Abraham
in Hebrew lore, the father of the Israelites and of the Arabian tribes. According to Genesis xii, he and his immediate household left home and kindred in heathen Mesopotamia and journeyed westward to the Holy Land under a divine command, coupled with a gracious promise, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Some Bible critics are pleased to believe that Abraham was a military leader at the head of a band of nomadic followers, or that he was a mythical personage whose experience at the oak of Mamre, at Hebron, and in Egypt, typifies the early wanderings of the Semitic race. The release of his son Isaac from the altar, and the offering of a ram instead, may indeed be symbolical of the national change from human sacrifice to that of animals; but there is no reason to suppose that Abraham is not in some degree an historical personage, around whom more or less legendary accounts have gathered. The Bible story certainly loses in the reading by regarding Abraham as other than "an honest, peaceable, generous, highminded patriarch; a prince, rich, powerful, and honored, fitted for rule, and exercising power with prudence." Historians place the migration of Abraham, founder of the Hebrew race, at about 2000 B. C.
The entire Biblical narrative, to the day when Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah and buried Sarah there, fits in admirably with what we know of Arabic life and manners, and could be identified with southwestern Asia were all mention of place omitted. At all events the Hebrews and Arabs are closely related in language, literary ideals, features, and in many respects intellectually. Whether they are descended from Isaac and Ishmael and the six other sons of Abraham, or whether the Abraham of Scripture refers to an individual ancestor or to a parent people that migrated westward, the Bible story loses none of its interest or instructiveness.