Abraham (from Hebrew “father of the multitude”) - the biblical patriarch, the ancestor of the chosen people, called to preserve the true religion. The story of his life is told in Gen. 11, 26-25, 10, to which Philo, I. Flavius ​​and other Jewish writers make insignificant additions. He was the eldest son of Terah, born in Ur, a Chaldean city identified with the present Mugair on the western bank of the Euphrates, between Babylon and the Persian Gulf. He was married to his half-sister Sarah, who was ten years younger than him. His father's family, under the influence of the environment, had already become infected with idolatry; not wanting, however, to completely lose the faith of his fathers, he set out to move to Canaan (Gen. 11, 31, 15, 7; Neh. 9, 7), but only got as far as Harran, where Terah died. Then God appeared to Abram (as Abraham was first called), commanded him to leave Harran and go to the land of Canaan, where he would be the founder of a great nation. Abram, being then 75 years old, obeyed, took his childless wife and his nephew Lot, with all his servants and household (about 2,000 people in total) and with all his property went to the land indicated to him, where he stayed near Shechem in the oak grove of Moreh . There the Lord appeared to him again and promised to give all this land to his descendants. The ensuing famine prompted him to move to Egypt, to this land of wonders. Since Egypt was widely known throughout the world at that time, Abram was probably partly familiar with the nature of the government and the morals of the country. Therefore, when entering it, he found it necessary to take some precautions. So, knowing the boundless arbitrariness and despotic character of her kings, the pharaohs, he agreed with Sarah so that she would pretend to be only his sister, since otherwise, if the pharaoh liked her, the Egyptians would kill her husband (which actually happened, as they show monuments of ancient Egypt). The precaution was not in vain. Pharaoh liked the beautiful Sarah, and he took her into his house, and endowed his imaginary brother-in-law with rich gifts, “flocks and herds, and donkeys, and male and female slaves, and mules and camels.” But “the Lord struck Pharaoh with heavy blows because of Sarai Abram’s wife,” so that he was forced to return her to her husband, and ordered them to leave their country. Abram returned to Canaan very rich, but various misadventures and troubles began there again, and only thanks to his generosity, he settled the troubles he had with his nephew Lot (Gen. 13, 14). At this time, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, invaded the valley of Sodom (Gen. 14), and, having captured enormous booty, he took away, along with other captives, Abram’s nephew, Lot. When news of such a disaster for his nephew reached Abram, he immediately armed his household, numbering 318 people, and, in alliance with neighboring friendly tribes, rushed in pursuit of the enemy. Having overtaken him at Dan, in the northern part of Palestine, on the second day at night, he attacked the careless victors, defeated them, put them to flight, freed all the captives along with Lot, returned the taken property to everyone, further refusing the gifts brought to him in gratitude for the liberation by the king of Sodom. The return from this victory was marked by a very remarkable event (Gen. 14: 17 - 23). Melchizedek, king of Salem, came out to meet him, among others, with bread and wine. He was at the same time "priest of the Most High God," and he blessed Abram in the name of the Most High God, and Abram gave him a tenth of everything. - Years after years passed, and Abram's faith in God's promise that he would have a son was tested more and more, since Sarah was still barren. And yet he did not doubt this promise. On the advice of Sarah, he took her maid Hagar, an Egyptian, as his concubine, and she bore him a son, Ishmael. Then he was 86 years old. But Ishmael was not the promised son. In the 99th year, God again appeared to Abram, and solemnly renewed the promise to him, and changed his name from Abram to Abraham, and the name of Sarah ("noble") to the name of Sarah ("queen"). As a sign of the reliability of God's promise, the rite of circumcision was established, and this rite was performed on Abraham himself, Ishmael and all his household. Then the promise of a son was confirmed to Sarah by one of the three angels who appeared to Abraham in the form of strangers, although she accepted this promise with a smile of doubt. At this time, the Lord revealed to Abraham about the impending destruction of the cities of the Sodom Valley. The intercession of Abraham (Gen. 18:23-33) is one of the most touching events in biblical history. But since there were not even ten righteous people in the criminal cities, Sodom and the cities allied with it were destroyed. It is very likely that as a result of the destruction of these cities, Abraham moved to Gerar, south of Canaan, and there the same incident happened to him as in Egypt (see Abimelech). A year later, when Abraham was already 100 years old and Sarah was 90, their long-awaited son was finally born and was named Isaac (“laughter”). The jealousy that arose between Sarah and Hagar served as the reason for the latter's expulsion. God's plan required complete separation between the chosen seed and the worldly. Then came the final test of the patriarch's faith, which was the most difficult - namely, the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22). Having courageously withstood this test of his faith, Abraham finally testified to the steadfastness of his faith in God and His promises. From this time on, Abraham's life proceeded calmly. Sarah died at the age of 127, and he buried her in one plot that he acquired as his own - in the cave of Machpelah, in Hebron - which plot he bought from Ephron, a Hittite. At Abraham's request, Isaac took a wife from his relatives in Mesopotamia. Then Abraham also married Keturah, with whom he had six sons; but these sons did not have an equal share with the son of promise (Gen. 25:6). The elderly patriarch was happy that while his son Isaac was still alive, sons Esau and Jacob were born, and only fifteen years after their birth Abraham, already 175 years old, “was gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:7, 8). Among the chosen vessels of God there were many great and righteous men, but above them, in his faith and righteousness, stands the spiritual ancestor of the human race, the “father of believers” and “friend of God,” Patriarch Abraham. His whole life shows that his faith was not a simple external confession, but the active beginning of his entire existence. Truly he was the father of believers. He never had any doubts about the words and promises of God, even if their fulfillment seemed completely impossible to the human mind. “By faith,” says the apostle, Abraham, being tempted, sacrificed Isaac, his only begotten son, from whom all the descendants promised to him were to come. For he thought that God was able to raise him from the dead” (Heb. 11, 17, 19 ). The expression that he “believed in the Lord” has never been applied to anyone with such force, that is, he completely trusted in Him, calming his spirit in this faith, like a child resting in the arms of his mother. And such faith was counted to him as righteousness, because it provided the main source from which righteousness can arise. “Abraham obeyed the voice of the Lord, kept His commandments, statutes and laws” (Gen. 26:5). Hence, he will forever remain the highest example of a believer, and from his example people of all nations and centuries can draw inspiration from the holy feelings of faith, hope and love. It is not for nothing that his memory is sacredly revered by the peoples of the three greatest religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Ancient Jewish traditions praise the extraordinary knowledge and wisdom of Abraham, and say that he was the teacher of monotheism among the Chaldeans, and was the first to teach astronomy and mathematics to the Egyptians. His name is still preserved in the memory of the Arabs, who call him El-Khalil, friend (of God).

There are several events and facts associated with the story of Abraham that require more detailed presentation and explanation. These are 1) the reasons for the calling of Abraham and his resettlement to Canaan; 2) the sacrifice of Isaac and 3) the facts that serve as the subject of objections from rationalist criticism.

I. Reasons for the calling of Abraham. There were several such reasons, and the first of them was the religious reason, which consisted in God’s intention to save Abraham from idolatry and make him the ancestor of the chosen people. After their scattering, the descendants of Noah, growing into tribes and various peoples and moving away from one another, little by little forgot the original traditions and the God who revealed himself to their forefathers. The concept of the true God became darker and darker. His worship was replaced by the worship of false deities and idols, and true religion was threatened with complete extinction on earth. St. Epiphanius (Haeg. 1, 6) recorded an ancient legend according to which idolatry began to spread among people already in the time of Serukh. At first, he says, people did not carry their superstition to the point of worshiping stone, wooden, gold or silver images; such images were at first only a means of arousing reverence in people towards false gods. Seeing the spread of false teaching, in the form of polytheism, which prevailed everywhere in the time of Abraham, God, in His great mercy, deigned to preserve the deposit of revelation and true faith, at least among one people, who would specifically be the guardian of true worship of God. That is why He chose as the founder of this people a righteous man who was devoted to the true faith and deserved to be given the honor of being the father of believers. But in order to deliver this ancestor of the chosen people from the harmful influences of the example of those around him, from the temptations that could influence him and his family in his homeland, God decided to remove Abraham from his homeland, and commanded him to leave Chaldea and his father's house. St. Ambrose (Epis. 50) says that Abraham went to the land of Canaan due to the superstition of the Chaldeans. The ancient documents of Chaldea, discovered and read in our time, sufficiently reveal to us the religious state of this country in the time of Abraham. In this country Hamites and Semites lived together, and both were polytheists. The Hamites were the first owners of this land. Most of the texts remaining from them, written in the Summarian-Akkadian language, are religious texts, dedicatory inscriptions to the gods, and from them it is clear what gross idolatry prevailed among these people. The Chaldeans worshiped the stars and various objects of the universe. Each city had its own special god, although his cult did not exclude the worship of other gods. Even the family of Abraham had already begun to become infected with the errors of those Semitic tribes to which they belonged by origin, and although they had not yet completely abandoned true worship of God, they were also in danger. The Lord Himself testifies to this through the mouth of Joshua: “Your fathers lived beyond the river of old, Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and served other gods. But I took your father Abraham from beyond the river, and led him throughout all the earth. Canaan" (Joshua 24:2,3). In Mugair, the ruins of a temple erected in honor of the god Sin even before Abraham were discovered. There, no doubt, Terah and other ancestors of the Jews committed idolatry, for which Joshua reproached them. Achior told Holofernes the same thing about the Jewish people, saying: “This people come from the Chaldeans. First they settled in Mesopotamia because they did not want to serve the gods of their fathers, who were in the land of the Chaldeans and deviated from the path of their ancestors, and began to worship God heaven, God, whom they knew, and the Chaldeans drove them out from before their gods, and they fled to Mesopotamia, and dwelt there for a long time. But their God told them to leave the place of migration and go to the land of Canaan" (Jude 5). , 6-9). Even recognizing the God of Abraham (Gen. 24, 50, 51, 31, 29 - 42), Laban, the son of Nahor, kept the Tereim, who were kidnapped by Rachel (Gen. 13, 19, 30, 35). The Lord thus took Abraham from his father’s house in order to save him from idolatry, which was beginning to penetrate into his family. One rabbinic tradition tells that Abraham, because he refused to worship the Fire that the Chaldeans worshiped, was thrown into a red-hot furnace, from the flames of which he miraculously escaped; meanwhile his brother, Aran, died there. Bl. Jerome and Augustine accepted this tradition. St. Ephraim the Syrian says that Abraham, while still a youth, set fire to the temple where the Chaldeans worshiped the idol Cainan; Aran ran to save the idol from the flame, but was himself consumed by fire, as a result of which the Chaldeans began to demand the death of the arsonist; then Terah had to flee the country with his family. - The second reason for Abraham’s eviction was political. According to Lenormand, the migration of Terah and Abraham may have depended on the Elamite conquest, which dates back to about 2250. BC the entire basin of the Euphrates and Tigris was subjected, so Chedorlaomer’s campaign against Palestine (Gen. 14) was only one of the episodes of this general movement. If the invasion of Chaldea by a foreign people was not an exceptional motive that could lead to the resettlement of Abraham, then nevertheless it could have been, at least, a secondary reason for this. This event, according to God's providence, could serve as a sufficient basis for Abraham to justify in the eyes of his contemporaries his resettlement, the true motives of which were hidden. Finally, the third reason was the educational nature of the event itself. Some church fathers saw in Abraham's migration an image of education or a subject of moral edification. St. Irenaeus says that, leaving his earthly parents and relatives, Abraham unquestioningly obeyed the word of God, setting an example of the greatest faith in the Providence of God. In exactly the same way, the apostles, leaving their boats and their fathers, followed the Word of God.

II. Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac also requires some explanation, because with this event rationalists associate the question of the existence of human sacrifices among the ancient Jews. This kind of critic, trying to apply the laws of natural evolution to the religion of Israel, suggests that the Israelites were originally polytheists, and made human sacrifices to their national god Jave, just as their contemporaries, the Semites or Chaldeans, made the same sacrifices to their false gods. Most of the peoples with whom Abraham was in communication thought that their gods were especially pleased with human sacrifices, which were offered to them as propitiation. Regarding Babylonia and Assyria, this fact has long been disputed. But engraved stones, which served as seals or amulets, of very ancient Babylonian or Chaldean origin, apparently directly depict human sacrifices. On the other hand, the inhabitants of Sepharvaim threw their children into the fire in honor of their gods Adramelech and Anamelech (2 Kings 17:31). Among the Canaanite tribes, the fact of such sacrifices is not subject to dispute. The Phoenicians and Carehaginians were famous for the terrible sacrifices they made to their Baals. Mesa, king of Moab, slain his eldest son on the city wall in order to gain victory thanks to such a generous sacrifice (2 Kings 3:27). God strictly forbade the Israelites from making human sacrifices to Molech (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5), but they did not always observe this prohibition and imitated their neighbors in this (2 Kings 16:3; Ps. 501:37-38; Jer. 32, 35; Ezek. 23, 37). To prove that these human sacrifices were not only random and temporary violations of the divine law among the Jewish people, but a formal divine service, performed regularly and finding sanctification in the law itself, rationalists refer to the story of the sacrifice of Abraham, as described in Genesis. 22, 1-14. But this narrative, considered without any preliminary consideration, does not provide the slightest evidence of the existence of human sacrifices among the Jews in honor of Jehovah. God, no doubt, by virtue of His sovereignty over life and death, could require that Isaac should be sacrificed to Him; but, as the sacred text clearly expresses (Gen. 12:1), this was only to test Abraham, to test his obedience and his faith. The whole meaning of the story, on the contrary, shows that God did not actually demand the sacrifice of Isaac, because He Himself prevented its completion and was satisfied with the proof of Abraham’s unconditional obedience. The offering of Isaac, thus, was by no means a human sacrifice, but only a simple moral test for Abraham - a lesson for him that the life and death of every person is in the power of God. And that human sacrifices were in themselves displeasing to God, this was manifested in the formal law, which subsequently, of course, prohibited such sacrifices to the Jews (Deut. 11:31). But being a test of Abraham's faith, the sacrifice of Isaac also had a much higher significance and meaning. This was a type of the sacrifice of the Son of God. This is indicated by the ap. Paul, when he says that Abraham received his son "as a sign" (Heb. 12:19). Of the various interpretations of this passage, the most consistent with the thought of the apostle is the one according to which the sacrifice of Isaac was a pre-depiction of the sacrifice of I. Christ by His Father. In the saying of the ap. Paul that God “did not spare His only begotten Son” (Rom. 8:32), also contains an allusion to the word of the angel to Abraham (Gen. 12:12). The fathers and teachers of the church developed this apostle in detail. Paul's instructions. The first of the prototypes of Christ's suffering, which Tertullian (M. 2.628) reveals in the Old Testament, is the image of Isaac, led by his father as a sacrifice to the slaughter, and carrying wood for his sacrifice. He prefigured Christ, given by the Heavenly Father as a sacrifice of atonement and personally bearing His cross. According to the teachings of St. Irenaeus (M. 7, 986), Abraham, who, by virtue of his faith, selflessly decided to sacrifice his only and beloved son to God, prefigured the sacrifice of His only begotten beloved Son performed by God the Father for the redemption of all his offspring. St. Melito of Sardis (M. 5.1216) compares Isaac and the ram with whom he was replaced with Jesus Christ, brought by the Heavenly Father, and slain on the cross. Origen, bringing together the saying of the Angel (Gen. 12, 12) and the apostle. Paul (Rom. 8:32), shows how God competed in generosity with Abraham. The Patriarch brought to God his mortal son, who should not have died, and God put His Immortal Son to death for all people. What shall we render to the Lord for all that He has done for us? God the Father did not spare His Own Son for our sake. St. Ambrose in many places (M. 14.331) expounded the representative character of Abraham's sacrifice. We see the same thing in the teachings of other fathers and teachers of the church, like St. I. Chrysostom (Bes.47 on the book of Genesis), Cyril of Alexandria, bl. Theodoret, Theophylact, Ephraim the Syrian and others. The same thoughts found expression in ancient Christian art. Thus, the images in the catacombs represent this sacrifice as a prototype of the Eucharist. This is the nature of the image in the catacombs of St. Callista, dating back to the end of the 2nd century. Abraham is depicted at the moment when he wants to slay his son, Isaac. Father and son are both in prayer, with their hands raised to the sky, in a praying position. Even the ram raises its head, as if for sacrifice. Near the tree there is a bundle of firewood, reminiscent of the historical circumstances of the sacrifice and leaving no doubt about the meaning of the entire image. In the cemetery of Generosa there are traces of another image of the same sacrifice. On it you can still distinguish a lamb and a man dressed in a tunic. The letters A...NAM directly indicate the name of the person himself. At the Second Council of Nicaea, held in 787, in Act IV, a passage from one of St.’s sermons is given. Gregory of Nisskago, where the holy bishop tells how often he turned his gaze to an image that made him shed tears. This image was of Isaac kneeling on an altar with his hands tied back. Abraham, standing behind his son, placed his left hand on Isaac's head, and pointed the tip of the knife in his right hand towards the victim. This quotation, given in the sense of indicating the depiction of the suffering of Jesus Christ, served to refute the iconoclasts. The same subject was depicted on several ancient mosaics and on clay vessels. The discovery of these monuments, thus, has preserved to our time an explanation of the mysterious meaning of the sacrifice of Abraham, which represented at the same time both the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and His bloodless sacrifice in the Eucharist.

III. Objections of rationalist criticism and their refutation. Modern rationalism raises quite a few objections against the biblical story of Abraham, which can be reduced to three main ones.

1. On the issue of origin. According to the book of Genesis, Abraham was born in the city of Ur, in Chaldea, and moved to Haran when God called him to the land of Canaan, promising to give it to him and his descendants as his possession. The German critic Hitzig rejects the authenticity of this story. According to him, the origin of Abraham is purely Indian. To be convinced of this, it is enough to compare his name with the name of Ram, the Indian god, and the Sanskrit word Brahman. As for his wife Sarah, her name is reminiscent of the nymph Sarah; Thus, the Bible is mistaken in presenting Abraham as a Semite; therefore, his story is not credible and is nothing more than a myth. This conclusion is not only hasty, but also completely erroneous. Abraham's name is so Assyrian (or Chaldean) that it appears in the list of eponyms, or mayors, of Nineveh. Moreover: if, as the Bible testifies, Abraham came out of Chaldea, then the language and customs of this country, of course, should have left a deep mark on his descendants. And this is exactly what the latest discoveries confirm, sufficiently proving the closeness between the two peoples - Jewish and Assyrian. Let us briefly point out this closeness between them: a) The Hebrew vocabulary is very close to the Assyrian vocabulary, at least in words expressing concepts known since the time of Abraham. God is called Ilu in Assyrian, and El in Hebrew; Also almost identical in both languages ​​are the words denoting family relationships (father, mother, etc.), members of the human body (head, eye, mouth, etc.), geographical terms (sea, river, star, etc.), weapons ( bow, spear, etc.), metals, animals; in addition, there are other names, such as the names of fermented drinks, numbers, calendar, measures, which by their similarity in both languages ​​show that the Jewish civilization, in addition to its divine element, is nothing more than one of the ramifications of the Chaldean civilization; b) the grammar is also the same in both languages. When Abraham left Mesopotamia, the language had already reached its inflectional period (see paragraph 2. Language), and, like all Semitic languages, received its specific imprint; therefore, between these two grammars, Assyrian and Hebrew, there must be sufficiently many points of similarity for one to conclude that they have a common origin, and anyone who has been at all involved in the study of the languages ​​of Hebrew and Assyrian could not help but be struck by the close similarity between their grammatical forms. This similarity is further manifested in the verses, because in both Hebrew and Assyrian there is a parallelism with its usual rhythm. Finally, to top it all off, it is not superfluous to say that some Jewish idiocy, which had long been inexplicable, now found an explanation for itself, thanks to familiarity with the Assyrian language. So, eleven in Hebrew is called aste-asar. Asara is known to mean ten, but the meaning of acme was hitherto unknown. Now, with the help of the Assyrian language, this secret has been clarified: acme or estin means one in Assyrian, and thus this Hebrew word means one and ten, or eleven. Although all of these similarities do not constitute the exclusive property of both languages, and a significant number of similarities with other Semitic idioms can be indicated, still, undoubtedly, there are no other two languages ​​that would be as closely related to each other as the Hebrew and Assyrian languages. Be that as it may, if we take into account the results achieved by comparing these two languages ​​with the fantastic etymology of Hitzig, it will be easy to see on whose side the truth is.

