Abraham

===Christianity===
{{Infobox saint
|name = Abraham
|feast_day = 9 October – [[Roman Catholicism]] and [[Lutheranism]]<ref name="LCMS">{{cite web |title=Commemorations |url=https://www.lcms.org/worship/church-year/commemorations |publisher=[[Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]] |access-date=31 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
|venerated_in = {{hlist <!--chronological:-->|[[Judaism]] |[[Christianity]] |[[Islam]] |[[Druze faith]]<ref name="Hitti 1928 37" /><ref name="Dana 2008 17" /> |[[Baháʼí Faith]]}}
|image = Aert de Gelder 009.jpg
|imagesize = 240px
|caption = ''Abraham and the Angels'', by [[Aert de Gelder]], {{circa|1680–85}} ([[Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen]], Rotterdam)
|titles = First Patriarch
}}
In [[Christianity]], Abraham is revered as the [[Prophets of Christianity|prophet]] to whom God chose to reveal himself and with whom God initiated a [[Covenant (biblical)|covenant]] (cf. ''[[Covenant Theology]]'').{{sfn|Wright|2010|p=72}}{{sfn|Waters|Reid|Muether|2020|p=}} [[Paul the Apostle]] declared that all who believe in Jesus ([[Christians]]) are "included in the seed of Abraham and are inheritors of the promise made to Abraham."{{sfn|Wright|2010|p=72}} In [[Letter to the Romans|Romans]] 4, Abraham is praised for his "unwavering faith" in God, which is tied into the concept of partakers of the covenant of grace being those "who demonstrate faith in the saving power of Christ".<ref>Firestone, Reuven. [http://cmje.usc.edu/articles/abraham.php "Abraham."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909233637/http://cmje.usc.edu/articles/abraham.php |date=9 September 2017 }} ''Encyclopedia of World History''.</ref>{{sfn|Waters|Reid|Muether|2020|p=}}

Throughout history, church leaders, following Paul, have emphasized Abraham as the spiritual father of all Christians.{{sfn|Jeffrey|1992|p=10}} [[Augustine of Hippo]] declared that Christians are "children (or "seed") of Abraham by faith", [[Ambrose]] stated that "by means of their faith Christians possess the promises made to Abraham", and [[Martin Luther]] recalled Abraham as "a paradigm of the man of faith."{{efn|{{harvnb|Jeffrey|1992|p=10}} states "St. Augustine, following Paul, regards all Christians as children (or "seed") of Abraham by faith, although "born of strangers" (e.g. In Joan. Ev. 108). St. Ambrose likewise says that by means of their faith Christians possess the promises made to Abraham. Abraham's initial departure from his homeland is understood by St. Caesarius of Arles as a type of Christian leaving the world of carnal habits to follow Christ. Later commentators as diverse as Luther and Kierkegaard recall Abraham as a paradigm of the man of faith. }}

The [[Roman Catholic Church]], the largest Christian denomination, calls Abraham "our father in Faith" in the [[Eucharistic prayer]] of the [[Roman Canon]], recited during the [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]]. He is also commemorated in the [[calendar of saints|calendars of saints]] of several denominations: on 20 August by the [[Maronite Church]], 28 August in the [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Coptic Church]] and the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] (with the full [[daily office|office]] for the latter), and on 9 October by the Roman Catholic Church and the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]].<ref name="LCMS"/> In the introduction to his 15th-century translation of the [[Golden Legend]]'s account of Abraham, [[William Caxton]] noted that this patriarch's life was read in church on [[Sunday before Lent|Quinquagesima Sunday]].<ref name="Caxton">{{cite web|last=Caxton|first=William|title=Abraham|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume1.asp#Abraham|website=The Golden Legend|publisher=Internet Medieval Source Book|access-date=3 April 2014}}</ref>
He is the [[patron saint]] of those in the hospitality industry.{{sfn|Holweck|1924|p=}}{{page needed|date=May 2017}} The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] commemorates him as the "Righteous Forefather Abraham", with two [[feast day]]s in its [[Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar|liturgical calendar]]. The first time is on 9 October (for those churches which follow the traditional [[Julian Calendar]], 9 October falls on 22 October of the modern [[Gregorian Calendar]]), where he is commemorated together with his nephew "Righteous Lot". The other is on the "Sunday of the Forefathers" (two Sundays before Christmas), when he is commemorated together with other [[Genealogy of Jesus|ancestors of Jesus]]. Abraham is also mentioned in the [[Divine Liturgy]] of [[Basil the Great]], just before the Anaphora, and Abraham and Sarah are invoked in the prayers said by the priest over a newly married couple.

Some Christian theologians equate the [[#Three visitors|"three visitors"]] with the Holy [[Trinity]], seeing in their apparition a [[theophany]] experienced by Abraham<ref name=Bucur>{{cite journal |last= Bucur |first= Bogdan G. |title= The Early Christian Reception of Genesis 18: From Theophany to Trinitarian Symbolism |year= 2015 |pages= 245–272 |journal=[[Journal of Early Christian Studies]] |volume= 23 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=[[Baltimore]], MD |number= 2 |doi= 10.1353/earl.2015.0020 |s2cid= 12888388 |url= https://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/theology/_pdf/faculty-publications/Bucur%20publications/JECS%202015%20Genesis%2018.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/theology/_pdf/faculty-publications/Bucur%20publications/JECS%202015%20Genesis%2018.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date= 1 June 2022}}</ref> (see also the articles on the [[Constantine the Great|Constantinian]] [[basilica]] at [[Mamre#Late Roman festival and Byzantine basilica|Mamre]] and the church at the so-called "[[Oak of Mamre]]").

Arie C. Leider considers Abraham's altars in Canaan in {{Bibleverse|Genesis|12:7-8}} to be a "declaration of YHWH's sovereignty and ownership of the land", even before Joshua distributed the land to the Israelite tribes. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leder |first=Arie C. |date=2019 |title="There he built an altar to the Lord" (Gen 12:8): City and Altar Building in Genesis |url=http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1010-99192019000100004#:~:text=The%20altar%20constructions%20(Gen%2012,to%20salvation%20from%20the%20flood. |journal=Old Testament Essays |volume=32 |issue=1 |doi=10.17159/2312-3621/2019/v32n1a5 |via=SciELO|doi-access=free }}</ref>