Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/70

Rh 54 ABRAHAM for neglecting it, because the uncircumcised person was thought to be a breaker of the covenant and a despiser of its Author, seems a harsh measure on the part of Abram; yet it can hardly be counted an arbitrary trans ference of the later Levitical severities to the progenitor of, the race, since it is in the Elohist. Accompanied by two angels, Jehovah appeared again to Abram at the oak of Mamre, accepted his proposed hospi tality, and promised him a son by Sarai within a year. Though she laughed incredulously, the promise was definitely repeated. When the angels left, Jehovah communicated to Abram the divine purpose of destroying the dwellers in Siddim because of their wickedness, but acceded to the patriarch s intercession, that the cities of the plain should be spared if ten righteous men could be found in them. The two angels, who had gone before, arrived at Sodom in the evening, and were entertained by Lot, but threatened with shameful treatment by the depraved inhabitants. Seeing that the vengeance of Heaven was deserved, they proceeded to execute it, saving Lot with his wife and two daughters, and sparing Zoar as a place of refuge for them. Jehovah rained down fire and brimstone from heaven, turning all the Jordan district to desolation, so that when Abram looked next morning from the spot where Jehovah and himself had parted, he saw a thick smoke ascend from the ruins. Abram then journeyed from Hebron to the Negeb, settled between Kadesh and Shur in Gerar, where Sarai is said to have been treated as a prior account makes her to have been .in Egypt. At the patriarch s prayer the plague inflicted on the king and his wives was removed. This is a duplicate of the other story. Whatever historical truth the present nar rative has belongs to an earlier period of Abram s life. His second removal to Gerar originated in the former journeying through it into Egypt. He must have remained in the neigh bourhood of Hebron, his first settlement, where Isaac was /&quot;born according to the Elohistic account. After the birth of
 * the legitimate heir, succeeding events were the expulsion of

.Hagar and Ishmael from the paternal home, and the making of a covenant between Abimelech and Abram at Beersheba. Here Abram &quot; called on the name of the Lord,&quot; and is said to have planted a noted tamarisk in commemoration of the event. Abram was now commanded by God to offer up Isaac in the land of Moriah. Proceeding to obey, he was prevented by an angel just as he was about to slay his son, and sacrificed a ram that presented itself at the time. In reward of his obedience he received the promise of a numer- ous seed and abundant prosperity. Thence he returned to Beersheba, Sarai died and was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron, which Abram purchased, with the adjoining field, from Ephron the Hittite. The measures taken by the patriarch for the marriage of Isaac are circumstantially described. His steward Eliezer was sent to the country and kindred of Abram to find a suitable bride, which he did in Haran, whither he was divinely conducted. Rebekah appeared as the intended one; she parted from Bethuel and her family Avith their full approbation, was brought to Isaac, and became a maternal ancestor of the chosen ,. people. It is curious that, after Sarah s death, Abram should have contracted a second marriage with Keturah, and begotten six sons. The Chronicles, however, make her .his concubine (1 Chrou. i. 32), so that these children may have been born earlier. Probably the narrative intends to account for the diffusion of Abram s posterity in Arabia, Keturah s sons were sent away with gifts from their home into Arabia, and all the father s substance was given .to Isaac. The patriarch died at the age of 175 years, and was buried by Isaac and Ishmael beside Sarai in Machpelah. The book of Genesis gives two lists of Arab tribes, descended partly from Abram and Keturah, partly from him and Hagar or Ishmael. These dwelt in Arabia Deserta and Petraea, as also in the northern half of Arabia Felix. 1. We cannot adopt the opinion of Von Bold en and Dozy that Abram is a mythical person. He must be regarded as a historical character, though the accounts of his life have mythical elements intermingled with much that is tradi tional or legendary. The difficulty of separating the historic from the merely traditional, hinders the presentation of a natural portrait. Later legends have invested him with ex traordinary excellence. They have made him a worshipper of Jehovah, a prophet, the friend of God, favoured with visible manifestations of His presence, and receiving repeated promises of the most far-reaching character. He is the typical ancestor of the chosen race, living under the constant guidance of God, prospering in worldly goods, delivered from imminent perils. A superhuman halo surrounds him. It is the Jehovist in particular who invests him with the marvellous and improbable, con necting him with altars and sacrifices a cultus posterior to both his time and mental development making him the subject of theophanies, talking familiarly to Jehovah himself, and feeding angels with flesh. The Elohist s descriptions are simpler. His patriarchs are usually colour less men, upright and plain. They have neither char acteristic features nor distinct outline. Abram stands out an honest, peaceable, generous, high-minded patriarch; a prince, rich, powerful, and honoured, fitted for rule, and exercising it Avith prudence. We need not expect a full history of the man from writers long posterior, the representatives of popular traditions. Only fragments of the life are given, designed to shoAv his greatness. Legend assigned ideal lineaments to the progenitor whom a remote antiquity shrouded with its hoary mantle, and thus he became a model worthy of imitation. 2. The biblical sources of his biography are three at least; and sometimes all appear in a single chapter, as in Gen. xxii., Avhich describes the severest trial of faith. The oldest or Elohim-document is seen in verses 20-24, Avhich link on to chap. xxi. 2-5, from the same. The rest of the chapter belongs to the junior Elohist, except verses 14-18, added by the Jehovist to connect Abram s sacrifice Avith Jerusalem. These different documents, out of which the general narrative was finally put together by a redactor, create diversities and contradictions. Thus the Elohist makes Abram laugh at the announcement of a son by Sarai (xvii. 17); the Jehovist, jealous for the patriarch s honour, assigns the laughter to the woman as a sign of incredulity (xviii. 12). 3. The account of the change of names given to Abram and Sarai when circumcision was instituted, cannot be regarded as historical. The Elohist says that Abram became Abraham, the latter meaning father of much people. But the Hebrew tongue has no word rahdm, and no root Avith the three letters Dm. Hence the Jews found the etymo logy a puzzle. 1 The old reading Avas undoubtedly Abram and Sarai, though the later JCAVS expressly forbade Abram either in speaking or writing. The difference is one of mere orthography. The forms cm and Dll are cognate ones, as are nu? and ,-pltf- The etymologising propensity of the Elohist is well known. The names signify father of height and princess respectively. 4. The religion of Abram was not pure Jehovism. Ac cording to Exodus A r i. 3, the name Jehovah was unknown before Moses. Pure Jehovism Avas a groAvth not reached 1 See Beer s Lcbcn Abraham s, pp. 150, 151.