Abraham (“The Father of Many Nations”), previously known as Abram (“The Father [or God] Is Exalted”), is the first of the patriarchs of Israel who probably lived somewhere between 2000 and 1500 BCE. His life is depicted in Genesis 11–25 and he is recognized as the forefather of both Judaism and Christianity.

According to the biblical account, Abraham was a merchant from the urban civilization of Ur of the Chaldees, in Mesopotamia, who traveled into Palestine. At 75 years of age, he left Ur believing that God (Yahweh) called him to found a new nation in an undesignated land that he later learned was Canaan (between Syria and Egypt) (Gen. 12:1–13).

He left Mesopotamia with his barren wife, Sarai, later named Sarah (“Princess”), his nephew Lot, and other companions. God promised Abraham that his “seed” (Gen. 15:3, 5, 13, 18) would inherit this land and become a numerous nation and a blessing for “all the families of the earth” (Gen. 11:27–12:8). He not only had a son, Ishmael, with his wife’s maidservant Hagar but also, at 100 years of age, with Sarah, who birthed Isaac, the legitimate son and the heir of God’s promise to Abraham.

Throughout the events recorded of Abraham, there is a theological motif of his faith, which was put to the test when God ordered him to sacrifice Isaac, despite Isaac being essential for the fulfillment of the promise. But at the last moment, a divine intervention saved Isaac, and a ram trapped in an adjacent scrub was offered instead. The Abraham patriarchal history ends with his buying a plot of ground for his burial and with his death (Gen. 25:10). Abraham dies at the age of 175 and is buried next to Sarah in the cave of Machpelah.

Biblically, Abraham is presented as an exemplar of what it means to be a righteous man with faith in God; a man of peace, visible in him settling a boundary dispute with his nephew Lot; compassionate by bargaining with God to spare the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; hospitable by welcoming the three visiting angels; and a warrior through rescuing Lot and his family from a raiding party. 

Abraham was also a common human bearing weaknesses and needs, most apparent by being an unscrupulous liar to save his own skin by passing off Sarah as his sister and letting her be picked by the Egyptian pharaoh for his harem.

References

Chilton, Bruce. 2015. “Abraham”. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology. Oxford University Press.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Parrot, André. n.d. “Abraham”. Available.