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Abraham....
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The original form of the name, Abram, is apparently the
Assyrian Abu-ramu.
It is doubtful if the usual meaning attached to that word "lofty father",
is correct. The meaning given to Abraham in
Genesis 17:5 is popular word
play, and the real meaning is unknown. The Assyriologist, Hommel suggests
that in the Minnean dialect, the Hebrew letter ("h") is written for
long a. Perhaps here we may have the real derivation of the word, and
Abraham may be only a dialectical form of Abram.
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The story of Abraham is contained in the Book of
Genesis,
11:26 to 25:18. We shall first give a brief outline of the Patriarch's life,
as told in that portion of Genesis, then we shall in succession discuss the
subject of Abraham from the viewpoints of the Old Testament,
New Testament,
profane history, and legend. Abraham is considered to be as the father of
the three monolithic religions Judaism,
Islam and Christianity.
He is such a big historical and spiritual important figure that need to
be studied. Abraham a name used by Muslims, Christians and Jews in
Jerusalem. We could learn a lot from the life
of Abraham especially about god promises to us for our daily and divine
purposes. |
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Coming now to look at the light thrown by profane history
upon the stories of Abraham's life as given in
Genesis, we have, first of
all, the narratives of ancient historians, as Nicholas of Damascus, Berosus,
Hecateus, and the like. Nicholas of Damascus tells how Abraham,
when he left Chaldea lived for some years in Damascus. In fact in Josephus he is said to
have been the fourth king of that city. |
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Abraham sacrificing his
son Issac
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But then there is no practical doubt that this story is
based on the words of Genesis, xiv, 15, in which the town of Damascus is
mentioned. As to the great man whom Josephus mentions as spoken of by Berosus, there is nothing to show that that great man was
Abraham. In the
"Praeparatio Evang." of Eusebius there are extracts recorded from numerous
ancient writers, but no historical value can be attached to them. In fact,
as far as ancient historians are concerned, we may say that all we know
about Abraham is contained in the book of
Genesis. |
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