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Abraham |
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Introduction |
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Abraham, regarded as the founding
patriarch of the Israelites, is the great
spiritual father of many peoples. He was
brought by God from Mesopotamia to the
land of Canaan where he entered into a
covenant to solely recognize Yahweh as
supreme universal authority. In return,
Abraham will be blessed through
innumerable progeny. His life is narrated
in the book of Genesis (Chapters 12–25). |
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The Calling of Abram
When Terah is seventy years old, he
becomes the father of Abram, Nahor and
Haran. Haran becomes the father of Lot.
Haran dies before Terah in Ur of the
Chadeans. Abram takes as his wife Sarai.
Sarai is barren. Nahor takes as his wife
Milcah.
Terah takes his son Abram and Abram’s wife
Sarai, his grandson Lot and brings them
out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the
land of Canaan. They travel until they
reach Haran, where they settle. Here Teran
dies at the age of two hundred and five
years.
The LORD commands Abram to leave the land
of his father's house to a land that He
will show him. The LORD promises that He
will make of Abram a great nation. The
LORD also promises that He will bless
those who bless Abram and curse those who curse him. |
Abraham called by God - by Guy Rowe |
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So Abram, as the LORD directed him, leaves for
the land of Canaan. He takes with him his wife
Sarai, his brother's son Lot, and all that
belonged to him and his household. When he
arrives at the land of Canaan, Abram passes
through the sacred place at Shechem, by the
terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanites are then
living in the land.
Then the LORD appears to Abram and says to him
that He will give land of Canaan to his
descendants. Abram builds an altar there to
the LORD who had appeared to him. From there
he moves on to the hill country east of
Bethel, and pitches his tent with Bethel to
the west and Ai to the east. He builds an
altar there to the LORD and invokes the LORD
by name. |
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The Journey to and
Departure
from Egypt |
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Abraham and Sarah before Pharaoh
by Comnenian Byzantine miniature painter |
There is severe famine in the land so Abram
proceeds to Egypt. When he is about to enter
Egypt, knowing how beautiful a woman she is, he
tells to his wife Sarai that if the Egyptians ask
for her to tell them that he is her brother so
that they will not kill him.
Indeed when Abram comes to
Egypt, the Egyptians see how beautiful a woman
Sarai is and they praise her to the Pharaoh. The
Pharaoh orders her to his palace as his wife,
which made Abram’s wealth grow. But the LORD
strikes the Pharaoh and his household with severe
plagues because of Abram's wife Sarai.
Upon
learning that Sarai is the wife of Abram, the
Pharaoh confronts Abram, and eventually he sends
him out of Egypt, with his wife and all that
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belonged to him.
Abram then leaves Egypt to Negeb with his wife and
his nephew Lot, and with all his possessions,
livestock and riches. He goes through the same
route he used when he came to Egypt, passing
through the land where he had first built the
altar and where he invoked the LORD by name. |
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Lot Separates from Abram |
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Lot
also has at this time his own flocks, herds and
tents, so that the land could not support them if
they stay together. Quarrels develop between the
herdsmen of Abram's livestock and those of Lot's.
At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites are
occupying the land.
So Abram asks Lot to
separate from him. Lot observes how lush and
fertile the whole plain of Jordan is so he chooses
to go to the plain of Jordan. Lot settles among
the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near
Sodom. (This is before the LORD had destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah.) Now the inhabitants of Sodom
are very wicked in the sins they committed against
the LORD.
After Lot leaves, the LORD tells Abram to look
about him, and from where he is, gaze to the
north and |
Abram Makes Lot Choose |
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south, east and west; all the land that he sees
the LORD will give to him and his descendants
forever.
Abram moves his tents and
goes on to settle near the terebinth of Mamre,
which is at Hebron. He builds an altar to the
LORD. |
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The Vision of Slavery |
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The Great Sphinx of Giza with Khafre's pyramid
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After this the LORD appears to Abram in a vision
telling him that his reward will be great. But
Abram says to the LORD that what good will His
gifts be, if he is childless and have as his
heir Eliezer the servant of his house.
