Abraham: his life and times
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| Abraham |
Blend of faith and scholarship
The book is both devotional and analytical. Deane wants to strengthen belief in Abraham’s story, but also failed to demonstrate enough critical thinking,Deane is retelling sacred stories with added historical color and theological pride,
The materials for the facts of the life of Abraham are found in Holy Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, and in some of the later writings. I have taken it for granted that these statements are authentic, and have not thought it necessary to follow Ewald and his school in distinguishing the various authors of them, assigning this to "the Book of Origins," and that to the First narrator, and that to the Second, and so on. Nor have I esteemed the details thus given as accretions that have grown up around a great central figure in the lapse of centuries, the outcome of hero-worship, the result of the natural desire to accumulate on a great forefather anything that would tend to elevate his personal character or exalt the favour with which he was regarded by God.
The narrative appears to me to be, consistent, derived doubtless from different sources, but worked up by the compiler into a fairly complete biography, which, taken in conjunction with hints afforded by the later Scriptures, leaves on the mind a finished picture of the " Father of the Faithful." Accessory to the Scripture account are the history of Josephus and some treatises of Philo, which contain additional facts more or less mythical, derived from certain records or Jewish traditions. Eusebius in his " Praeparatio Evangelica," adds some circum- stances, and a. few of the Fathers afford a little further information, Ephraem Syrus is said to have composed a work on Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, which however, if existing in MS., has not been published. A plentiful crop of legends has, as was natural, risen around the true story of this celebrated man.
Many of these will be found in " The Book of Jubilees," which under the name of Kvfale has been discovered in an Abyssinian dress, and translated in Ewald's "Jahrbucber," ii. and iii. The most copious collection, however, gathered from the Talmud and other sources, has been made by Beer in his " Leben Abraham's nach Auffassung der jiidischen Sage."
The Koran has contributed largely to this legendary lore. Other Mussulman traditions are found in Weil's work, "The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud." Immense assistance to understanding the various phases of the Patriarch's life has been derived from the inter- predations of the cuneiform inscriptions of the East and the hieroglyphs of. Egypt, embodied in the works of Schrader, G. Smith, Rawlmson, Sayce, Brugsch, and others. Topography is cleared by the travels of Robinson, Thomson, Stanley, Tristram, Loftus, Porter, Malan, etc., and the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The commentaries of Kalisch; Delitzsch, and especially Dillmann (ed. 1886), afford the most valuable information. Of monographs on this subject very few exist. The best and most recent is that by Dr. Oswald Dykes, " Abraham, the Friend of God. The Rev. R. Allen's work, " Abraham; His Life and Times, as by a Contemporary," is a romance founded on reliable ^materials, but extending only to the arrival at Haran. The Rev. H. Blunt published some " Lectures on Abraham " in 1831, and the Hon. L. J. Barrington a book entitled " but these are rather homiletic and edificatory than scientific. It is almost unnecessary to add that the Dictionaries of the Bible, such as those of Herzog, Winer, Smith, Kitto, and McClintock and Strong, contain epitomes of the most necessary information, with references to other works which bear on the subject.
Table of Contents( most contents)
Chapter I — Abram’s Birthplace – p.1
Ur of the Chaldees: its aspect, former fertility, religion of its inhabitants, population, civilization. Abram’s birth and family. Selection of a centre of true religion. Legends of Abram’s early life and the truth underlying such myths.
Chapter II — First Call – p.15
Causes of the migration. The call and its nature. Abram’s obedience. Journey from Ur to Haran. Erech, Calneh, Babylon, Sepharvaim, Ivah, Hena, the river Habor. Haran and its neighbourhood. Arrival of Nahor. Death of Terah.
Chapter III — Second Call – p.25
The second call with its promise. Departure from Haran and necessity of this movement. Route to Canaan: Tadmor, Kuryetein, Damascus. Arrival in Canaan. Encampment at Moreh. Shechem described.
Chapter IV — The Promised Land – p.33
Canaan: the name and language then spoken. Its inhabitants: aborigines, Canaanites proper, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Philistines. Their religion. Fertility and natural features of the country. Characteristics of the Canaanitish tribes. The Fellaheen. Abram’s life and new promise. Selection of Canaan as the cradle of true religion. Bethel.
