the family which had J" for its God. There is no designatiim of the God of Israel which can go farther back to the origin of the Heb. faith than the often-repeated title ' the God of A.' (cf. Ps 47^). The story of A. reflects the belief in the free grace of God wliich chose the patriarch and brought him from a distant land, and in spite of his failures loved him and made His covenant with him.

The call of A. and the promises made him thus represent the Election {iK\oy^) of Israel. A. as the clinHen servant is the propliet, the instrument of J"'s purpose (Gn 20'). He is the friend of (!od (Is 41', 2 Ch 20'. Cf. Arab. El-KliaW). God's mercies towards him are appealed to by the prophets of the Captivity (Is 51-, Ezk 3.3-<) as the ground of con- fidence tliat .J" would not forsake the heirs of the promises made to A. The unitjue relation in which A., in I.sr.

theology, stood to the God of revelation is indicated by the ref. of the prophets to A. as ' the one ' (see Is oV- 2, Ezk 3.3«, Jtal 2'"). In the Bk of Sir, A. is spoken of as 'great father of a multitude of nations; and there was none found like liim in glory ; who kept the law of the Mo.st High, and was taken into covenant with Him : in his flesh he establi.shed the covenant ; and when he was proved he was found faithful ' (44''- -") .

In these words are summarised the chief points upon which the later Jewish literature esp. insisted in any reference to the life and character of A. He was the founder of the race ; he was credited with a perfect knowledge of the Torah ; he was the institutor of circumcision ; he was tried, and in virtue of his faith was declared righteous. iv. A. IN THE Theology of NT.— In NT, A. is referred to in a variety of wavs. The words of John the Baptist in Mt 3', Lk S'. and of St.

Paul, Ro 9', rebuke the popular Jewish supposition tliat descent from A. carried with it any special claim upon divine favour. Our Lord .speaks of A. as one with whom all the partakers of divine redemption shall be privileged to dwell (Mt 8") ; and as of one who is both cognisant of things on earth, and is also entrusted with the special charge over the souls of the blest (Lk IG, ). Our Lord employs the imagery of current religious belief ; A.

is the typical representative of ' the righteous ' who have been redeemed ; he is ' the father of the faithful.' Hence He says (Jn 8=*), 'Your father A. rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.' He obtained a vision of the meaning of the promises, and rejoiced in the hope of their future fulfilment. Christ was the consummation of all the aspirations of A., the father of the race. According to the Jewish tradition ( Bereshith Jiabba 44, Wiinsche), A.

saw the whole history of his descendants in the mysterious vision recorded in Gn lo*-. Thus he is said to have ' rejoiced with the joy of the law' ' (Westcott on Jn 8^). The subject of the faith of A. seems to have formed a stock subject of discussion in the Jewish synagogue. It is alhuled to in 1 Mac 2-'- ' Was not A. found faithful in temptation, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness ?

' The ' locus classicus' for the subject was (in 15"; and the question propounded by the Jewish teachers turned upon the nature of the faith which was counted to A. for righteousness. To Philo the whole history of A. was merely an allegory descriptive of the truly wise man whose inner nature is made one with the divine by teaching (SiSao-xaXfa), as Isaac's by nature (0iVis), and Jacob's by discipline ((5crK?)i7is).

In Philo's treatment of the subject, ' faith,' which frees the soul from the dominion of the senses, was ' the queen of virtues ' (de Abrnh. ii. p. 39) ; and Philo refers to Gn 15" at least 10 times (see Lightfoot, Gal. p. 158, and Ryle, Philo ond Holy Scripture, p. 55) for the purpose of indicating the supreme excellence of A.'s faith. Rabbinical Judaism did not adopt the symbolical and abstract explanation which satisfied the Alex, philosopher. It regarded A. as inseparable from A.'

s seed, and the faith of A. as consisting in the fulfilment of the law. Against this Rabbinic interpretation St. Paul directs his argument in Ro 4'- and Gal 3. Faith with the apostle is the motive power of the whole spiritual life, and he lays stress on the fact that the mention of A.'s faith precedes the instituticm of circumcision. The faith of the patriarch was not due to the rite ; it was only ratified and con- firmed by it (cf. Ro 4-'- and the notes of Sanday and Headlam).

