WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT ABRAHAM?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

In reality, very little!

In the Hebrew Bible, Abram, later called Abraham, appears as the first of the three patriarchs, and the founder of the Israelites. We are told that he was born in “Ur of the Chaldeans” and, that at God’s bidding, he left for the land of Canaan (Gen. 11:31). God also promised that his descendants would own this new land (Gen. 12: 7). Famine, however, forced him to go to Egypt (Gen. 12: 10). When he returned to Canaan, he appears to be a very wealthy man (Gen. 13: 2). He had two wives (Sarah and Keturah), and a concubine, Hagar (Gen. 16: 3) as well as a few children, including Isaac and Ishmael. God set up a covenant with Abraham, promising him that he will be “the father of a great multitude” (Gen. 17: 5). At Sarah’s death, he bought the Cave of Mahpelah near Hebron as a family burying place, and when he himself died, he was buried in it, at the age of 175, next to his wife, Sarah (Gen.25).

The stories about Abraham in the Bible read like an elaborate legend about a leader who is not a perfect individual: He is a righteous person, compassionate and  hospitable with strangers (Gen.18), but also an unscrupulous liar when he tries to pass off his wife, Sarah, as his sister in order to save his skin (Gen. 12: 13). “He believed in God” (Gen. 15:6), we are told, and was blindly loyal, to the point of willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God (Gen. 22).

There are a number of textual and historical inaccuracies in the biblical description of Abraham, which would indicate that the stories about him most likely circulated orally and were finally written down after a long period of time: for example,

aa. He is not mentioned in any other ancient Near Eastern texts. We do not even know when he actually lived.

bb. The expression “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen.11:31) is problematic, because we do not know where the city is located. Furthermore, when the city of Ur existed, there were no Chaldeans, and vice versa. 

cc. There seems to be an internal discrepancy within the text that deal with Abraham’s departure. In Gen.11:31, he departs from Ur with his family, but in Gen.12:1,4, he seems to leave only with his nephew, Lot. Modern scholars ascribe each story to a different literary source (namely P and J).

dd. When the Bible states, “The Canaanites were then in the land” (Gen. 12:6), it implies that they do not exist now. However, when Abraham allegedly lived, there were indeed Canaanites in the land. (9) Clearly, this text was written much later when the Canaanites had disappeared as an identifiable group.

ee. The Bible claims that Abraham died at the age of 175. This number, obviously, cannot be taken literally. In fact, none of the numbers in the Hebrew Bible can be taken as historical fact. They are mostly symbolic and have cultural significance.

The legends about Abraham continued to evolve in time, with a clear tendency to portray him as perfect as possible. In the New Testament, Abraham appears as a dominant figure: Matthew traces Jesus back to him (1:1); in fact, according to John, Jesus was present even before Abraham (5:58). James stresses Abraham’s faith and says that his was so great that he would have offered his son willingly to God (2:21).

The Book of Jubilees (c. 2nd cent. BCE), describes Abraham as a famous astronomer (Chap. 12). Its author also believed that Sarah was taken from Abraham “by force” (Chap. 13) and not as the result of Abraham’s plea that she should pass herself as his sister (Gen.12).

 Josephus, the Jewish historian (born in Jerusalem in 37 CE and died in Rome in 100 CE) considers Abraham as “a person of great sagacity” (Ant. Book I, 7:1), a man of “incomparable virtue” (Ant. I:17) and an astronomer (Ant I.7:1). He discovered monotheism on his own (Ant. I.8: 1). According to Josephus, Isaac willingly went up to the altar to be sacrificed (Ant. I.13:4). Furthermore, the Pharaoh never abused Sarah, and when he discovered that she was his wife and not his sister, he excused himself to Abraham and showered them with all kinds of gifts (Ant. I. 8:1). For Philo, the Greek-Jewish philosopher of Alexandria (c. 15-10 BCE- 45/50 CE), Abraham stands for the person who has total faith in God (Virt. 39).

In the Quran, Abraham appears as a grand personality, who was “a man of truth, a prophet” (Sura 19). He was viewed as the patriarch of the Islamic faith: “the Father of Muslims” (Sura 22) as well as the “imam of the nations” (Sura 2). To him is attributed the construction of the Ka’aba and the pilgrimage rites to it (Sura 2). God, according to the Quran, ordered him to sacrifice his son, left nameless (Sura 37). Muslim tradition, however, stresses that this was not Isaac, but his brother Ishmael, the patriarch of Islam and the forefather of Muhammad.

In the rabbinic literature, the number and the intensity of the legends about “Abraham our father,” reach their highest level. For example, we are told that when he was born, a star rose in the east and swallowed four stars in the four corners of heaven. He discovered monotheism on his own. He learned Torah all by himself. He almost sacrificed Isaac when Satan appeared and shoved Abraham’s arm aside so that the knife fell out of his hand. He was tested with ten trials and stood firm in all of them. 

Abraham most likely was a real person, but, it is almost impossible to ascertain the historical details of his life. His legendary stature increased as time went on.