Abraham

Abraham (Hebrew אֲבִירָם / אַבְרָהָם Avraham / Aviram folk etymological: "father of the many [nations]" [Genesis 17:4 f.] from אַבְרָם Avram "(The) father is exalted", Aramaic ܐܒܪܗܡ Abrohom, Old Yiddish Awroham, Arabic إبرَاهِيم Ibrāhīm) is a central figure of the Tanakh or Old Testament as the progenitor of Israel. He is also considered the progenitor of the Arabs; the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, is said to be descended from his son Ishmael (see Abraham in Islam). Abraham's story is told in the biblical book of Genesis or Bereshit (Gen 12-25 EU). According to it, he belongs together with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob to the Archfathers, from whom, according to biblical tradition, the Twelve Tribes of the people of Israel emerged.

Since both Judaism, Christianity and Islam refer to Abraham as their progenitor, they are also called the three Abrahamic (world) religions.

Outside of the biblical narratives and traditions dependent on them, there is no evidence for the existence of Abraham. The historical circumstances mentioned in the Abraham narratives also do not allow any clear conclusions to be drawn about the contemporary historical background of the biblical narratives. The archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil A. Silberman point to some anachronisms in the text that suggest that the narratives may have been written in a late period. The time in which the Abraham narratives of the Tanakh take place is generally placed at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE.

Family Tree

In Islam