2. On the subject of Abraham's journey to Egypt - Chapter 12 of Genesis tells that famine forced Abraham to go to Egypt; The circumstances of this story are the subject of many objections from rationalists. a) Before entering Egypt, Abraham, fearing that the beauty of his wife would become the cause of death for him, advises her to say that she is his sister. Rationalists did not fail to use these words to slander the character of the patriarch. But in reality, this episode serves precisely as proof of the authenticity of the story: in myth there would be no such story. But on the other hand, it is also quite true that Sarah was a close relative of Abraham, as further evidenced by the book of Genesis (20:12); and in Eastern languages ​​the words “brother” and “sister” are used to denote generally close kinship. If in this way Abraham did not tell the whole truth, then, in any case, what he said was true, b) When they were in Egypt, Sarah was taken for Pharaoh, and Abraham, thanks to her, becomes the subject of a special royal favors: Pharaoh endows him with numerous gifts, and gives him, among other things, sheep, oxen, donkeys and camels. All these features were for rationalist criticism a pretext for attacking the Bible, and yet they are now fully justified by science. And above all, the kings of the East always enjoyed the right to take into their harem all the unmarried women they liked, and it is known that the kings of Egypt had secondary wives. Here, for example, is what one Egyptian papyrus tells: one worker, seeing that the overseer had taken his donkey, protested against this, and the matter came to the pharaoh, who, after interrogation, pronounced a sentence in these words: “He does not answer anything.” , what they say to him... Let us be given an account in writing...; let his wife and his children belong to the king... You will order to give him bread." Do we not have a story here similar to the story of Abraham? Then they say: how could a Semite like Abraham receive such a reception at the court of Pharaoh, and especially the Hamitic Pharaoh? But we have two Egyptian monuments that refute this objection and confirm the biblical story: a) One Egyptian tomb depicts the arrival of Amu nomads (from Arabia or Palestine) in Egypt; the name of their leader Abma (which in Egyptian pronunciation is quite similar to the name of Abraham); Famine forced them to come to Egypt just like Abraham, and they were favorably received by the Egyptian ruler. b) One papyrus preserves the curious story of a certain Senech: being an Amu or Egyptian, he entered the service of the pharaoh and reached high positions; but then for some reason he fled, remained for a long time in Palestine, finally returned again, again received mercy, and became a close adviser to the king. All this closely matches the story of the Bible. But the main objection the rationalists make concerns the gifts given to Abraham. “Look,” says Bolen, “what a mistake the author of this narrative falls into: horses were very numerous in Egypt, and yet he does not mention them among the animals given to Abraham; on the contrary, the author lists sheep and camels, which meanwhile were very rare in Egypt, and donkeys, which could not be tolerated there at all. Can a story so filled with errors be recognized as genuine? To this objection we can say that the details conveyed by the biblical historian are entirely consistent with the truth. Sheep are depicted on Egyptian monuments as early as the 12th dynasty, and we have, among other things, one inscription where 3,208 of these animals are attributed to one owner. The same applies to oxen: geological excavations made it possible to discover their bones in the Delta at considerable depth, and, judging by the inscriptions, they were used in Egypt in the same way as they are used now; In addition, the Egyptian cult of the Apis bull and the story of the golden calf are known. Donkeys are also depicted in whole herds on pyramid tombs, where inscriptions attribute up to 760 of these animals to one owner. The main difficulty concerns camels. They are rarely depicted on monuments. But can we conclude from this that they are absent or extremely rare in Egypt? No. In fact: a) well-known rules prevented artists from depicting some animals, for example, chickens and cats; it is possible that a similar custom existed in relation to camels. b) It is certain that camels were in Egypt during the time of the Ptolemies; and yet on the monuments of their time there are no images of these animals: the same could have happened in previous centuries. c) The Arabs undoubtedly used camels; their neighbors, the Egyptians, therefore, were probably also familiar with them, d) Some monuments prove that camels were used in Egypt in a very ancient era: the inscriptions say that they taught them to dance; Shalmaneser (857) mentions camels among the tribute paid by Egypt. e) Finally, geological excavations made it possible to find the skeletons of dromedaries in Egyptian soil at a very significant depth. All this evidence is so categorical that the famous Egyptologist Shaba, who initially objected to this point in the Bible, subsequently formally abandoned his objection. As for horses, Bolen sees an inconsistency in the biblical narrative in that it does not mention them. The reason, meanwhile, is very simple: horses appeared in Egypt only with the invasion of the Hykses, and they appear in hieroglyphs no earlier than the era of the 17th dynasty; and Abraham's journey to Egypt is usually attributed to the time of the XII dynasty.

3. On the issue of victory over Chedorlaomer. - When Abraham returned from Egypt to Palestine, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Elassar, and Tidal, king of Goim, having defeated the five kings of the Canaanites, took away, among other captives, Abraham’s nephew, Lot. Upon news of this, Abraham gathered 318 of his household, rushed in pursuit of the victors, defeated them, and freed the captives. This is, in essence, the story of the 14th chapter of the book of Genesis. Rationalists consider the story of this victory to be downright legendary. In 1860, Knobel, recognizing that some kind of historical tradition was meant here, nevertheless tried to prove the unreliability of the biblical narrative, and could not, for example, allow the Elamites to extend their power so far during the time of Abraham: biblical author , in his opinion, was probably mistaken and mistook the Assyrians for the Elamites. After Knobel, rationalists even began to deny the entire historical basis of the biblical narrative; according to Bolen, Amraphel is Sardanapalus, Arioch is Arbak, and Chedorlaomer is Belesis; according to Hitzig, the story about this campaign is only an imitation of the story about the campaign of Sennacherib. Grotefend went further than all others: in his opinion, the Elamite invasion is nothing more than an old Babylonian myth; relying on an extremely fantastic etymology, he sees spring in Amraphel, summer in Arioch, etc.; and the five Canaanite kings, in his opinion, are nothing more than five additional days of the Babylonian calendar. In view of these fantasies, it is enough simply to point out what the latest discoveries show us on the issue of this Elamite campaign. - The name Chedorlaomer or Kudur-Lagamar is completely Elamite. Kudur is found in the name of all the kings of Elam, and Lagamar is a deity; so the name Chedorlaomer means “servant of Lagamar,” and not “sheaf-binding,” as Grotefend explained. That Elam, under the rule of this king, in ancient times was a powerful state, is confirmed by discoveries made in Susa, the capital of this kingdom. As for Arioch, king of Elassar, Assyriology presented us with even more interesting results: his name is revealed in the name of Yeriaku, king of the city of Larsa; so that this ancient king, about whom we knew only from the book of Genesis, but whom rationalist criticism attributed to the realm of myths, was found in inscriptions on monuments of very high antiquity: what evidence in favor of the historical authenticity of this story!

Abraham is mentioned frequently in the New Testament. In the Gospel of St. The Virgin Mary and Zechariah sing of the promises and covenant of Abraham (Luke I, 55 and 73). I. Christ is called the Son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:34). All the righteous who have fallen asleep rest in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 13.28). Ap. Peter, St. Stephen the First Martyr (Acts 25; 7, 2-8, 17) and St. Paul (Heb. 6:13) remind the Jews of the promises to their forefather, and the Apostle of the Nations proves that these promises were fulfilled in the person of I. Christ “The Scripture,” he says, seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham: “In you all will be blessed.” nations,” and then you add: “The promises were given to Abraham and to his seed. It is not said: And to your descendants, as if they were many, but as one, and to your seed, which is Christ” (Galat. III, 8, 16). - It is hardly necessary to prove that all nations have actually received a blessing in Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, that they are endowed with all the blessings of grace, with all spiritual benefits, through the church, of which He is the Founder and Head.

Abraham, as the ancestor of the Jewish people, is also well known in civil history. The Chaldean priest-writer Berosus, as can be seen from a passage in I. Flavius ​​(Ancient I, 7, 2), speaks of one highly moral man, familiar with celestial objects, who lived among the Chaldeans in the tenth generation after the flood, and, in the opinion of I. Flavius, the Chaldean priest meant Abraham here. The historian Nicholas of Damascus, whose testimony is also cited by Josephus, says that Abraham left Chaldea with an army, went first to Damascus, where he reigned for some time before entering the land of Canaan. According to Justin the Philosopher, Abraham was the 4th king of Damascus, Eusevinus of Caesarea collected all the information about Abraham found in Berosus, Hecataeus, Nicholas of Damascus, Eupolemos, Artapanus, Milo and Philo the Elder, drive. in Alexander Polyhistor and I. Flavius. - The same ancient writers report legends about Abraham’s deep knowledge in astronomy, metaphysics and mathematics. Goodbye to the words. Abraham says that he invented the Hebrew alphabet, and several works were attributed to him: a book about creation, about idolatry, Psalms 88 and 89. But these legends already go beyond the boundaries of strict history.

About Abraham, see St. Ambrose De Abraham, in Ming II. lat., XIV, col. 414-500; Beer, Leben Abrahams, Leipzig 1859; Tomkins, Studies on the Times of Abraham, London. In Russian literature: D. Shcheglov, The Calling of Abraham and the historical significance of this event. Kyiv 1874; articles: “Abraham and his descendants” (“Christian. Reading” 1829, 34); “Abraham the Father of the Believers” (“Resurrection Reading” 1854, 342). See also about Abraham in “Biblical history in the light of the latest research and discoveries” by A. 11. Lopukhin, volume I.

