Who is Abraham?

• Abraham's name first appears as

Abram (Hebrew: ‫ַאב ְָרם‬, Standard
 Avram Tiberian ʾAḇrām)
meaning either "exalted father"
or "my father is exalted"
• Abraham is mentioned many
times in the Hebrew Bible, the
story of his life is found in
Genesis, from chapter 11:26 to
25:10.
• According to Genesis, Abraham was born in
Ur of the Chaldees and given the name
Abram. He was the son of Terah and the
brother of Nahor and Haran. He married Sarai,
his half-sister, who was barren, and there also
his brother Haran died after becoming the
father of Lot. Terah, with his surviving sons
and their families, then departed for Canaan,
but settled in Haran, where Terah died at the
age of 205.
• Following the death of Terah, when Abram was
seventy-five, the Lord spoke to Abram, telling
him to leave his father's house and his kindred
and the land of his birth and go "to the land that I
will show you", where Abram will become a great
nation. So Abram departed Haran with his wife
Sarai and his nephew Lot and all their followers
and flocks, and they traveled to Canaan, where,
at Shechem, the Lord gave the land to him and
his seed. There Abram built an altar to the Lord
and continued to travel towards the south.[
• Following the period spent in Egypt, Abram, Sarai
and his nephew Lot, returned to Ai in Canaan.
There they dwelt for some time, their herds
increasing, until strife arose between the
herdsmen. Abram thereupon proposed to Lot
that they should separate, allowing Lot the first
choice. Lot took the fertile land lying east of the
Jordan River and near to Sodom and Gomorrah,
while Abram lived in Canaan, moving down to the
oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar
to the Lord
• During this period, Sarai, being barren, offers
her handmaiden, Hagar, to Abram. Hagar
soon conceives. Sarai, jealous of this, treats
Hagar harshly, forcing her to flee. When in the
desert, the Lord appears to Hagar, telling her
to return, but promising that her son shall also
be the father of a "multitude". Her son is
called Ishmael
• When Abram is ninety-nine, the Lord again
appears to him and affirms his promise. A
covenant is entered into: Sarai will give to
birth to a son who will be called Isaac and
Abram's house must from thenceforth be
circumcised. It is promised that Ishmael will
father twelve princes, who will become a
great nation. Abram's name is changed to
Abraham and Sarai's to Sarah
• Soon after, the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah bring two
angels down to investigate. Abraham pleads with them to
spare the city if first fifty, then forty-five, then forty, then
thirty, then twenty, and finally ten righteous men are found
in the city. In each case the angels agree that the city would
be spared. They enter the city, where they meet Lot, who
offers them hospitality. Soon a crowd gathers around Lot's
house, demanding the two angels that they may "know"
them. Lot offers his daughters, but the men of the city
press forward until the angels smite them with blindness. In
the morning Lot is told to flee and not to look back as the
cities are destroyed. However, his wife disobeys and is
turned into a pillar of salt