His original name was Abram and he changed it to Abraham when his covenant with Melchizedek took on a formal aspect. [1] Indeed, three celestial beings appeared to him. [2] Abraham was an ancestor of Joseph, the father of Jesus. [3] He was born at Ur, but left because of sun worship settled there. [4]
During his stay in Egypt he found a distant relative on the Egyptian throne and served as the commander of two very successful military expeditions for this king. [5]
During the latter part of their stay on the edge of the Nile, Abraham and his wife Sarah lived at court, and when they left Egypt, they received a share of the spoils from their Egyptian military campaigns. [6] It is political rather than religious circumstances that facilitated Abraham's promotion of the Salem teachings in Egypt. [7]
He ambitioned to become king and planned to subdue all of Canaan under the rule of Salem. [8] Abraham's nephew Lot lived in Sodom and was attacked by his enemies. Abraham took the opportunity to attack Lot's enemies with an army of 4000 men. [9]
The sacrifice of Isaac, while shocking to today's mindset, was a kind of common practice in Abraham's time, but ultimately not performed by the patriarch. [10] Abraham was a wealthy and shrewd businessman, who although not overly pious was sincere and a complete believer in Melchizedek. [11] Was slow to renounce the household gods that he and his relatives brought with them from Ur in Chaldea. [12] In time he became the spiritual leader of all surrounding tribes. [13] After his victory over Chedorlaomer Abraham felt compelled to perform a conventional blood sacrifice. [14]
He was afraid someone would kill him to get Sarah, his brilliant wife. [15]
Keturah and Hagar were not Abraham's wives as Genesis tells us, but they were concubines. Sarah was the only legal wife and both were much younger than the accounts say, that what they tried to do is to highlight the miraculous appearance of the birth of Isaac, the son of Abraham. [16] He married his stepsister, a very common custom then. [17]
He believed halfheartedly in the covenant with Melchizedek, the idea of salvation solely by faith without the intervention of sacrifices or priests. [18]
Abraham was justified by faith in the sense that he realized that his salvation was assured thanks to following the teachings of Melchizedek and not by ritualism. [19] Melchizedek charged Abraham to keep alive the truth of one God instead of many. [20] Melchizedek revealed Most High observer to Abraham, the Vorondadek Son that actually “rules in the kingdoms of men.”. [21] Melchizedek’s became one of most brilliant pupils of Melchisedek, and chief supporter. [22] Abraham gave up his idea of conquering Canaan and becoming king in favor of Melchizedek's idea of a spiritual kingdom. [23] Introduced the tithing system into the teachings of Melchizedek. [24] He became fearful and timid after Melchizedek's disappearance. [25]
Abraham's offspring formed the nucleus of the later Jewish people, but the bulk of the Jewish people were simply nomads who joined the cause of Moses. [26]
The Jews abrogated the Melchizedek covenant with Abraham by having put away the Son of God. The existing plan to turn the lineage of the children of Abraham into the bearers of truth in the world was shattered. [27] Believed that national history began with Abraham even though Abraham was not the racial father of all Jews. [28]
They tried to trace the genealogy of Abraham back to Adam, without success, which led them to introduce the flood and the sons of Noah as descendants of Abraham. [29] Jews in Jesus' time considered Abraham to have ordained oral law and traditions, and had true reverence for both. [30]
Jesus said once “children of Abraham do works of Abraham”, accusing his contemporaries of not being consistent even with their own faith. [31]
In the parable of Jesus of Dives the rich man and Lazarus the beggar, the first was taken to Hades or hell and the second to Abraham's bosom, where there Dives begs Abraham to send someone into the world. [32] Jesus once openly declared to his listeners that he existed prior to Abraham. [33] Jesus declared that Abraham saw through faith how a day would come when Jesus would come into the world and was glad for it. [34]
Jesus once declared that the prophets who came from the seed of Abraham would one day sit alongside Gentile believers in a glorified kingdom, clearly indicating to his generation that salvation would not be exclusive to the Jewish people. [35]
John the Baptist told his contemporaries that “God can raise up children of Abraham from the stones,” warning them against believing themselves justified before God by their mere descent. [36]
See also: UB 93:5; UB 126:1.2.