Abraham in the month of the word. - Abraham with his nephew, right. Lot, we remember St. church 9 Oct. and on St. Sunday forefathers. - In Prol. and Thu.-Min. on 9 Oct. a special reading was supposed - “the word about Abraham”, compiled on the basis of the biblical narrative about him (Gen. ch. 11-25). - See Sp. - Adj. Ave., XIV century, perg., print. Ave. 1675, Thursday-M. Poppy. Sin., ed. archaeog. com., Mar. R., ASS. ose. IU, 997.-St. Dim. Growth, in Th.-Min.: “on the same day (Oct. 9) the memory of the holy righteous Abraham the forefather, like God in the Trinity, who appeared to him in three angelic faces, was established at the oak of Mamre” (honored with hospitality, established - ξεναγεἱν ξενἱζειν , hospitio accirere, - Miclos., Lex. palaeoslov., s. v.). In Men. V. on 9 Oct. There is no memory of St. Abraham. To Synaxar. Nirodima (Venet., 1819) on October 9. stories about rights There is no Abraham, but a memory is given and couplets are given - separately for Abraham and separately for Lot (these couplets were also in our verse Prologue). In the first edition of the “Christian Monthly Book, with brief historical tales about all the saints glorified by the Orthodox Church,” made “with the permission of the Holy Governing Synod” (Moscow 1851), it is said that “Aur. is right, and L., tribe . him, lived 1992 BC." (p. 320). Slavic and Russian apocryphal tales about Abraham and Russian. For spiritual poems about him, see under the words - Apocrypha and spiritual poems.

*Alexander Ivanovich Ponomarev,
Master of Theology, Professor
Kyiv Theological Academy.

Source of text: Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. Volume 1, page 164. Petrograd publication. Supplement to the spiritual magazine "The Wanderer" for 1900.

(11:26–25:10).

Abraham, whose original name was Abram (אַבְרָם), was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, one of the oldest and most important cities in Mesopotamia. Here he married Sarai, to whom God later gave the name Sarah (in the Russian tradition Sarah). Abraham's father Terah (Tarah) left Ur and, taking with him Abraham, Sarah and grandson Lot, headed to Canaan (the motives that prompted him to do this are not indicated in the Bible). On the way, in the city of Haran (Northern Mesopotamia), Terah died; God commanded Abraham to leave his native country, promising to make his descendants a great nation.

Abraham, now 75 years old, continued his journey to Canaan, accompanied by his wife and nephew. When Abraham reached the outskirts of Nablus, God appeared to him again and promised to give all of Canaan to his descendants. Abraham began to wander around Canaan, building altars to God. Soon there was a famine, and Abraham went to Egypt, taking with him, as is clear from the subsequent presentation, Lot. In Egypt, Abraham passed Sarah off as his sister, because he was afraid that the Egyptians might kill the husband of such a beauty. Pharaoh took Sarah to his palace, but God struck him and his loved ones with illnesses, and she was returned to Abraham as his wife. Abraham returned to Canaan with Sarah, Lot, and all his acquired property. Here, after a quarrel between their shepherds, Lot separated from Abraham and migrated to the city of Sodom (see Sodom and Gomorrah).

God once again appeared to Abraham and reaffirmed his promise to give all of Canaan to his descendants and to make those descendants as innumerable as “the sand of the earth.” Having settled in the oak grove of the Amorite Mamre in Hebron, Abraham defeated the united army of four kings and freed Lot from their captivity. Returning from the campaign, Abraham received the blessing of Malki-Tzedek, the king of Shalem (apparently the oldest name for Jerusalem). Soon God once again confirmed his promise to give Abraham numerous descendants, to whom the land would be given “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. 15:18), and this time the promise was sealed by the conclusion of an alliance (covenant) between God and Abraham.

Then God announced to Abraham that his descendants would be slaves “in a land that is not theirs” for 400 years. However, Sarah was still childless. She gave her slave Hagar as a wife to Abraham, who bore him a son, Ishmael. But God appeared to Abraham again and told him that the promises He made were not about Ishmael, but about Isaac, whom Sarah would give birth to, and the descendants of Isaac. God commanded that from now on Abram be called Abraham (raising this name in the Bible to av x amon goim- “the father of crowds of nations” is in the nature of folk etymology), and Sarai is Sarai, and that “all the males in the house of Abraham were circumcised.”

Soon after this, three angels appeared to Abraham, announcing the upcoming birth of Isaac. Then God informed Abraham of his intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the crimes of their inhabitants. After narrating the destruction of these cities, the Bible reports that Abraham headed towards the Philistine border. Here the king of the city of Grar, Abimelech, took Sarah to him, but at the command of God he released her. When Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, Isaac was finally born.

At the insistence of Sarah, Abraham sent Hagar into the desert along with the baby Ismail, and some time later God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him, and only at the last moment did Abraham’s hand, raised over Isaac, be stopped by an angel (see Akedah), and Abraham still once it was said that his descendants would be countless, like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore, and that in his person the peoples of the world would receive a blessing. After this, Abraham settled in Beersheba, and when Sarah died, he buried her in the cave of Machpelah, purchased from the Hittite Ephron. Abraham then married Kturah, who bore him several children. Death befell Abraham at the age of 175, and he was buried by Isaac and Ishmael, also in Machpelah.

The tale of Abraham opens the cycle of the biblical epic about the patriarchs. Most modern historians have come to the conclusion that not only the legends about the patriarchs, but also their recording in the literary form that has come down to us belong to a very ancient period, although, in all likelihood, they were recorded during the period of the kings (after the 10th century BC). e.). There is also more and more confirmation of the assumption that there is some connection between the epithet Hebrew(hence the word “Jew”), first used in the Bible in relation to Abraham (Gen. 14:13), and then in relation to the Israelites, and the name khabiru, hapiru or apiru, which is found in Akkadian and Egyptian sources from the end of the third millennium BC. e.

There is also an opinion that this epithet is associated with the origin of Abraham from Eber. Hapiru there were strangers who penetrated into Canaan, who remained, apparently, alien to the religion, cult and life of the Canaanite peoples. Indeed, a characteristic feature of Abraham is a complete break with the culture of his country of origin, Mesopotamia, on the one hand, and alienation from the beliefs, cult and way of life of the Canaanites, on the other. Abraham, like his son and grandson - the patriarchs Isaac and Jacob - does not have his own land in Canaan and is dependent on the Canaanite kings - the rulers of the cities.

He maintains peaceful relations with the environment, but maintains his isolation in everything that concerns beliefs, cult and even the purity of the family. He sends his slave to his relatives in Northern Mesopotamia in order to bring a wife to Isaac. Abraham is considered in the Jewish tradition not only as the ancestor of the Jewish people, but also as the founder of Judaistic monotheism. Post-biblical tradition credits him with the discovery of the existence of one God, creator of earth and heaven and ruler of the world. This tradition expands the break with Babylonian culture to the complete denial of polytheism and paganism.

According to the midrash, Abraham breaks the idols of his father Terach. As a three-year-old child, having seen the sunset and the disappearance of the moon and stars, he, unlike the Mesopotamian priests, realizes that “There is a Lord over them - I will serve Him and offer my prayers.” Already in the biblical narrative, Abraham's unparalleled loyalty and devotion to God is clearly expressed. Despite all the trials, he unquestioningly carries out the orders of God. The culmination of these trials is the sacrifice of Isaac.

The name of Abraham is in the Bible the first of three proper names (along with the names of Isaac and Jacob), in relation to which the word God appears as a determinant. The belief in an exclusive connection between a deity and a head of some kind was very common in ancient times among various tribes in the Middle East, but in the stories of Abraham it takes the form of a union (covenant; in Hebrew brit), concluded between him and God. This union, which was destined to play a crucial role in Jewish history and in the development of universal human culture, includes three main elements: 1) the chosenness of the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac; 2) the promise to give the land of Canaan as ownership to these chosen descendants of Abraham; 3) the command to follow God’s commandments, which include ethical standards.

These provisions formed the basis of the biblical worldview and later Judaism, and subsequently, in a modified form, also the basis of Christianity and Islam. In Christianity, the place of the chosen people is taken by the church, and in Islam, chosenness is transmitted not through the line of Isaac, but through the line of Ismail, considered the ancestor of the Arabs.

The description of the life of Abraham and his trials is also considered in the Jewish tradition as an instructive example, symbolically reflecting the history of the Jewish people in the future. With regard to ethical standards, the Genesis account of Abraham contains only a general command to be blameless (Gen. 17:1), but Abraham's behavior undoubtedly indicates a person who is guided by a certain set of moral principles. Thus, Abraham stands up for the inhabitants of Sodom, refuses to appropriate the spoils of the war, and categorically rejects the offer of the “sons of Hitt” to receive the cave of Machpelah as a gift.

The moral and ethical side of the union of God with Abraham received a more detailed interpretation in subsequent sources. The personality of Abraham and his trials - especially the sacrifice of Isaac - have served as the subject of many works of literature and art in both Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultural traditions.

Children of Abraham

Abram was 75 years old when God called him to go to Canaan - "promised land" which, according to His promise, they will possess descendants of Abram , and there will be as many as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand in the desert. But Abram and Sarai were still childless .

"In the history of the Old Testament, we more than once encounter another problem indirectly related to original sin, and oddly enough, this is the problem of children, descendants. Firstly, after a person fell away from God, he is in his thirst for immortality replaced individual aspect to aspect generic . Having lost access to the tree of life, ancient man decided to take care of “immortality on earth,” which meant mainly immortality in his children and grandchildren. Secondly, the loss of the heavenly marriage ideal has led to the meaning of marriage also started seeing each other not in unity, but in posterity , as much as possible. The presence and number of children “guaranteed” immortality and, in the eyes of others, looked like a sign of God’s blessing. On the contrary, the absence of children could mean a curse: a person turned out to be unworthy of continuing on earth!

10 years later, already in Canaan, Sarah despaired and gave her maid Hagar to Abram so that she would conceive a child from him (according to custom, the husband’s children from the maid would in this case be considered legitimate children from her mistress). Hagar gave birth to a son Ishmael (“let God hear”), who later became the progenitor of the Bedouins and northern Arabs; in the Muslim tradition, the genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the history of the emergence of the sacred spring Zamzam, is traced to it.

When Abram was 100 years old and Sarah was 91, God finally performs the promised miracle and their long-awaited son is born. Isaac (“the one who laughs/rejoices”).

