Abrahamic religions Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Significance of Abraham === {{Main |Covenant of the pieces |Abraham#Christianity |Abraham in Islam}} [[File:Greater Israel map.jpg |thumb |upright=1.1 |An interpretation of the borders (in red) of the [[Promised Land]], based on God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:18)<ref>{{bibleverse |Genesis |15 |HE}}</ref>]] Even though members of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not all claim Abraham as an ancestor, some members of these religions have tried to claim him as exclusively theirs.{{sfn |Lubar Institute |2016}} For [[Jews]], Abraham is the founding [[Patriarchs (Bible)|patriarch]] of the children of Israel. God promised Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you."<ref>{{bibleverse |Gen. |12:2}}</ref> With Abraham, God entered into "an everlasting covenant throughout the ages to be God to you and to your offspring to come".<ref>{{bibleverse |Gen. |17:7}}</ref> It is this covenant that makes Abraham and his descendants children of the covenant. Similarly, converts, who join the covenant, are all identified as sons and daughters of Abraham.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kolatch|first= Alfred J.|author-link= Alfred J. Kolatch|date= 1985|title= The second Jewish book of why |url= https://archive.org/details/secondjewishbook00kola|location= Middle Village, N.Y|publisher= J. David Publishers|page= 127|isbn=0824603052}}</ref> Abraham is primarily a revered ancestor or [[patriarch]] (referred to as ''Avraham Avinu'' (ืืืจืื ืืืื ื in [[Hebrew]]) "Abraham our father") to whom God made several promises: chiefly, that he would have numberless descendants, who would receive the land of Canaan (the "[[Promised Land]]"). According to Jewish tradition, Abraham was the first post-[[Genesis flood narrative|Flood]] prophet to reject [[idolatry]] through rational analysis, although [[Shem]] and [[Eber]] carried on the tradition from [[Noah]].{{sfn |Schultz |1975 |pp=51โ52}}{{sfn |Kaplan |1973 |p=161}} [[Abraham#Christianity|Christians view Abraham]] as an important exemplar of [[Faith in Christianity|faith]], and a spiritual, as well as physical, ancestor of Jesus. For Christians, Abraham is a spiritual forebear as well as/rather than a direct ancestor depending on the [[Paul the Apostle and Judaism|individual's interpretation of Paul the Apostle]],<ref>{{bibleverse |Rom. |4:9โ12}}</ref> with the [[Abrahamic covenant]] "reinterpreted so as to be defined by faith in Christ rather than biological descent" or both by faith as well as a direct ancestor; in any case, the emphasis is placed on faith being the only requirement for the Abrahamic Covenant to apply<ref>Blasi, Turcotte, Duhaime, p. 592.</ref> (see also [[New Covenant]] and [[supersessionism]]). In Christian belief, Abraham is a [[role model]] of faith,<ref>{{bibleverse |Heb. |11:8โ10}}</ref>{{primary source inline |date=August 2017}} and his obedience to God by [[Binding of Isaac|offering Isaac]] is seen as a [[foreshadowing]] of God's offering of his son Jesus.<ref>{{bibleverse |Rom. |8:32}}</ref>{{sfn |MacArthur |1996 |}} Christian commentators have a tendency to interpret God's promises to Abraham as applying to Christianity subsequent to, and sometimes rather than (as in supersessionism), being applied to Judaism, whose adherents [[Rejection of Jesus|rejected Jesus]].{{POV statement |date=August 2022}} They argue this on the basis that just as Abraham as a [[Gentile]] (before he was [[Circumcision controversy in early Christianity|circumcised]]) "believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness"<ref>{{bibleverse |Gen. |15:6}}</ref> (cf. Rom. 4:3, James 2:23), "those who have faith are children of Abraham"<ref>{{bibleverse |Gal. |3:7}}</ref> (see also John 8:39). This is most fully developed in [[Pauline Christianity|Paul's theology]] where all who believe in God are spiritual descendants of Abraham.<ref>{{bibleverse |Rom. |4:20}}, {{bibleverse |Gal. |4:9}}</ref>{{efn |"So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."{{citation needed |date=August 2022}} "In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring."{{bibleverse | |Romans |9:8 |HE}}}} However, with regards to Rom. 4:20<ref>{{bibleverse|Romans|4:20|KJV}} King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)</ref> and Gal. 4:9,<ref>{{bibleverse|Galatians|4:9|KJV}} King James Version (Oxford Standard, 1769)</ref> in both cases he refers to these spiritual descendants as the "[[sons of God]]"<ref>{{bibleverse |Gal. |4:26}}</ref> rather than "children of Abraham".<ref>Bickerman, p. 188cf.</ref> For Muslims, Abraham is a [[Prophet of Islam|prophet]], the "[[apostle (Islam)|messenger]] of God" who stands in the line from Adam to Muhammad, to whom God gave revelations,{{cite quran |4 |163}}, who "raised the foundations of the House" (i.e., the [[Kaaba]]){{cite quran |2 |127}} with his first son, [[Isma'il]], a symbol of which is every mosque.{{sfn |Leeming |2005 |p=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000leem/page/209 209]}} Ibrahim (Abraham) is the first in a [[genealogy]] for Muhammad. Islam considers Abraham to be "one of the first Muslims" (Surah 3)โthe first monotheist in a world where monotheism was lost, and the community of those faithful to God,{{sfn |Fischer |Abedi |1990 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/debatingmuslimsc0000fisc/page/163 163]โ166}} thus being referred to as ุงุจููุง ุงุจุฑุงููู or "Our Father Abraham", as well as ''Ibrahim [[Hanif|al-Hanif]]'' or "Abraham the Monotheist". Also, the same as Judaism, Islam believes that Abraham rejected idolatry through logical reasoning. Abraham is also recalled in certain details of the annual [[Hajj]] pilgrimage.{{sfn |Hawting |2006 |pp=xviii, xix, xx, xxiii}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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