ABRAHAM (a'bra-ham), (Heb. ab-raw hawoz' , father of a multitude), the founder of the Hebrew nation. Up to Gen. xvii:4, 5, he is formly called Abram (Heb. ab-rawm', high father or father of elevation), and this was his original name, but the extended form, which it always afterward bears, was given to it to make it r:rnificant of the promise of a numerous posterity winch was at the same time made to him.
The attempt has been made to deprive the story of Abraham of all historic value, and to repre sent the patriarch either as a mythical personage or as the typical impersonation of thevirtues of the religious Israel, but as yet no evidence has been found to connect the name of Abraham with that of a tribal deity, while the endeavor to find in his story a philosophical description of abstract quali ties seems to presuppose a stage of literary devel opment to which the materials of the Hexatcuch can make no claim, and to desiderate a literary unity which those materials emphatically contra dict (II. E. Ryle, Hastings' Bib. Diet.).
I. Early History. Abraham was a native of Chaldea, and descended, through Heber, in the ninth generation, from Shem, the son of Noah. His father was Terah, who had two other sons, Nahor and Haran. Haran died prematurely 'be fore his father,' leaving a son, Lot, and two daugh ters, Milcah and Iscah. Lot attached himself to his uncle Abraham; Milcah became the wife of her uncle Nahor; and Iscah, who was also called Sarai, became the wife of Abraham (Gen. xi :26 Comp. Joseph. Antiq. i:6, 5). (See IscAn.) In Gen. xiv :13 Abraham is called the Hebrew, and in Gen. x1:15 the term Hebrew is first used in its plural form. Abraham was born B. C. about 2333, in 'Ur of the Chaldees' (Gen. xi :28). There is no positive certainty about any date in Scripture until near the year B. C. 800.
(1) Birth. The concise history in Genesis states nothing concerning the portion of his life prior to the age of about 7o; and respecting a per son living in tit. es so remote, no authentic in formation can be derived from any other source.
(2) Traditions. There arc, indeed, traditions, but they arc too manifestly built up on the founda tion of a few obscure intimations in Scripture to he entitled to any credit. Thus it is intimated in Josh. xxvi:2, that Terah and his family 'served other gods' beyond the Euphrates. Upon this has been founded the romance that Terah was not only a worshiper, hut a maker of idols; that the youth ful Abraham. discovering the futility of such gods, destroyed all those his father had made, and justified the act in various conversations and arguments with Terah, which we find repeated at length.
(3) Ur of the Chaldees. Again, 'Ur of the Chaldees' was the name of the place where Abraham was born, at.d from which he went forth to go, he knew not whither, at the call of God. Now Ur means fire; and we may therefore read that he came forth from the fire of the Chaldees. Upon this has been built the story that Abraham was, for his disbelief in the established idols, cast by king Nimrod into a burning furnace, from which he was by special miracle delivered. And to this the premature death of Ilaran has suggested the addition that he, by way of punishment for his disbelief of the truths (or which Abraham suffered. was marvelously destroyed by the sante fire from which his brother was still more marvelously preserved. Again, the fact that Chaldea was the region in which astronomy was reputed to have been first cultivated, suggested that Abraham brought astronomy westward, and that lie even taught that science to the Egyptians (Joseph.
i :8). These are goodly specimens of tra dition-building; and more of them may he found in the alleged history of Abraham by those who think them worth the trouble of the search It is just to Josephus to state that most of these stories are rejected by him, although the tone of sonic of his remarks is in agreement with them. (Comp. Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, by S. Baring Gould.) 2. First Period—The Call (1) Removal to Charrc.n. Although Abra ham is, by way of eminence, Lamed first, it appears probable, that he was the youngest of Terah's sons, and born by a second wife, when his father was one hundred and thirty years old. Tcrali was seventy years old when the eldest son was born (Gen. xi; Comp. Hales, ii:to7): and that eldest son appears to have been Baran, from the fact that his brothers married his daughters. and that his daughter Sarai was only ten years younger than his brother Abraham (Gen. xvii :17). Abraham was sixty years old when the family left their na tive city of Ur, and went and abode in Charran. The reason for this movement does not appear in the Old Testament. Josephus alleges that T rah could not bear to remain in the place where Haran had died (Antiq. i :6, 5); while the apocryphal book of Judith, in conformity with the traditions still current among the Jews and Moslems, offirins that they were cart forth because they would no longer worship the gods of the land (Judith v:6-8). Dr. Davidson suggests that upon his de feat as a leader of a horde worsted in some en counter, he had emigrated at the head of his ad herents in quest of better fortune (Ency. Brit., Abraham), Abraham was at the head of the first division of one people (the second division being led by Jacob), which migrated into Canaan, whose inhabitants themselves had come from the same center as Abraham, and who spoke a kin dred tongue; in fact, a tongue which differed but slightly from that of Abraham. (The Early Religion of the Hebrews, Bibliotheca Sacra. Oct., 1898, Rev. Arthur E. \Vhatham.) The real cause of the movement is given in Acts 'The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was (at Ur of the Chaldees) in Meso potamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and come hither to a land (7iY) which I will shew thee. It has been a mooted question among Biblical scholars whether Abraham was at this time a monotheist, i. e., one worshiping the only true God, or a /lei:atheist, i. c., a wor shiper of the one God, but still recognizing other gods. However this may be, he became entirely monotheistic later on in life. Departing from the land of the Chaldees, he dwelt in Charran. first call is not recorded, but only implied in Gen xii ; and it is distinguished by several pointed circumstances from the second, which alone is there mentioned. Accordingly Abraham departed, and his family, including his aged father, remove with him. They proceeded not at once to the land of Canaan, which indeed had not been yet indicated to Abraham as his destination; hut they came to Charran, and tarried at that convenient station for fifteen current years (five years ac cording to McClintock & Strong) until died at the age of 205 years.