Abram's beloved wife, Sarai, died at 127 years old. Avram lived to be 175 years old, but before that time he managed to start six more children (other Arab tribes descended from them) from Keturah, a concubine whom he “took as his wife” (most likely in the sense of having an affair with her, rather than marrying her).

Moreover, sole heir (both in the earthly and spiritual sense) is only Isaac , his son by Sarah; Abraham sent all the other children “to the eastern lands”, giving them gifts - but alienating Isaac from himself. This is explained by the fact that it is from Isaac that the “chosen people” must come, through whom the Messiah will appear centuries later; all other children were born in the usual, human way, and only Isaac was miraculously born from the previously barren Sarah, and much after menopause; God chose Abraham, and God gave him a son, Isaac, who is tasked with continuing the spiritual mission of his father.

God's Covenant with Abraham

Having appeared to Abram “under the oak of Mamre,” God made a covenant with him, which was as follows:
- Abram will be “the father of many nations,” and the covenant of the Lord extends to his descendants; from this moment on, Abram and Sarah ("father of the heights", "high father" and "fighter") are called God Abraham and Sarah ("father of the multitude" and "mistress"; the naming of a name has a very great meaning in the Bible, especially the naming of God new name)
- Abram's descendants are promised possession of Canaan - the "promised land"
- affirmed by the symbol of the covenant circumcision all the men in Abram's house (the symbol was a rainbow)

Three angels

God appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamri (near Hebron) to once again predict the imminent birth of his son Isaac, as well as punishment on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; but this time He spoke to Abraham through his messengers - angels (both the Greek angelos and the Hebrew “malakh” (that’s where the Turkish melek comes from!) means “messenger”, “messenger”), who came to Abraham in human form, in the form of three men. Abraham received them into his home and showed them the widest hospitality.

Why exactly three angel? According to the Jewish interpretation, each angel is sent on one mission. In this case, the first angel was sent to Abraham to announce the birth of Isaac, the second to lead Lot out of the doomed Sodom, and the third to punish Sodom.

But what I didn’t even realize was that it was the plot of the meal with which Abraham treats God’s messengers that formed the basis of the famous iconographic image of St. Trinity : "In Christian theology, three angels symbolize the hypostases of God, which are conceived as inseparable, but also unmerged - as the consubstantial Holy Trinity. ... Later, the historical plan of the image is completely replaced by the symbolic. Three angels are now considered only as a symbol of the Trinity Divinity." (see Orthodox iconography of the Trinity)

(Trinity by Andrei Rublev)

The Crime and Punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Story of Lot

What did it consist of? sin of the people of Sodom ? By “sodomy” or “sin of Sodom” most often they mean homosexuality and all sorts of “immoral” sexual practices; but from the biblical text and commentaries to it it is clear that we are talking not only or not so much about homosexual relations and debauchery, but about sexual violence and violence in general, as well as about the oppression of the weak, the needy and foreigners (read, abuse, discrimination and xenophobia), in short, " Sin City" , Gotham city, really (I’m now under the impression of the Gotham series, the birthplace of Batman:)

Lot's Rescue Story from Sodom on the night before its destruction: Lot is an image living righteously but not relying on God , not trusting Him completely - in contrast to Abraham. Therefore, Abraham converted many people to the faith, but Lot failed to convince even his sons-in-law, the inhabitants of Sodom. Lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt, when on the way to salvation she, against the ban, looked back at the dying city - i.e. her heart remained with its fallen inhabitants; symbolically, this means that if you want to save your soul, you cannot “look back” at the sins, the evil that you are trying to save yourself from, get rid of, otherwise it will “drag” you back.

(John Martin. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah)

(Lot's Wife Pillar on Mount Sodom)

By the way, Sodom and Gomorrah were part of the “Pentapolis,” which also included the cities of Adma, Seboim and Zoar; all of them were destroyed, except for Zoar - the “small city”, i.e. not so mired in evil and vice. On the site of the Siddim Valley, where the destroyed cities were located, the Dead Sea was formed.

Sacrifice of Isaac

This is probably the most famous story associated with Abraham, and one of the most famous from the Old Testament. And one of the most controversial, complex, and incomprehensible. Based on what I read, I will try to formulate its religious interpretation:

Isaac was born by the will of God , as a result miracle (from old parents, from a barren mother, contrary to all biological laws), and as a son belongs not so much to his father Abraham as to God; his birth and fate contradict physical and historical laws, are outside them - as well as the fate of his son Jacob (who received the name Israel), and the people of Israel in general, the “chosen people” (more broadly, all believers in the true God). Accordingly, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son to God is, in a way, “giving God’s things to God,” for the very existence of Isaac in the world is a miracle of God, the work of God’s hands.

Despite this, Isaac is the most beloved son and, in general, probably the most beloved being for Abraham; to obey God in such a situation, and to kill your son with your own hands - this requires complete self-denial , renunciation of all one's attachments except God himself.

On Abraham's part, this is the greatest feat of faith, complete hope on God; his words “The Lord Himself will provide for himself a lamb” (here, by the way, is another bridge to the New Testament, to the “Lamb of God” - Christ) - evidence of his faith that even when the human mind does not see any possibility of a miracle, no way out, and the matter seems definitely hopeless, God will arrange everything according to His will; you just have to completely rely on it.

Why did Abraham have reason to believe that God, in some way known to Him, would arrange everything and create some kind of miracle? Because more than once God predicted numerous offspring for Abraham, and this offspring was supposed to happen through Isaac - a miraculously conceived and born son; all God's promises to Abraham came true - he followed the call all his life and always received help. Accordingly, Isaac could not simply die now... God's will in the command to sacrifice him was incomprehensible , as never before, and its execution required enormous feat faith, the will to believe.

“Each of us would turn to God, to the sound of the voice, and would say: Have mercy, Lord, You contradict Yourself! You Yourself promised me that this boy would be the beginning of a whole countless tribe!.. Abraham believed God more than he could believe the words he heard, more than he could believe himself. He took Isaac, went up the mountain, and by this he showed not only that he was able to believe, that is, to be absolutely sure that God was speaking to him, he showed that he was able to believe. grew to such a degree of communication and intimacy with God that he was able to believe in Him without a trace , trust Him even against all logic, against all evidence ." (Antony of Sourozh. Lessons of the Old Testament)

Joseph Brodsky has a very interesting poem "Abraham and Isaac"; It is no less interesting to read about its creation (from a biographical book about Brodsky); quote from there: "in the interpretation of the British literary critic Valentina Polukhina, Brodsky appears as a more Christian writer than Kierkegaard: “In his poem, trying to unravel the meaning of the story of Abraham, Brodsky changes the perspective of perception. The center of the story is not the father, but the son. Just as Abraham trusts God , Isaac trusts his father. After reading the poem, we begin to come to the conclusion that perhaps the answer to God's dark mystery was always lying on the surface. God demanded from Abraham only the same thing as from Himself: to sacrifice his own son to faith »".

(Reitern E. Abraham sacrifices Isaac)

The topic of the meaning of the concept of sacrifice in the Bible, as well as the meaning of this event for Abraham and Isaac, is deeply revealed in this chapter by Shchedrovitsky:

“Yes, Isaac experienced death; but he experienced it not really and not literally, but spiritually. He experienced the horror of death and immediately after that - the greatest joy of returning to life. The most majestic of the mysteries of antiquity took place - the death and resurrection of Isaac - indicating the future mystery of Golgotha .

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw: and behind him was a ram, entangled in a thicket with its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. This ram was also a type of the Messiah, “replacing” with his sacrifice the descendants of Abraham, who would otherwise be in danger of spiritual destruction. Aries “got entangled in the thicket,” for at the same time it was also a symbol of all those who, wandering along earthly paths, do not see a way out of the thicket of sins, delusions and suffering, and nevertheless are able at the decisive moment to bring their life to the altar of God, to die for sanctification His name. Such were many martyrs who sanctified their lives by death for the glory of the name of God. For once upon a time the moment came for them when they needed to make the main decision: to die for the sanctification of the name of God or to renounce God. And these people, no matter what their life had been like before, chose the path of holy death and spiritual resurrection. And therefore the ram, entangled in a thicket with its horns and lying on the altar of God instead of Isaac, points to Christ, and at the same time to the martyrs of future times."

Also: " Aries prefigures Christ , freed from chains Isaac - redeemed humanity . The tree symbolizes the Cross, the place of sacrifice is compared to Jerusalem. Isaac going to the sacrifice is also a prototype of Christ and his suffering. St. Irenaeus of Lyons compares Abraham, who is ready to sacrifice his son, with God the Father, who sends Christ to redeem humanity."

And one more thing: “The test was passed. Why was it necessary, since the Omniscient God knew for sure that Abraham would pass it? Yes, He knew - but Abraham did not know this yet. This means that he needed both this experience and this victory. And why is it needed us, or why the ancient Jews or even their neighbors needed the story of Abraham and Isaac explained why the Israelites categorically refused? human casualties . It is not that they were too pampered or did not value their God highly enough to give the lives of their loved ones to him. No, Abraham was ready to do this, but God Himself rejected the unnecessary sacrifice of an innocent child.

But you can find many other facets to this story. For example, she tells us that the path of faith consists of paradoxes, and cruel paradoxes , if you approach them with earthly standards. You receive everything that is promised to you, and much more, but not at all in such an easy and convenient way as you would like and as you could do - precisely because God needs you not just for who you are now, and the best, the strongest, the most faithful and the most beautiful, whatever you can become. " (A. Desnitsky)

More about Abraham and the significance of his story:
From Lopukhin’s “Explanatory Bible”: azbyka.ru/otechnik/Biblia/tolkovaja_bibl ija_01/22
Andrey Desnitsky. Calling of Abraham, Sacrifice of Isaac
An excellent and detailed biography with illustrations and maps, some of which I borrowed from this post: www.hram-troicy.prihod.ru/zhitie_svjatyk h_razdel/view/id/1172743
Anthony of Surozhskiy in the conversation “Lessons of the Old Testament”: azbyka.ru/otechnik/Antonij_Surozhskij/o-s lyshanii-i-delanii/2_2

Mount Moriah - Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Where did the sacrifice of Isaac take place? “On Mount Moriah,” God pointed out this place to Abraham. Subsequently, almost a thousand years later, it was on this site that King Solomon built the Jerusalem Temple, which existed from 950 BC. to 586 BC; The Second Temple was built on its site in 516 BC. and destroyed in 20 AD, but I have yet to read about all of this, so I will not delve into the question yet.