The same subject comes under discussion in the Ep. of St. James ; and there the apostle of the circumcision safeguards, as it were, the Christian position from a perversion of the Pauline teaching. With St. James 'the faith' of A. is not so much the motive power of spiritual life as the settled belief, the genuineness of which can only be tested by action (Ja 2", see Mayor, in loc). Yet another reference to A.'s faith is found in He 11*-!'

, where the patriarch is described as having been ' enabled to work towards the fulfilment of ABRAHAM ABRAHAM'S BOSOM God's counsel by his trust in the unseen' (Westcott, in loc). The three features of the patriarch's life which the writer of the Ep. selects for the illus- tration of this ' faith,' arc (1) self-surrender, in the departure from his home (v.")

; (2) patience, in the pilptiira's expectation of a future abiding place (vv,'-""); (3) influence, since his faith, affecting Sarah's faith, led to the fulfilment of the promise (VV. ■!•"). Later Jewish teaching, dwelling on the same tlienie, says, ' In like manner thou findest that A. our father inherited this world and the world to come solely by the merit of faith whereby he believed on the Lord' (Mechilta on Ex 14^'). V. JEWISH TltADlTKix.

— It was natural that Jewish tradition should be busy with regard to the great founder of the people of Israel. From the fact that A. received the divine call in Ur of the Chaldees, and ur in Heb. meant 'flame,' the strange storj' was invented of his having been cast into a fiery furnace by Ximrod. This legend appears in various forms. One of the best known is that which is recorded in the Targ. of Jonathan on (jn 11-* ' And it was when Nimrod had cast A.

into the furnace of fire because he would not worship his idol, and the fire had no power to burn liiin, that llaran's heart became doubtful, saying. If Nimrod overcome, I will be on his side ; but if A. overcome, I will be on his side. And when all the people wlio were there saw that the fire had no power over A., they said i.i their hearts. Is not Haran the brother of A. full of divinations and charms, and has he not uttered spells over tlie tire that it should not burn his brother?

Immediately there fell fire from the high heavens and consumed him ; and Haran died in sight of Terah his father, where he was burned in the land of his nativity, in the furnace of fire which the Chaldaians had made for A. his brother' (Etheridge's tr.) Another version of the story appears i:i Bereshith Unhha, where A.

refuses to obey Nimrod's command that he should worship fire ; and suggests that it would be more reasonable to worship water that quenches fire, or tlie clouds that give the rain, or the wind that drives the clouds ; finally, he exhorts Nimrod to worship the one God. Nimrod causes A. to be thrown into a fiery furnace ; but God delivers him from its Hanies. For other instances of the Habbinic treatment of A.'s life, see Weber, System der AltnynwiiKj. PalSntin. Tlirnlofile, Leipzig, 1880.

In Pirk'e Ahlmlh (v. 4) it is said, ' With ten tempta- tions was A. our father tempted, and he withstood them all ; to show how great was the love of A. our father.' For the ways in which the Kabbins reckoned up these ten temptations, see Taylor, Saiiin'jt I if the. Jetrish Fathers, p. 04. 'i'he facts that A. came from Haran, that ho won his victory at Ilobah, near Damascus (Gn H"), and that his servant Wiis a native of Damascus (Gn lo-), seem to have given rise to the legend that A.

conipiered Damascus. So Joseplms relates that ' Nicolaus of l)ama.scus,' in the 4th book of his history, says thus : ' A. reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land of Babylon. . Now the name of A. is even still famous in the country of Damascus ; and they show a village named after him, The habitation of A.' (Ant. I. vii. 2). A.'s native countr)- having been CliakUea, he was credited by the .lews with a know- ledge of secret arts and magic (cf.

