In the Old Testament we get to see the things Abraham says and does.
I'd like at some point to discuss the concept of faith in a general way. And I thought this would be a good foundation for that eventual conversation, to see if Jews and Christians think about this character and this concept in a similar way (and of course we are most interested in what non Jews and Christians think as well).
Some of the questions I have are:
How do the Jews primarily think about Abraham. Is it in terms of his response to God? What do you say about it?
What was so special about Abraham that God spoke to him out of everyone? Was there something special? Can we know what it was?
How would we characterize Abraham's response to God? Do we agree that 'faithful' describes it, or is there some other way we would primarily characterize the kind of person Abraham was and the kind of attitude toward and relationship with God he had?
The first mention of Abraham (then Abram) is in Chapter 11 of Genesis. I have what's called the New King James version of the Bible. This is Gen. Chap. 11:27 through Chap. 12:9:
I note that Abram's brother, Nahor, marries the daughter of his dead brother Haran, and that God tells Abram to go away from his family, but he ends up accompanied by the son of his dead brother. It occurs to me that both of these things might reflect some cultural imperative for looking out for the children of deceased siblings.27This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot.
28And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
30But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.
32So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years. and Terah died in Haran.
12
1Now the Lord had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father's house,
To a land that I will show you.
2I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
4So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
6Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land."
And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
So what do people think about Abram from these passages? What strikes you? What do people think about God from these passages? What strikes you? Do they tell us anything about faith?
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- I could imagine that the author took his reading (about trust) from Abraham saying to Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice. However, I'd always taken this to have been just a lie to calm the child. If the interpretation, however, is as I just said, it would be very interesting, although I couldn't yet say whether I think it's correct.