This place, known since then as the Temple Mount, is also notable because, according to Jewish tradition, it was here that the creation of the world began - namely, from a section of rock called the Foundation Stone, the cornerstone of the universe.

And at the end of the 7th century, a Muslim sanctuary was erected on this very spot, called the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque - the third of the most important Muslim shrines; the fact is that it was from here that the prophet Muhammad was ascended to heaven (this event is called miraj; it was preceded by a miraculous journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the company of the archangel Gabriel - isra). In the 12th century, my beloved Templars made their mark there, setting up their headquarters precisely in the buildings of the Dome of the Rock, which temporarily passed into their hands (this is understandable, the Templars are the knights of the Order of the Temple of Solomon; although the Dome of the Rock was not actually the same Temple of Solomon, such it was considered by his European contemporaries).

(The Temple Mount today. On the site of the Jewish Temple is now the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock complex)

Abraham and Isaac vs Abraham and Ishmael

In the Muslim tradition, Abraham is called Ibrahim, and his sons Isaac and Ishmael are Ishak and Ishmael (cf. Hebrew pronunciation: Isaac and Ishmael). The Koran also tells the stories of their birth: Isaac - from Sarah, Ismail - from her maidservant Hajar (Hagar). The story with Sarah’s jealousy and the expulsion of Ismail and his mother is repeated, only it is said that Abraham Ibrahim himself led them, and not to Beersheba (Beersheba) in Palestine, as in the Bible, but to Arabia itself (according to the Bible, she went there only after), and there he left them alone in the desert. Then the story repeats with the despair and prayer of Hagar-Hajar and her son, and the granting of a sacred source of water to them - Zamzam. In addition, Ibrahim built the sanctuary of the Kaaba together with his son Ismail; The pilgrimage ritual of Hajj is also associated with them, following the main events of their lives.

The Qur'an does not directly indicate the name of the son whom Ibrahim was going to sacrifice; but the prevailing opinion is that it was not Isaac-Ishak, but precisely Ismail, from whom many Arab tribes descended.

(Fresco in the Haft Tanan (Seven Graves) Museum in Shiraz)

O tempora, o mores, or “the east is a delicate matter”?

In the history of Abraham and his family and descendants there are many details that directly shock readers, especially modern ones; In this case, I do not mean situations that have symbolic and conceptual meaning (for example, the manifestation of absolute faith and trust in God in the actions of Abraham, especially his willingness to sacrifice his son), but the details of personal life. Some can be explained by the customs of culture and era, some are puzzling: after all, we are talking, it seems, about “good people” chosen by God to carry out his will, the righteous or their loved ones. A few examples of the “turbulent personal lives” of biblical heroes:

• consanguineous marriages: Abraham is married to his half-sister; He marries his son to his own niece... (but this is the cultural norm of the time and place)(in addition, in the future the “chosen people” had to maintain the purity of faith and choose spouses from among themselves, and not pagans)
• the husband, in addition to his wife (or wives), also has concubines (for Abraham - Hagar and Ketur, although the first became a concubine at the insistence of the wife herself, and the second - after the death of Sarah; also a cultural norm)
• twice Abram passes off his wife as his sister to save your life and well-being in a foreign country (but each time God prevents an attack on her honor and the story ends happily; in addition, it contributes to the conversion of the ruler who wished to take Sarah into the harem to faith)(this is usually explained, again, by Abram’s trust in God - that he would not allow Sarah to be dishonored... but rather, this is an example not of faith, but of cowardice)
• twice a woman with a child is actually pushed out the door (Hagar; for the first time she escapes from the oppression of her mistress Sarah, the second time she is officially expelled)(however, God turns this for good, and a whole people comes from Hagar; so this can be considered an act of Providence, although Sarah does not justify, she shows banal jealousy and cruelty)
• Lot, protecting his guests (angels) from the attacks of the depraved inhabitants of Sodom, offers his daughters in exchange -virgins who, moreover, had suitors (the logic of the East? is a guest more valuable than his own daughter?)(however, the daughters subsequently also show themselves in a dubious way: having escaped from Sodom and hiding in a cave, having given their father drink, they conceive children from him, from whom descend the tribes of the Moabites and Ammonites - pagan peoples hostile to Israel)
• with the assistance of his mother Rebekah, Jacob by deception receives a birthright blessing from his father, Isaac (even though it rightfully belonged to his brother Esau)(again, everything turns out for the better)
• in order to marry his chosen one, Jacob is forced to work for her for seven years for her father, who eventually replaces the bride and gives his second, ugly daughter; Jacob marries her, but remains to work for another seven years to get his beloved, who becomes his second wife; as a result, he gets two more concubines as a bonus; from all these women he has children (however, "purchase" of brides, as well as polygamy and the presence of concubines, these are also signs of the times)

Then there was also a lot of interesting stuff, but I haven’t finished reading it yet :)

So here it is. Even if we explain and justify certain actions of the heroes of the Old Testament by the norms, priorities and customs of their time and culture, which are very different from those of our time (as well as those that were introduced already during the New Testament - i.e. they still had to grow up to them), we still encounter many manifestations ordinary human weaknesses and vices: envy and jealousy, anger and vindictiveness, cunning and deception... You may even get the impression that “in the name of God all means are good” - after all, God continues to lead all these people along His path, despite the fact that they do not always show in everything there is virtue and holiness.

But : I don’t remember when and where I first read this idea, but it impressed me very much then, and it still impresses me: the narrative of the Old Testament is very honest story. Without embellishment, just as it is. The path of the people of Israel was not a smooth path; those who walked along it constantly stumbled, fell, turned away from the path, betrayed their Covenant, and again returned and climbed further; the main thing is that one way or another they reached the New Testament. Among them were ordinary and extraordinary people, and the most famous of them were just people, and the children of Adam, the writers of the books of the Old Testament did not turn a blind eye to the weaknesses and meanness that all people sometimes commit, they simply preserved these details of the story. “A person is called righteous not because he is sinless, but because in the process of long Divine education his life path becomes an example.”

To be continued This entry was originally posted at

And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy land, from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.(Genesis 12:1).

Patriarch Abraham - the founder of the chosen people- occupies a special place in the economy of our salvation. The calling of Abraham was not only the first stage in the implementation of the Divine plan for the salvation of mankind, but also established its main direction. From his calling until his death he is under special Divine care. God guides his life. Abraham, having perfect faith, unconditionally accepts the Divine plan and submits in everything will of God. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.(Rom 4:3). The history of the people from whom the The Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the Savior of the world.

Based on the data of the Greek Bible, the dates of the life of Patriarch Abraham should be considered 2165-1940 BC.

Pagan false belief was widespread at that time. It even infected the family from which Abraham came. The Lord calls Abraham to preserve intact the true worship of God, which distinguished Abraham from other contemporaries. His homeland was Ur. It was first a Sumerian and then a Chaldean city. It was located in the south of Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf. In ancient times, the Euphrates flowed here, the waters of which have now moved almost five kilometers to the east from this place. Archaeological excavations carried out in 1922-1934 by British archaeologist L. Woolley showed that Ur was one of the most civilized cities of the Ancient World, highly cultured and comfortable. It is easy to see Abraham's spiritual greatness, powerful faith and amazing submission to the all-good Divine will. He leaves a rich, refined life in a flourishing city and becomes a wanderer, without an inch of his land. In the person of the forefather of our faith, the Lord, many centuries before the advent of Christianity, revealed to people the lofty idea that in this life we ​​are all wanderers and that our whole life should be filled sweet longing for the Heavenly Fatherland.

By birth he was named Abram (see: Gen. 11, 31; 12, 1), which means, according to the etymology accepted by researchers, father of height, tall father(av - father, ram - tall). Later, when the Lord established His Covenant with the ninety-nine-year-old patriarch, He said: You will no longer be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations.(Genesis 17:5). Naming is the responsibility of the parents. However, biblical history provides many examples convincing that their choice was guided by Divine Providence. So it was with the founder of the chosen people.

The biblical account of Abraham is divided into four periods in the book of Genesis, each of which focuses on the Lord's appearances to the patriarch and the Divine blessings that accompanied them. The first appearance to Abraham was still in Ur. The Lord commanded to leave his hometown and relatives and go to the land that he would show (see: 12, 1). The Holy Apostle Paul says that Abraham by faith obeyed the call to go to the country that he had to receive.

Patriarch Abraham settled in Hebron, near the oak grove in Mamre. This famous grove was named after the Amorite Mamri, who, as an ally of Abraham, is mentioned in the book of Genesis (see: Gen. 14, 24).

When Abraham learned that four Mesopotamian kings had raided the kingdom of Sodom and taken his nephew Lot into captivity, he armed three hundred and eighteen of his servants and defeated the Mesopotamian kings, pursuing them to Dan. During the return of the patriarch, an event occurred in the Shave valley that, in its symbolic meaning, is one of the most important in Old Testament Sacred history: Abraham was met King of Salem Melchizedek, who carried out bread and wine. He was priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek blessed him. Abraham gave him a tenth of all he had.

The personality of Melchizedek is absolutely exceptional. Throughout the Old Testament, he is mentioned twice: in the book of Genesis (see: Gen. 14:18) and in Psalm 109, in which the prophet David speaks of the high priestly service of Christ according to the “order of Melchizedek” (see: Ps. 109:4) . Melchizedek is mentioned nine times in the New Testament: in the Epistle to the Hebrews (see: 7, 1-15), where the holy Apostle Paul puts Melchizedek into a mysterious connection with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Two statements can be confidently made: first, Melchizedek is a historical figure. He lived and reigned during the time of Abraham. Secondly, this personality is educational. In Hebrew his name is pronounced “Malkitzedek” (“king of truth”). Salem (in Hebrew - peace) is identified by biblical scholars with the city of Jerusalem. The bread and wine with which Melchizedek blessed Abraham are prototype of the New Testament Sacrament of the Eucharist.

