The history of the Hebrews, temporal and spiritual, opens with
Abraham. At his first appearance in the Bible, Abraham is a nomad
chief, who has quitted Chaldæa and the town of Haran, where his
father, Terah, descended from Shem, is still living. He is
wandering with his family, his servants, and his flocks, at first
on the frontiers and afterwards in the interior of the land of
Canaan, halting wherever he finds water and pasturage, and
conducting his tents and his tribe at one time through the
mountainous districts, at another along the plains below. Why has
he left Chaldæa?
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According to the Bible itself, his father was an idolater: "Your
fathers," said Joshua to the people of Israel, "dwelt on the
other side of the flood" (the Euphrates) "in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they
served other gods." [Footnote 37] The book of Judith contains a
similar assertion; [Footnote 38] and the Jewish and Arabian
traditions confirm, at the same time that they amplify, the
statement: the father of Abraham, they say, was an idolatrous
fanatic, and his son Abraham, having set himself against the
practice of idolatry, was upon his charge thrown into a burning
furnace, from which a miracle alone preserved him. The historian
Josephus speaks of the insurrections which took place amongst the
Chaldæans on the occasion of their religious dissensions.
[Footnote 37: Joshua xxiv. 2.]
[Footnote 38: Judith v. 6-9. ]
[USCCB: Judith v. 6-9.
"These people are descendants of the Chaldeans. They formerly
dwelt in Mesopotamia, for they did not wish to follow the
gods of their forefathers who were born in the land of the
Chaldeans. Since they abandoned the way of their ancestors,
and acknowledged with divine worship the God of heaven, their
forefathers expelled them from the presence of their gods. So
they fled to Mesopotamia and dwelt there a long time. Their
God bade them leave their abode and proceed to the land of
Canaan. Here they settled, and grew very rich in gold,
silver, and a great abundance of livestock."]
The Bible makes no allusion to these traditions; from the very
beginning God intervenes in the history of the father of the
Hebrews.
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"The Eternal had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will shew thee: I will make thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; ... and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed. ... So Abram departed, ...
and Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the sons that they
had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of
Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." [Footnote 39]
[Footnote 39: Genesis xii. 1-5.]
How had God spoken to Abraham? By a voice from without or by an
internal inspiration? The writer of the Biblical narrative
occupies himself in no respect with the question. God is for him,
present and an actor in the history just as much as Abraham is;
the intervention of God has in his eyes nothing but what is
perfectly simple and natural. The same faith animates Abraham; he
issues forth from Chaldæa and wanders through Palestine,
according to the word and under the direction of the Eternal.
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He wanders through the midst of populations already established
upon the land of Canaan, and with these he lives in peace, but
still, not uniting with them; bringing them succour when attacked
by foreign chieftains; fighting in their behalf as a faithful
ally, sometimes, perhaps, in the character of a valiant
_condottiere_ [mercenary], but remaining isolated in his
capacity of nomad Patriarch, with his family and his tribe;
repelling even the gifts and favours which might perhaps lower
his character or affect his independence. Everywhere that he
halts, or that any incident of importance occurs to him, at
Sichem, Bethel, Beersheba, Hebron, he raises an altar to his God.
In his wandering uncertain life a famine impels him on one
occasion even as far as Egypt:--the first perhaps of those
shepherd chiefs who issued from Asia, and who were so soon to
invade that rich country. Abraham passes in Egypt several years,
well treated by the reigning Pharaoh; on excellent terms with the
Egyptian priests, imparting to them and receiving from them such
knowledge of astronomy or of natural philosophy as they mutually
possessed; but maintaining ever carefully the isolation of his
family, of his tribe, and of his religion. Of his own accord, or
at the instance of the Pharaoh, he quits Egypt, carrying with him
not only his flocks and his camels, but his Egyptian slaves, and
amongst others Hagar.
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He returns to the country of Canaan, again wanders through
several of its districts, takes part in different
events--internal troubles or foreign wars, and finally settles
with his family and dependents at Hebron, near the oaks of Mamre,
amongst the tribe of the children of Heth; but still always in
his capacity as a foreigner, and always careful as such to
preserve his character and his independence. When his wife Sarah
died, the book of Genesis tells us that,
"Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons
of Heth, saying,
"I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession
of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my
sight.
"And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,
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"Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the
choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall
withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy
dead.
"And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the
land, even to the children of Heth.
"And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I
should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for
me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
"That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath,
which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is
worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace
amongst you.
"And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the
Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of
Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,
"Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave
that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of
my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.
"And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.
"And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the
land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I
will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will
bury my dead there.
"And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him,
"My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred
shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury
therefore thy dead.
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"And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to
Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the
sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money
with the merchant.
"And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was
before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and
all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the
borders round about, were made sure
"Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children
of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
"And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of
the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the
land of Canaan.
"And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure
unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of
Heth." [Footnote 40]
[Footnote 40: Genesis xxiii. 3-20.]
Little importance does Abraham attach to his precarious condition
as a wanderer and a stranger; he has faith in God. God commands,
and Abraham obeys. God promises, and Abraham trusts. One day,
however, with a feeling of anxious humility, Abraham makes the
following prayer to God:--
"Lord Eternal, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless,
and there is Eliezer of Damascus shall be my heir?
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And behold the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This
shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of
thine own bowels shall be thine heir. I am God, the mighty,
all-powerful; walk before my face, be thou perfect. I will
establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after
thee, in their generation, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God. But thou shalt keep my covenant therefore,
thou and thy seed after thee, in their generations. And Abraham
believed in the Lord; and the Eternal counted it to him for
righteousness." [Footnote 41]
[Footnote 41: Genesis xv. 1-6. and xvii. 1-9.]
In these days, in the bosom of Christian civilization, obedience
to God and confidence in God are the first precepts, the first
virtues of Christianity. They were also the virtues of Abraham,
and the precepts inculcated by Abraham's history in the Bible.
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And the God of Abraham, the God of the Bible, is the same who is
the object of adoration to the Christian of the present day; the
same conception as that of those philosophers of the present day
who believe in God, and believe in Him as in God Absolute and
Perfect, Self-dependent, Eternal, without the possibility or
attempt to define Him otherwise. Thousands of years have changed
nothing as to the biblical notion of God in the human soul, nor
as to the essential laws regulating the relation of man with God.
Historical tradition fully confirms the moral fact here
mentioned. Abraham has not been the object of any mystical
conception, or any mythological metamorphosis; nowhere has he
been transformed into demigod or son of God; he has ever remained
the model of religious faith and submission, the type of the
pious man in intimate relation with God. Throughout all
antiquity, and in all the East, as much for the primitive
Christians as for the Jews and Arabs, as much for the Mussulmans
as for the Jews and Christians, God is the God of Abraham;
Abraham is the friend of God, the father and the prince of
believers; these are the very names that the Gospel gives him;
[Footnote 42] and the Koran, too, celebrates him in these
words:--
[Footnote 42: St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans iv.; Galatians
iii.; Epistle of St. James ii. 23.]
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"And when the night overshadowed him, he saw a star, and he
said, This is my Lord; but when it set, he said, I like not
gods which set. And when he saw the moon rising, he said, This
is my Lord; but when he saw it set, he said, Verily, if my Lord
direct me not, I shall become one of the people who go astray.
And when he saw the sun rising, he said, This is my Lord, this
is the greatest; but when it set, he said, my people, verily I
am clear of that which ye associate with God. I direct my face
unto him who hath created the heavens and the earth." [Footnote
43]
[Footnote 43: Koran vi.]
The Eternal, the God One and Immutable, is the God of Abraham;
Abraham is the servant and adorer of the true God.
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