The LORD assures Abram the
he will have his own heir and his descendants
will be as countless as the stars in the sky.
The LORD then tells Abram to offer a sacrifice
on the altar. As the sun is about to set a
trance falls upon Abram and a deep and
terrifying darkness envelopes him.
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Then the LORD tells Abram that his descendants
shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred
years in a land not their own. But the LORD will
bring judgment on the nation they must serve,
and in the end they will depart with great
wealth.
The LORD tells Abram that
he shall join his forefathers in peace, and that
Abram will be buried at a contented old age. In
the fourth generation the others shall come back
here; the wickedness of the Amorites will not
have reached its full measure until then.
When the sun sets there is
a dark mist. A smoking furnace and a lamp of
fire appear. Now, the LORD makes a covenant with
Abram, and says that to Abram’s descendants He
gives this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the
Great River (the Euphrates), the land of the
Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and
the Jebusites. |
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The Birth Ishmael |
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Ten years after they arrive in the land of
Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai, who is barren,
in keeping with the laws of the time offers
her servant, an Egyptian named Hagar, to
Abram so perhaps she can have sons through
her.
Abram heeds Sarai's
request. But when Hagar becomes pregnant,
she starts looking on her mistress with
disdain. Sarai tells Abram that he is
responsible for this outrage against her.
Abram tells Sarai that she can do to her as
she pleases. Sarai then abuses her and Hagar
runs away.
The LORD'S messenger
finds her by a spring in the wilderness, the
spring on the road to Shur. The LORD'S
messenger tells her to go back to her
mistress. LORD'S messenger tells her that
she will give birth to a son, whom she will
call Ishmael. He says that he shall be a
wild man; his hand will be against all men,
and all men’s hands against him. LORD'S
messenger adds that he shall pitch his tents
over against all his brethren.
Hagar bears Abram a
son, and Abram names him Ishmael. Abram was
eighty-six years old when Ishmael is born.
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The Covenant |
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When Abram is
ninety-nine years old, the LORD appears to
him. The LORD tells Abram to walk in His
presence and be blameless. Abram falls and
prostrates himself. The LORD continues to
tell him that His covenant with him is that
Abram will become the father of many
nations. The LORD tells him that he will no
longer be called Abram but his name shall be
Abraham. The LORD promises Abraham that He
will make nations of him and that kings
shall stem from him.
The LORD tells Abraham
that he will maintain His everlasting
covenant with him and his descendants after
him throughout the ages, to be his God and
the God of his descendants after him. The
LORD promises that He will give to Abraham
and to his descendants the whole land of
Canaan, as a permanent possession, where he
is currently living. |
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In return,
the LORD tells Abraham that he and his
descendants must keep His covenant
throughout the ages. The LORD also tells
Abraham that he and his descendants must
have every male be circumcised as the mark
of the covenant. The LORD tells Abraham that
every male when he is eight days old, shall
be circumcised, including all the servants.
A male who is uncircumcised will have broken
His covenant. |
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The Promise of the Birth of Isaac |
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Abraham Promised a Son by Provost Jan |
The LORD further says to Abraham that his
wife Sarai shall be called Sarah, and he
will have a son by her. The LORD also says
that from his son, nations will rise, and
rulers of peoples shall come from his
descendants.
Abraham laughs and says to himself how a
child can be born to a man who is a hundred
years old or how Sarah can give birth at
ninety. God replies that his wife Sarah will
bear him a son, and he shall call him Isaac.
Then Abraham says to God to let Ishmael live
on by His favor, which the LORD grants. The
LORD says that Ishmael
shall become the father of twelve
chieftains, and He will make of him a great
nation. But the LORD continues that His
covenant will only be with Isaac, whom Sarah
shall bear to Abraham by this time next
year. |
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When the LORD finishes
speaking He departs from Abraham. Then
Abraham circumcises his son Ishmael and
every male members of his household and all
his servants, as God had told him to do.