Philo, <le prwrn. et pcen.; Jo.s. Ant. i. vii.) ; and Joseplms records the tradition that A. first introduced into Kgj-pt the knowledge of aritlunetic and astrologj- whicli he had broiiglit with him from Clialda;a (_Ant. i. viii.) For tlio preHorvfttlon of these nnd other Icfrends, boo Cod. £neudfpiifr. Vet. Tfnt., J. A. Fnbrlc. torn. 1 (1722), and Boer, etien .Ib.anttO). Tlie 7>«^l;neH^«/.^.(flrs[o(l.b.v.Inines, 'Texts and 3tudie.H,' C'uiiit). IHtl'J) deserves especial inentlun as an apocr.

vol.. I. — 2 (opparently of Kg^-p. origin) of apocalyptic choracter, first men- tioned by Origen, Le(iimua . .jiintit'ia et iniqtiUati» ariffetoa itupev Abrabarni mitttte et interitu tlihceptantea. etc. (/n Lc. Horn. 9f>). and recently bronpht before the notice of students in a uiost Interesting form by the learned editor. vi. The Na.me ' Aui:aiiam.'— The attempts to discover the etymologj' of this name can hardly as yet be said to have been successful. According to one very prob.

explanation, Abram represents a contracted form of Abiram or Aburam, just as 'Abner' probably stands for ' Abiner' or ' Abuner' ; while Abraham may have been a local, or an Aramaic, dialectical variety of pronunciation. Abiram was a fairly common name (cf. Xu l(i'-i'^ 20', 1 K \6^*) in Heb,; audit is said to be a recognised proper name in the Assyr. Inscriptions, under the form of Abu-ramu (so Schrader and Sayce).

The analogy of other proper names, like Abi-meiek, Abiel, Abi-jah, makes it exceedingly doubtful whether the name Abram can rightly bear the meanings traditionally assigned to it, ' Lofty father,' or 'the father of the lofty one.' For (1) it stands to reason that no child, however lofty its descent, would have been called 'father,' or 'the father of a god, whether Melecli, or Jah, or Ham ; (2) the feminine names Abi-gail, Abi-tal, show the impossibility of this explanation.

Probal)ly, there- fore, the right meaning of the name is ' Kam (the lofty one) is father,' as Hiram would mean ' Ram is brother,' of the owner of the name. F.ven so, the origin of the longer name Abraham remains still unexplained. The derivation of the name in Gn 17^ is only a popular word-play, connecting the termination -raham with the Heb. p~-\ 'multitude.' Hal^vy {Itev. Et. Juiv. 1887, p. 177) ventured to propose that Abraham represents o? "''?!? ' the chief of a multitude,' the fir.

st part of the name being derived, not from aft, ' father,' but from aliir, ' chief,' and the second part from ham (root hamah), 'multitude.' For this theory there does not ajijiear to be much probability. The deriv. of the longer name must be left uncertain, although the most likely explanation of it is to be found in the variant jn'on. of proper luimes in different localities or in different clans of the same people.

Thus om may be a dialectical form of en ; and Abraham the same in meaning as Abram, just as Abiram is the .same in meaning iis Abram (cf. OxJ'. Heb. Lex. p. 4, and Baethgen, Beitriige zur Sem. liel. Oesch.) LiTERATL'BK.— Besides the works mentioned above, the reader Is referred to tbel'omin. on Genesis by Delttzsch, and Dlllniann ; to the Histories of Israel by Ewald.'Keuss. and Klttel ; to the works on OT Theology by Oehler, Schultz, and Dlllinann. For illustration from Assvr.

sources, see Savoe. PiUrinrehat Put. (l-'.i.'); Tomklns, Ti'mei ({!' Abi-aliam (ls■^): Schrader, COT' (1»n''1. H. E. Kyi.e.