Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, was also, according to the Bible narrative, the restorer of the primitive belief in one true God. His history is contained in Gen. xi.-xxv.; and it is on the account there given that the Rabbinical and Mohammedan amplifications are based. Abraham, originally known as Abram, was the son of Terah, a descendant of Shem, and was born in Ur of the Chaldees. This site, long supposed to be at Edessa or elsewhere in the north of Mesopotamia, is by Schrader and most recent scholars (Tiele dissenting) identified with the ruin-mounds of El Mugheir, low down on the western side of the Euphrates. In Ur, Abraham married his half-sister Sarai (afterwards Sarah). From Ur, Terah with his family migrated up the valley of the Euphrates to Haran, in the north-west of Mesopotamia; and there Terah died. Abraham, accompanied by his nephew Lot, and apparently at the head of a numerous following, received a call from Jehovah, in obedience to which he passed west and south into Canaan, and established himself for a time at Sichem. Thence as a nomadic chief or sheikh he wandered towards the South, and was driven by famine into Egypt, where Sarah was taken by Pharaoh into his harem. A similar outrage is represented as having befallen her at the hands of Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, when well advanced in years. (See Gen. xx., and compare the story of Abimelech and Rebekah in Gen. xxvi. 9). Returning from Egypt into Southern Palestine, Abraham and Lot parted company; and Abraham pitched his tent at Mamre, near Hebron, which continued the headquarters of his family and tribe until his death. Abraham was wealthy in flocks and herds, and could bring into the field an army of his warlike nomadic tribesmen sufficiently powerful to meet and defeat four kings in battle, so as to rescue his nephew Lot when taken captive. His first-born son, Ishmael, was born to him in his 87th year by Hagar, an Egyptian slave. Jehovah appeared to him more than once; made a covenant with him, granting the land for ever to his descendants; and promised a son by his wife Sarai, whose name was changed to Sarah, as his own was from Abram to Abraham. The rite of circumcision now instituted marked the covenant people from the Canaanites. Sarah's son, Isaac, was born when her husband was 100 years old. Then came the mysterious proving of Abraham by God, when God commanded that Isaac should be offered up as a human sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah, the ram being ultimately substituted for the well-beloved son. Sarah died, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, in a patch of ground bought by Abraham; and afterwards, apparently when he was upwards of 130 years of age, Abraham married Keturah, and became the father of six sons by her. On his death, at the age of 175, he was buried beside Sarah in the cave.
His life, apart from his special covenant relations, is that of a wealthy and powerful oriental pastoral chief, dignified and generous, true to his word, loyal to his kindred, devoted and faithful to his God. Jews and Christians alike accept him as the type of perfect faith and true religion, 'the friend of God; ' 'Ibrahim' is, for all good Moslems, the 'father of the faithful.' Numerous non-scriptural traditions add little of importance to the picture given in Genesis, and completed by allusions in the later Scriptures; though the Mohammedans tell many picturesque tales to illustrate his character; bring Abraham to Mecca to build the Kaaba (q.v.), and believe his remains to have been covered by the famous mosque near Hebron. The later Jews and Mohammedans select Abraham as the incarnation of perfect wisdom, and attribute to him the invention of writing. He was regarded as the ancestor not merely of the Israelites and the Ishmaelite Arabs, but of the other races in Northern Arabia, of Edomites (through Esau), and Midianites.
The name Abram means probably 'high father; ' the interpretation given to Abraham, 'father of a multitude of nations,' is possibly not an etymological explanation. The date of his arrival in Canaan has been very variously computed. Bunsen put it so far back as 2866 B.C., and Lipsius as late as 1730-1700 B.C. If recent Assyrian scholars are right in identifying Ariocho, the king of Ellasar, defeated by Abraham, with Eri-aku, king of Larsa, who reigned in 2120 B.C. according to the inscriptions, then the date of Abraham's coming into Canaan would be very near that proposed by Hales, 2153 B.C. Von Bohlen, Dozy, Bernstein, and Goldziher try to prove Abraham a myth; others have compared him with Brahma and Buddha. See Ewald, Schrader, and commentaries on Genesis by Delitzsch, Dillmann, and others; and Montefiore's Hubert Lectures (1893).