Chapter V — Egypt – p.47
Famine in Canaan. Abram in Egypt. Condition of that country. The Hyksos and their civilization. Abram’s policy. Sarai taken.
Chapter VI — Separation – p.56
Return to Canaan. Lot separates from Abram. The Cities of the Plain. Renewal of promise at Bethel. Residence at Hebron. Description of the locality. Hittite allies.
Chapter VII — Chedorlaomer – p.63
Invasion from Shinar. Kings engaged. Chedorlaomer’s expedition against the West. Battle in the Vale of Siddim. Defeat of the Sodomites and capture of Lot. His rescue by Abram. Dan. The King of Sodom. Melchizedek: Abram’s dealings with him, his office and typical character.
Chapter VIII — The Covenant – p.76
A vision bringing comfort. Promise of a son and numerous posterity. Abram’s faith counted for righteousness. Jehovah’s covenant with him: nature and mode of ratification. Prophecy of the future. Chronology of the four hundred years. Dispossession and destruction of the Canaanites. Boundaries of the Promised Land. Tribes to be dispossessed.
Chapter IX — Hagar and Circumcision – p.85
Sarai’s impatience. She gives Hagar to Abram as secondary wife. Concubinage. Hagar as a type. Her flight and meeting with the angel of the Lord. Promise of a son. Character of the Ishmaelites. Ishmael born. Renewal of the covenant. Abram’s name changed. Extension of the promise. Circumcision: its nature and signification. The numbers “seven” and “eight.” Sarai’s name changed. Promise of a son from her.
Chapter X — Sodom – p.103
Three heavenly visitors. Renewed promise of a son to Sarah. Abraham intercedes for Sodom. Ramet‑el‑Khali. Destruction of the Cities of the Plain. Testimonies of ancient writers. Physical agents of the catastrophe. Site of the five cities. Treatment of the angels in Sodom. Lot saved. Lot’s wife. Catastrophe widely reported. Subsequent history of Lot.
Reading from Chapter XIV — Isaac’s Marriage
The choice of a wife for Isaac was a matter of deep concern. The gap in the home circle made by Sarah’s death was not quickly filled. Her son’s gentle spirit felt the loss keenly, and even after three years he still dwelt with tender melancholy on her virtues. Abraham, however, thought it time to rouse him to new interests. Isaac was now forty years old, and yet had never contemplated marriage, nor considered how the great promise made to his father’s seed was to be fulfilled.
Abraham determined that his son’s wife must not be taken from the idolatrous tribes around him. Religious motives forbade such contamination, and the ties of clanship disposed him to seek a bride from his own family. He remembered his brother Nahor’s household in Haran, where Bethuel had a daughter named Rebekah. Thinking of this family in his old home, Abraham resolved to send his chief servant — perhaps Eliezer of Damascus — to secure a wife for Isaac.
The steward was charged with two conditions: first, that he must take a wife from Abraham’s kindred, not from the Canaanites; second, that he must never bring Isaac back to the land from which God had called him. The first stipulation kept the holy seed free from pollution by alien blood; the second upheld Abraham’s faith in God’s promise to give Canaan as an inheritance.
The cautious steward asked what he should do if the woman refused to accompany him. Abraham replied that he only required him to do his best, and if she declined, the mission would be considered complete — but Isaac must never return to his forefathers’ land. On these terms the steward swore a solemn oath, placing his hand under Abraham’s thigh, a symbolic act invoking posterity as witnesses and avengers of any breach of trust.
Great preparations were made for the mission. Abraham assured his servant that the Lord’s angel would go with him, and gave him full permission to take what was needed. A caravan was formed, with ten camels laden with gifts and provisions. The steward journeyed by the route Abraham had taken sixty‑five years earlier, or perhaps by the shorter passage across the uplands of Gilead, through the Hauran, past Tadmor, until he reached the city of Nahor in Aram‑Naharaim, known later as Mesopotamia.
Arriving at Haran, where Nahor’s family had settled, the steward halted at evening by a well outside the town. There he made his camels kneel, removed their loads, and prepared to seek the sign that would reveal Isaac’s destined bride.
Author: Deane, W. J. (William John), 1823-1895
Publication date: 1888
Company:New York Chicago [etc.] : Revell
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