After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a night vision. He was told: Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield; your reward [will be] very great(Genesis 15:1). In response, the patriarch said that he was childless. God told him: look up at the sky and count the stars if you can count them. And he said to him: so many descendants will you have(15, 5). Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.

Abram was seventy-five years old when the Lord first promised to make him a great nation. When Ishmael was born, Abram was already eighty-six years old. Saint John Chrysostom writes: “God tested the patience of the righteous man for another thirteen years and only then fulfilled His promise. He knew well that, like gold purified after a long time in a crucible, the virtue of the righteous will appear (in temptation) purer and brighter” (Conversations on the book of Genesis. 39.2).

God commanded Abraham to do on the eighth day circumcision male babies like sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham. Circumcision was a visible, distinctive sign of belonging to God's chosen people. In a spiritual sense, circumcision, which consists of cutting off the foreskin of the reproductive organ, symbolized the cutting off of carnal lusts and unclean desires. The mysterious meaning of circumcision foreshadowed the New Testament Sacrament of Baptism, washing away this hereditary ancestral damage.

Soon Abraham was honored with a new theophany, which is recognized as one of the most significant in Old Testament history. The Lord appeared to him near the oak grove of Mamre when he sat at the entrance to the tent during the heat of the day. In a vision of three strangers, Abram was shown a secret three Persons of the Divine Trinity. Abraham ran towards the three and bowed as one: Lord! If I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass Your servant by. The biblical account of the appearance of three men to Abraham is expressed in iconography.

Patriarch Abraham arranged a meal for three visitors, showing strangeness. After the meal, two Angels went to Sodom, and one remained. The inhabitants of the city were infected with a vile sin. The Patriarch turns to the remaining Angel as to the Lord, with a prayer to save the city in which his nephew lived with his family. The entire conversation of the patriarch with God, which can also be called prayer, is extremely edifying. It shows God’s great condescension and the meaning of the highest Divine truth, which does not allow the undeserved death of the righteous. This conversation also testifies to Abraham’s boldness in prayer.

The Lord promised: If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, then for their sake I will spare this whole place(Genesis 18, 26). Strengthened by these words, Abraham continues his intercession with even greater persistence, while calling himself humbly dust and ashes. Realizing how few righteous people there are in Sodom, he dares to reduce the number to forty. Since so many righteous people were not there, he asks to spare the city for the sake of thirty. Then he lowers the number to twenty, and then to ten. But there were not so many righteous people in the corrupt city.

Lot showed hospitality to two Angels. The wicked inhabitants of Sodom showed the full extent of their disgusting sinfulness. They judged themselves. When dawn rose, the angels led Lot, his wife and two daughters out of the city. They ordered them to hurry up the mountain without looking back so as not to die. Lot was afraid that he would not have time to climb the mountain. He asked permission to flee to the city of Zoar. God's mercy and condescension again manifested themselves, for Zoar was also destined for destruction, but for the sake of righteous Lot God preserved it.

When the sun rose and Lot and his family were already in Zoar, the Lord rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.

After the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham moved south and settled between Kadesh and Shur. Here God's promise to Abraham was fulfilled. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son. The Patriarch was already a hundred years old. The son born was named Isaac, as the Lord had previously commanded Abraham. On the eighth day, as God commanded him, Abraham circumcised his son.

When Isaac reached adolescence, God sent Abraham great test of faith. The everyday writer does not indicate the age of the patriarch’s son, but from the text it can be seen that he was old enough and could carry firewood for the altar himself. God commanded to take his son, go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him. When the bound Isaac lay on the wood, and Abraham took the knife in his hands, the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven and said: do not raise your hand against the boy and do nothing to him. Saint John Chrysostom notes: “Do you see God’s love for mankind? And the sacrifice was completed, and the forefather showed the piety of his soul, received a crown for his one intention” (Conversations on the book of Genesis. XLVII). This is an event of sacred history prefigures the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The Only Begotten Son of God, out of obedience to God the Father, offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of people. Isaac, who was destined for death, found life. This is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.

Later, under King Solomon, a Jerusalem Temple.

Having lived one hundred and twenty-seven years, Sarah died in Hebron. As the mother of all believers, she is the only Old Testament woman whose years of life are indicated in the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Apostle Peter sets Sarah as an example to wives: So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him master. You are her children if you do good and are not embarrassed by any fear(1 Pet 3:6).

About why indications of the age of the persons about whom the Bible narrates are so important, what little Abram answered Nimrod, what events are associated with the places where he stayed, about “good” and “bad” old age, “Chaldean fire” and “stolen saints” “says Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev, continuing to analyze the Book of Genesis, chapter 12.

The meaning of age

“And Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran."(Gen. 12:4).

Some clarification for Bible lovers. If the Bible states a person's age, then, as a rule, the Bible praises him.

« Get out of your land, says the Lord. Our land, that is, our body, before baptism was the land of the dying, but after baptism it became the land of the living. This is what the psalmist says about her: But I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living(Ps. 26:13). Through baptism, as I said, we have become the land of the living, not the dead, the land of virtues, not vices - unless, having been baptized, we return to the quagmire of vices; unless, having become the land of the living, we commit the shameful and destructive deeds of death. [And go] to the land that I will show you, says the Lord. And it is true that we will then joyfully enter the land that the Lord will show us when, with His help, we first purge sins and vices from our land, that is, our body,” writes Caesar of Arles.

The words: “and Lot went with him” must be understood to mean that Lot did not follow God, but followed his uncle, that is, “for company.”

It says Abram is 75 years old. Usually people think that 50 years, 60 – and that’s it, life is already ending. Avram's life is just beginning! He will live 175 years! Your whole life lies ahead—a whole century!

Jews believe that he should have lived 180 years. Why do they insist on this? After all, Scripture directly says that he died at 175! Because it is said that Abraham died in a “good old age” (Gen. 15:15). What do you mean? His son Ishmael, the eldest son born of Hagar, led a criminal life. But towards the end of his life he experienced repentance and turning to God. And when the burial of Abraham is spoken of, it is said: “And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is opposite Mamre” (Gen. 25:9). And the fact that Isaac’s name comes first, and Ishmael’s second, means that Ishmael recognized the spiritual primacy of Isaac, since he experienced repentance. And indeed, this is a good old age. But what does this have to do with the five years that Jews sometimes argue about?

If we leave behind bad grandchildren and ill-mannered children, this means: an unkind old age.

At this time, a boy named Esau was running around in Abraham's family. He was young (15 years old). Esau and Jacob are the children of Isaac, the son of Abraham. The Jews say: “Esau – oh, he was a nice, kosher, pretty boy! He understood the issues of what is permitted and what is not permitted. It hasn't gone bad yet! But if he had deteriorated and Grandfather Abraham had seen it, it would have been bad old age! That is, if we die and bad grandchildren and ill-mannered children are left behind us, this means: an unkind old age. But if we die and our loved ones bury us with prayer, with reverence, with diligence, this is a good old age, which can be expected for every person.

As I said before, if the Bible tells the age of a person, it wants to praise him. For example, when the Bible talks about the circumcision of Ishmael, the son of Hagar, it says that he was 13 years old (see: Gen. 17:25). And commentators asked the question: why did Moses specify that he was exactly 13 years old? what can this teach us?

At the age of 13, he could have been afraid of what was happening, he could have run away - all men were circumcised! But he, as an adult, stood in line, and Abraham circumcised him. And in order to praise him, this clarification is given: “he was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised” (Gen. 17:25). So every number of Scripture and every letter and word have great significance for us, as Christ said: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until all is fulfilled.” "(Matthew 5:18).

“Not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until everything is fulfilled.”- a comparison with this letter (י) shows that even what seems the smallest in the law is full of spiritual secrets and everything will be concisely repeated in the Gospel,” writes Blessed Jerome.

What god do you believe in?

And Abram - and this was a man who was predicted that all the tribes of the earth would be blessed in him - leaves Harran. In the Book of Genesis, Abram is the ancestor of the Jews, the first Jew, together with his father Terah, wife Sarah and nephew Lot, went to Canaan (see: Gen. 11: 31).

Terah ( Terah) died on the way to Harran. There, God commanded Abram to leave the country, promising to make his descendants a great nation.

Abram was 75 and five years old when he left Haran (see: Gen. 12:4). And Farrah ( Terahu) was 70 years old when Abram was born (see: 11:26). This means Terah was 145 years old when Abram left Haran and still had many years to live. Why does Scripture speak of Terah's death before Abram's departure? So that everyone does not know about this, so that they do not say that Abram did not fulfill the duty of honoring his father, left him in his old age and left. Therefore Scripture speaks of him as dead. We must understand that he was spiritually dead, that is, he remained a pagan. Therefore Abram could desert him; cf.: “And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him” (Matthew 4:22); and again: “And everyone who leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19: 29).

Abraham, then a 75-year-old man, went to Canaan with Sarah and Lot. Near Shechem, God appeared to him again and promised this entire country as an inheritance to his descendants (see: Gen. 12: 1–9). It was not just an exodus; rather, it looked like an escape, an exile.

How does this expulsion happen?

This is not described in the Bible, but there are traditions about this event that are the same among different ethnic and religious groups. Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike talk about the flight of Abram, citing the ancients. These are legends about Abram’s childhood, very interesting legends. We find something similar in the Face Vault of John IV the Terrible (XVI century), in Blessed Jerome and in the Tolkova Paleia (XI-XII centuries), in St. Demetrius of Rostov in his wonderful “Cell Chronicler”.

When Abram was a little boy, his father Terah (Terach) was engaged in selling idols: he made them and sold them. And so little Abram once sat, looked out the window and thought about God: “Which of the gods should I choose, who should I worship?” He saw the stars, the moon. What a beauty! And he thought: “This is my god - the moon! The stars will help her!”

But the moon and stars set, and Abram said:

- I don’t like gods who come in!

The sun appeared - the ancient Egyptians revered the sun as the god Ra, the Slavs, our ancestors, revered the sun as the god Yarilo. But the sun has also set...

And then the little boy understood what many were not able to understand, how can we read this from; the inner voice of conscience suggested to this little boy the idea of ​​the unity of God. Young Abram realized that God is the One who created the sun, the stars, the moon, and the earth.