Abraham is ninety-nine years old then and
his son Ishmael was thirteen years. |
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The LORD
Visits Abraham |
The LORD appears to
Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he
sits in the entrance of his tent. Looking
up, he sees three men standing nearby, so he
runs from the entrance of the tent to greet
them. Bowing to the ground, Abraham asks
them to stay and rest.
Abraham rushes into the tent and tells
Sarah to bake rolls from fine flour. He
runs to the herd, picks out a tender,
choice steer, and gives it to a servant,
who quickly prepares it. Then he sets
the steer that had been prepared as well
as some |
Abraham with
Three Heavenly Strangers |
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curds and milk, before them. He waits on
them under the tree while they eat.
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The
Birth of Isaac |
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Then the LORD tells
Abraham that about this time next year He
will return and Sarah will then have a son.
Sarah who is listening at the entrance of
the tent, laughs because she is now old had
stopped having her womanly periods.
The LORD assures Abraham that nothing is too
marvelous for the LORD to do.
As the LORD had promised Sarah becomes pregnant and
bears Abraham a son when he is a hundred years old.
Abraham names his son Isaac. When Isaac is eight
days old, Abraham circumcises him, as God had
commanded.
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Hagar and Ishmael are Banished |
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Abraham holds a great feast on the day of Isaac’s
weaning. After seeing Isaac and Ishmael playing,
Sarah demands of Abraham to banish Hagar and her son
so no one will share the inheritance with her son
Isaac.
Although this greatly distresses Abraham the LORD
tells Abraham to heed Sarah for it is through Isaac
that descendants shall bear his name. The LORD
promises Abraham that from his son Ishmael He will
make a great nation of him also. |
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Early the next morning Abraham takes some bread and
a skin of water and then gives those to Hagar. Then
he takes Ishmael to Hagar and sends them away. Hagar
roams aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the skin runs out she puts the
child down under a tree and goes far on the opposite
direction so she would not have to see her son die.
Ishmael begins to cry.
God hears the boy's cry, and sends His messenger to
tell Hagar that the LORD has heard the boy's cry.
Then God opens her eyes, and she sees a well of
water. She fills the skin with water, and then lets
the boy drink. The boy grows up with God. He lives
in the wilderness and becomes an archer. His mother
gets a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Abraham Is Put to a Test |
Hagar and Ishmael, by C.F. Vos |
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Abraham Sacrificing Isaac by Laurent De LaHire
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Some time after these events God tells Abraham to
take his only son Isaac, whom he loves, and go to
the land of Moriah. There, the LORD commands,
Abraham will offer Isaac up as a holocaust.
Early the next morning Abraham takes with him his
son Isaac, and two of his servants, and the wood
that he had cut for the holocaust. He sets out for
the place of which God had told him. On the third
day Abraham sees sight of the place from afar.
Then he tells to his servants to stay while he
and the boy go further so they will |
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worship. Then Abraham takes the wood for
the holocaust and lays it on his son Isaac's
shoulders, while he himself carries the fire and the
knife.
As the two walk on together, Isaac asks his father
Abraham where the sheep is for the holocaust.
Abraham answers that God himself will provide the
sheep for the holocaust. Then the two continue going
forward.
When they come to the place of which God had told
him, Abraham builds an altar and arranges the wood
on it. Next he ties up his son Isaac, and puts him
on top of the wood on the altar.
Then he reaches out and takes the knife to slaughter
his son. |
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But the LORD'S messenger calls to him from heaven to
not lay his hand on the boy. The messenger tells
Abraham that he now knows how devoted he is to God
since he did not hesitate to offer his own beloved
son in obedience to the LORD.
As Abraham looks about, he sees a ram caught by its
horns in the thicket. So he goes and takes the ram
and offers it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
Abraham then returns to his servants, and they set
out together to go home.
Some time afterward, the news comes to Abraham that
Milcah too has borne sons, to his brother Nahor: |
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Uz,
his first-born, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father
of Aram), Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and
Bethuel. Bethuel becomes the father of Rebekah.
These eight Milcah bore to Abraham's brother Nahor.
