Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/69

Rh ABRAHAM 53 peoples, and among the Hebrews themselves at least before Moses. The cause of Terah s removing from his native country is not given. Having come to Haran, he abode there till his death, at the age of 205. According to Genesis xii., Abram left Haran when he was 75 years of age, that is, before the death of his father, in consequence of a divine command, to which was annexed a gracious promise, &quot; 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 &quot; (xii. 2, 3). Another tradition makes him leave Haran only after Terah s decease (Acts vii. 4). The later account is that Abram s departure was the result of religious considerations, because he had already become emancipated from surrounding idolatry. Perhaps the desire of a nomadic life, the love of migration natural to an Oriental, had more to do with his pilgrimage than a spiritual impulse from within ; but it is likely that his culture advanced in the course of his sojournings, and that he gradually attained to purer conceptions of duty and life. Traditions subsequent to the Jehovistic represent him as driven forth by the idolatrous Chaldeans (Judith v. 6, &c.) on account of his monotheistic doctrines, and then dwelling in Damascus as its king (Josephus s Anti quities, i. 7). The true caiise of departure may be sug gested by Nicolaus of Damascus saying that he came out of Chalclea with an army. The leader of a horde, worsted in some encounter or insurrection, he emigrated at the head of his adherents in quest of better fortunes. The word redeemed, in Isaiah xxix. 22, out of which Ewald conjectures so much, as if Abram had been rescued from great bodily dangers and battles, does not help the portrait, because it means no more than the patriarch s migration from heathen Mesopotamia into the Holy Land. Journey ing south-west to Canaan with his wife and nephew, he arrived at Sichem, at the oak of the seer or prophet, where Jehovah appeared to him, assuring him for the first time that his seed should possess the land he had come to. He travelled thence southward, pitching his tent east of Bethel. Still proceeding in the same direction, he arrived at the Negeb, or most southern district of Palestine, whence a famine forced him down to Egypt. His plea that Sarai was his sister did not save her from Pharaoh ; for she was taken into the royal harem, but restored to her husband in consequence of divine chastisments inflicted upon the lawless possessor of her person, leading to the discovery of her true relationship. The king was glad to send the patriarch away under the escort and protection of his men. A similar thing is said to have subsequently happened to Sarai at Gerar with the Philistine king Abimelech (Genesis xx.), as also to Rebekah, Isaac s wife (xxvi.) The three narratives describe one and the same event in different shapes. But the more original (the junior Elohistic) 1 is that of the 20th chapter, so that Gerar was the scene, and Abimelech the offender; while the later Jehovistic narrative (xii.) deviates still more from veri similitude. Though this occurrence, however, belongs to the southern borders of Palestine, we need not doubt the fact of Abram s sojourn in Egypt, especially as he had an Egyptian slave (Genesis xvi.) How long the patriarch remained there is not related ; nor are the influences which the religion, science, and learning of that civilised land had upon him alluded to. That they acted beneficially upon his mind, enlightening and enlarging it, can scarcely be doubted. His religious conceptions were transformed. 1 Three documents at least are traceable in the Pentateuch ; the Elohistic, the junior Elohistic, and the Jehovistic. These were put together by a redactor. Nearly the whole of the fifth book was s.lded by the Deuteronomiat. The manifold wisdom of Egypt impressed him. Inter course with men far advanced in civilisation taught him much. Later tradition speaks of his communicating to the Egyptians the sciences of arithmetic and astronomy (Josephus i. 7) ; but this is founded upon the notion entertained at the time of the civilised Chaldeans of Babylon, whereas Ur of the Chaldees was a district remote from the subsequent centre of recondite knowledge. Abram received more than he imparted, for the Egyptians were doubtless his superiors in science. He found the rite of circumcision in use. There, too, he acquired great substance flocks and herds, male and female slaves. After returning to Canaan, to his former locality, Abram and Lot separated, because of disputes between their herdsmen, there not being sufficient room for all their cattle in common. After this separation the possession of Canaan was again assured to Abram and to his seed, who should be exceedingly numerous. This is the third theocratic promise he received. He is also commanded by Jehovah to walk through it in its length and breadth as a token of inheritance, a later Jehovistic tradition that must be judged according to its inherent verisimilitude. Abram settled again at the oak of Mamre near Hebron. This was his headquarters. After Lot had been taken prisoner in the expedition of the kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam, and Goyim, against the old inhabitants of Basan, Ammonitis, Moabitis, Edomitis, and others besides, Abram gave chase to the enemy, accompanied by his 318 slaves and friendly neighbours, rescuing his nephew at Hobah, near Damascus. On his return, the royal priest Melchizedek of Salem came forth to meet him with refreshments, blessed the patriarch, and received from him the tithe of the spoils. The king acted generously towards the victor, and was still more generously treated in return. Jehovah again promised to Abram a numerous offspring, with the possession of Canaan. He also concluded a covenant with him in a solemn form, and revealed the fortunes of his posterity in Egypt, with their deliverance from bondage. In consequence of the barrenness of Sarai, she gave her handmaid Hagar to Abram, who, becoming pregnant by him, was haughtily treated by her mistress, and fled towards Egypt. But an angel met her in the desert and sent her back, telling of a numerous race that should spring from her. Having returned, she gave birth to Ishmael, in the 86th year of Abram s age. Again did Jehovah appear to the patriarch, promising as before a multitudinous seed, and changing his name in conformity with siich promise. He assured him and his posterity of the possession of Canaan, and concluded a covenant with him for all time. At the institution of circumcision on this occasion, Sarai s name was also changed, because she was to be the maternal progenitor of the covenant people through Isaac her son. Abram, and all the males belonging to him, were then circumcised. He had become acquainted with the rite in Egypt, and trans ferred it to his household, making it a badge of distinction between the worshippers of the true God and the idolatrous Canaanites the symbol of the flesh s subjection to the spirit. Its introduction into the worship of the colony at Mamre indicated a decided advance in Abram s religious conceptions. He had got beyond the cruel practice of human sacrifice. The gross worship of the Canaanites was left behind; and the small remnant of it which he retained com ported with a faith approaching monotheism. Amid pre vailing idolatry this institution was a protection to his family and servants a magic circle drawn around them. But, though powerful and respected wherever his name was known, he confined the rite to his own domestics, without attempting to force it on the inhabitants of the land where he sojourned. The punishment of death