And he destroyed all the idols in his father’s shop while he was not at home. There was also a large idol there that Abram could not move. And when the father returned, looked at the mess that had been created and sternly asked little Abram: “Who did this?” Abram replied:

- This big one killed all the little ones!

The father then cried out:

– Are you laughing at me? He can't walk!

– To which Abram, this youth of God, reasonably remarked:

- Why, father, do you worship him if he can’t even walk?

A scandal arose: the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldeans found out about what had happened. According to ancient legend, the ruler of Ur of the Chaldeans was then none other than Nimrod, the builder of the Tower of Babel. And so he called Abram for interrogation.

Little Abram stands in front of the tyrant, and he asks him:

– What God do you believe in? Answer, child!

And Abram said:

– I believe in God, who gives life and takes it away.

Then Nimrod says:

- So it’s me! I give life when I cancel an execution, and I kill when I pronounce a death sentence!

The boy looked at this pagan monster and said to him:

And then the boy said to the ruler: “The sun rises in the east. Command it to rise in the west!”

– The sun rises in the east. Command it to rise in the west!

And this ruler became terribly angry and ordered the fireplace that he had to be kindled, and threw Abram into this oven.

The fact is that the word “ur” can mean “fire”, and this name Ur Kazdim (Ur of the Chaldeans) can mean “Chaldean fire”. And when the Scripture says that he left Ur of the Chaldeans, it can be translated that he fled from there to escape the fire.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov wrote in the “Cell Chronicler”: “... the Chaldeans were angry with Abram for the destruction of their idols and threw him into the fire, but he came out of there, preserved by the power of God unharmed from the fire.”

And so this tyrant looks at Abram, but Abram, like those three youths in the oven in the days of the prophet Daniel (see: Dan. 3:92), walks, prays, glorifies the only Lord... Then Nimrod calls him from there and says:

- Get out with your family so you are not here!

Blessed Jerome wrote: “Thus, the tradition of the Jews is true, which I said above, that Terah came out with his sons from the “fire of the Chaldeans” and that Abram, being among the Babylonian fire, because he did not wish it (the fire - the deity of the Chaldeans. - Prot. O.S.) to worship, was released thanks to God's help; and from the time when he confessed the Lord... the days of his life and age are counted.”

“And from the time that he confessed the Lord, the days of life and age are numbered.”

That is, it doesn’t matter how old you are - 15 or 70 - true life begins then (“the days of his life and age are counted”) when a person turns from the darkness of unbelief to the Divine light (“from the time when he confessed the Lord”).

I remember when I was a child, my grandmother called me into the church gatehouse:

- Let's go have tea with the girls.

I happily agreed. We go into the lodge, and there are only grandmothers there, 70–80 years old. And I asked:

-Where are the girls?

Grandma said:

- Everything is in front of you! – And pointed to the old women.

One of them says:

- We are all girls here! I believed ten years ago, others even younger.

We cannot buy eternal life at the price of temporary life. We cannot buy incorruptible life at the price of perishable life, no matter how correctly we live here! We cannot purchase life in Heaven at the cost of life on earth! These are incommensurable and incomparable things! Therefore, whether there were Abram’s exploits or not, God chose this man! And this man followed Him.

A few words about the “stolen saints”

By the way, the Russian people love most those saints who were not stolen from us. I'll explain what I mean. I completely agree with Professor A.I. Osipov, who says that when the lives of saints were compiled in the 17th century, many texts were copied from Catholic sources, where there were a lot of incredible fantasies. And as a result, we now have stolen saints. What does "stolen saint" mean? Here Simeon the New Theologian writes (I did not dare to quote his text without abbreviations):

I was a murderer - listen up everyone!...
I was, alas for me, an adulterer at heart...
I was a fornicator, a magician...
A user of oaths and a money-grubber,
A thief, a liar, a shameless person, a kidnapper - woe is me! –
An insulter, a brother-hater,
filled with envy
A lover of money and a doer
Every other kind of evil.
Yes, believe me, I'm telling the truth about this
Without pretense and without guile!

I read it and thought: I should read his biography - when did he have time? I open his biography: “From childhood, he visited a monastery, flourished with the greatest piety, reached the heights of spiritual life, was transferred to another monastery... there he reached even greater heights and was returned to his monastery, where he labored in piety until his death.”

Or, for example, I read Macarius the Great: “Everyone considers me holy and righteous, I am many years old, and still lustful passions overcome me...”

Our saints were stolen! This is a very serious problem. And the people feel it. Previously, in Rus', every day during the service a book called “Prologue” was read. This book read the life of a saint of a particular day. The Russian people now read nothing from the Prologue, except for just one life! This is the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt. Because obviously nothing was stolen here, she is what she was. And such a life can inspire a sinful person to ask himself the question: “Why am I standing still? Why am I not doing anything to change my life?”

"And all the people they made"

"And Abram took Sarah with him , his wife, Lota , his brother's son (his brother died. - Prot. O.S.)and all the property that they acquired, and all the people that they had in Haran."(Gen. 12:5).

Here, from Hebrew, you need to literally translate it like this: “and all the people they made in Harran.” How do you understand this: “made in Harran”?

If they say about a person: “He makes money,” this does not mean that he is a counterfeiter, right? He just knows how to earn them. And the words: “they took all the people they made in Haran” should be understood as follows: Abram preached Monotheism to men, faith in one God, and Sarah preached to women.

“This holy duo, Abraham and Sarah, united in flesh and spirit, was among the infidel race like a grain in thorns, like a spark in ashes and like gold among blat. While all nations sank into idolatry and lived godlessly, committing unspeakable evil and ungodly iniquities, they both knew one God and believed in Him and served Him faithfully, pleasing them with good deeds. They glorified and preached His holy name to others whom they could, instructing them in the knowledge of God. For this reason, God led them from one place to another.”

And they, Abram and Sarah, created a religious community. And the word “Jew”, indeed, in its original meaning does not mean a nation, but rather a religious affiliation. And Christians have never perceived the word “Jew” or “Jew” as a designation of nationality.

The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes: “For he is not a Jew outwardly, nor is circumcision made outwardly in the flesh; but he who is a Jew inwardly, and that circumcision which is in the heart is in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29). And the ancient prophets called on the so-called ethnic Jews (Jews): “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskin from your heart” (Jer. 4:4). Yes, they were circumcised—thus maintaining the outward form—but their hearts were not circumcised to God.

In the land of Canaan

“And they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram walked through the land [along its length] to the place of Shechem, to the oak grove of Moreh. The Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time.”(Gen. 12:5–6).

Abram seemed to pray for places in which significant and sometimes extremely dangerous events for his descendants later took place.

If we carefully write down all the sites of Abram, where he made altars, where he simply stopped for a while, and look at where these places are found in the Bible, we will see that he seemed to pray for places in which some kind of events later took place. very significant and sometimes extremely dangerous events for his descendants.

Here is Shechem. In Shechem, nine-year-old Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was raped when she went to see how the people of the area lived. The Prince of Shechem fell in love with this little Dinah, took her to him, abused her, but then became afraid because of what he had done, and negotiations began.

Dina's brothers Levi and Simeon, who were her brothers on both her father's and mother's sides, found out what they had done to nine-year-old Dina and decided to take revenge. They told the people of Shechem: “We cannot do this, marry our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for this is dishonorable for us” (Gen. 34:14).

And all the inhabitants of Shechem were circumcised. And when a person undergoes circumcision, due to the peculiarities of physiology, he lies in a fever for three days, it is very difficult for him to move. And so, when the circumcised inhabitants were in a fever, Levi and Simeon, the brothers of this girl, slaughtered all the men of Shechem. And then they gave this entire city to their other brothers for plunder (see: Gen. 34: 18–31).

They, of course, had the right to take revenge on the rapist for their sister, but without this extreme cruelty! Later, Patriarch Jacob will say about them: “Cursed is their anger, for it is cruel, and their wrath, for it is fierce” (Gen. 49: 7).

Shechem is also the “oak forest of More”, a place between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Upon entering the Promised Land, the descendants of Abraham cursed sinners on Mount Ebal and blessed them on Mount Gerizim (Deut. 11:29).

And Abram stops in Shechem, he is God's prophet.

“And Abram walked through the land [along its length] to the place of Shechem, to the oak grove of Moreh. The Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time.”(Gen. 12:6).

Why does Moses use this phrase: “the Canaanites [lived] in this land at that time”?

Now, if, for example, we go out into the street and I say: “And here recently there were Uzbeks and Chechens standing,” what does that mean? This means they are gone! And when Moses writes that the Canaanites were still living on that land, it means that they were still living when Moses wrote these words.

By this, the everyday life writer Moses shows that the Canaanites captured this land. Remember how the Book of Acts says: “Of one blood (that is, the blood of Adam. - Prot. O.S.) He (that is, the Lord. - Prot. O.S.) brought forth the whole human race to inhabit all the face of the earth, appointing predetermined times and limits for their habitation” (Acts 17:26)? And this land, the holy land, was intended for the descendants of Shem, Eber and Abraham. That’s why it says here: “The Canaanites lived in this land at that time,” that is, they lived illegally.

“And the Lord appeared to Abram and said to [him], “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there [Abram] built an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him.”(Gen. 12:7).

An altar to the Lord is built in Shechem, and the Lord says that He will take care of Abram’s descendants: “To your descendants I will give this land.” That is, I’ll give it back later when I drive the strangers away from it.

“From there he went to the mountain, east of Bethel; and he pitched his tent so that from it Bethel was to the west, and Ai to the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.”(Gen. 12:8).

The words: “his tent” must be understood to mean that he first pitched his wife’s tent, then his own. In the spelling אָהֳלֹה, the letter ה " het" at the end of a word instead of ו " wav" means: "her tent." First he pitched his wife's tent, and then his own. This is a lesson for husbands: take care of your wife first, then yourself. It is said: “In the same way, husbands, treat your wives wisely, as the weaker vessel, showing them honor, as heirs together of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7). It turns out that if someone does not give up his seat to a woman, for example on a bus or subway, his prayers are imperfect.

These two righteous people - Abraham and Sarah - left interesting lessons in family life for us!