His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore
children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
The Death of Sarah
Sarah lives to be one hundred and twenty-seven years
old. She dies in Hebron in the land of Canaan, and
Abraham goes into mourning for her. Then he goes to
the town council to ask the Hittites that although
Abraham is an alien among them that they sell him a
piece of property for a burial ground, so he may
bury his dead wife.
After some pleading in the presence of the Hittites,
Abraham buys from Ephron, son of Zohar both the
field and the cave of Machpelah that he owns for
four hundred shekels of silver, for a burial place.
After this Abraham buries his wife Sarah in the cave
of the field of Machpelah, in the land of Canaan. |
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The Death of Abraham
Although he has other sons through his concubines,
Abraham deeds everything that he owned to his son
Isaac. To his sons by his concubines, however, he
makes grants while he was still living, as he sends
them away eastward, to the land of Kedem, away from
his son Isaac.
Abraham is one hundred and seventy-five years old
when he dies and his sons Isaac and Ishmael bury him
in the cave of Machpelah next to his wife Sarah. |
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The Navarre Bible: Pentateuch (The Navarre Bible: Old Testament)
This volume helps you make the first five
books of the Old Testament a vital part of
your spiritual reading and practical
growth in the Christian life. It contains
the full English and Latin texts of these
books, along with extensive and faithfully
Catholic commentaries. Like other volumes
in the world-renowned Navarre Bible
series, these commentaries draw on Church
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documents, the exegesis of Fathers and Doctors
of the Church, and the works of contemporary
spiritual writers — particularly St. Josemaría
Escrivá, who initiated the Navarre Bible
project. |
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Samson and Delilah and Other Old Testament Stories (Discovering the Bible) (Hardcover)
by Victoria Parker (Author), Retold by Victoria Parker (Author)
This
book provides known Bible stories from Israel in the Promised land to the Story
of Ruth. It has the stories we grew up with but it adds historical and religious
facts to each story. It tells the stories gearing them toward elementary school
children. |
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Moses
Great Lives Series: Volume 4 ,
by Charles R. Swindoll. This book presents the Bible's real Moses-the
Moses who tried to decline his assignment from God; the Moses who dazzled Pharoh;
the Moses who received the Ten Commandments; the Moses who was disobedient and
weak; the Moses who was the greatest leader of God's people in all of history.
Through his faith and selfless dedication, Moses continually chose to follow
God's will through difficult and seemingly impossible situations. |
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Jacob and Esau
by Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer
Curtiss (Paperback - Dec 30, 2005) |
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The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary
by J. A. Motyer
Recipient of a Christianity Today 1994 Critics
Choice Award! Among Old Testament prophetic books no other equals Isaiah's
brilliance of style and metaphor, its arresting vision of the Holy One of Israel
and its kaleidoscopic vision of God's future restoration of Israel and the
world. Now, after over three decades of studying and teaching Isaiah, Alec
Motyer presents a wealth of commentary and perspective on this book. |
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Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons, and Feasts
(Paperback)
by Leonard Foley (Editor), Pat McCloskey (Editor) |
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Lives of the
Saints You Should Know by Margaret R. Bunson,
Matthew E. Bunson |
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New Illustrated Book of Saints
Author: Catholic Book Publishing Company |
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One Hundred Saints: Their Lives and Likenesses
Drawn from Butler's
This is a coffee-table collection of 100
popular saints illustrated with art works taken
from international galleries. The saints are
listed alphabetically in a valuable table of
contents, with a larger list of patron saints
following the text. Inclusion is based on
popularity within the Christian world and the
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availability of
atypical art works. Entries are generally based
on the 1926-38 edition of Butler's Lives of the
Saints, with the length of each entry varying
from one-half page to several pages. Short
entries giving written insight into the lives of
pious individuals are combined with depictions
rendered by artists such as Raphael and El
Greco. An inexpensive tribute to art and faith
more appropriate for gift-giving than for
libraries. |
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Apologetics |
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Mary
and the Saints |
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Mass
and the Eucharist |
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Prayers |
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Novenas |
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The Rosary |
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Traditional Prayers:
Discover the origin of your favorite prayer. We might
even have the original Latin version, too. |
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