Who was Abraham?

Bible People & HistoryIn theological review

The short answer

Abraham was the man God called out of Mesopotamia to become the father of a new nation, Israel, and the ancestor of Jesus. Genesis 12 to 25 tells his story: God promised him land, countless descendants and blessing for all nations through his family, and Abraham believed God, wandered as a stranger, stumbled at times, and held on to the promise for the rest of his life.

The fuller answer

Abraham, first called Abram, appears in Genesis 11 and 12 as a man from Ur and then Haran, in Mesopotamia. God called him to leave his country and his father's household and go to a land God would show him, the land of Canaan. He went in old age, with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, having no child and no land of his own. Almost everything that follows in the Bible traces back to this call, because Israel, its law, its kings and finally Jesus himself all come from Abraham's line.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:3 (BSB)

The heart of Abraham's story is a promise in three parts: land, a great nation from his own descendants, and blessing reaching beyond his family to all the families of the earth. Genesis repeats and deepens that promise over many years while Abraham and Sarah remained childless. When Abraham believed God's word about descendants as countless as the stars, Genesis says his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Paul takes up that exact moment in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 to show that Abraham was put right with God by faith, before circumcision and before the law given through Moses.

Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:6 (BSB)

Abraham was not flawless, and Genesis does not hide it. Twice, in Egypt and again in Gerar, he passed Sarah off as his sister out of fear and put her at risk. He agreed to Sarah's plan to have a child through her servant Hagar, and the family conflict that followed is told in painful detail. Yet he also interceded for Sodom, welcomed strangers, and grew into a man known for prayer and generosity. The honest portrait matters: the promise rested on God's faithfulness, not on Abraham being a hero who never failed.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”

Genesis 22:12 (BSB)

The severest test came when God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac, the child of the promise, on Mount Moriah. Genesis 22 tells how Abraham obeyed to the point of binding Isaac and raising the knife, and how God stopped him and provided a ram instead. Hebrews 11 says Abraham reasoned that God could raise Isaac from the dead. Paul calls Abraham the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike, and Jesus told his hearers that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. To know Abraham is to know where the whole biblical story of faith begins.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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Who was Moses?Moses was the Hebrew prophet who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law of God at Mount Sinai, and led the people through forty years in the wilderness to the edge of the promised land. The Bible's verdict on him is unmatched for an Old Testament figure: no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.Why did God test Abraham?God tested Abraham to prove and strengthen Abraham's faith in action, not to learn something he did not know. Hebrews says Abraham trusted that God could raise Isaac, God stopped the sacrifice and provided a ram, and James distinguishes such a test from temptation, since God never tempts anyone to evil.Who was Paul?Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles: a Pharisee who persecuted the church, met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and spent the rest of his life planting churches around the Roman world and writing the letters that fill much of the New Testament. No other figure explains how a crucified Jewish Messiah came to be worshipped from Jerusalem to Rome within one generation.Did Adam and Eve really exist?Yes, Contend treats Adam and Eve as real people, the first human beings, created by God and standing at the head of the human race. Genesis 1 to 5 presents them as historical figures in a genealogy that runs on into recorded history, Jesus and the apostles speak of Adam as a real man, and Paul's teaching that sin and death came through one man, answered by salvation through one man, Jesus, only works if Adam was real.Bible Character: AbrahamThe father of Israel, who believed God's promise when it looked impossible, and whose faith was counted as righteousness.Bible Character: SarahAbraham's wife, who laughed at the promise and then bore Isaac in her old age, exactly as God had said.Bible Character: IsaacThe son of promise born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, who carried the wood of his own offering up Moriah.On the map: HebronFind it in the Lands of the Bible, with the verses that place it there.Lesson: The big story of the BibleThe Bible is one story, not sixty-six separate ones. Walk the whole arc once, from creation to new creation, and every book you open will have a place to sit.