Abraham: his life and times
The materials for the facts of the life of Abraham are found in Holy Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, and in some of the later writings. I have taken it for granted that these statements are authentic, and have not thought it necessary to follow Ewald and his school in distinguishing the various authors of them, assigning this to "the Book of Origins," and that to the First narrator, and that to the Second, and so on. Nor have I esteemed the details thus given as accretions that have grown up around a great central figure in the lapse of centuries, the outcome of hero-worship, the result of the natural desire to accumulate on a great forefather anything that would tend to elevate his personal character or exalt the favour with which he was regarded by God.
The narrative appears to me to be, consistent, Derived doubtless from different sources, but worked up by the compiler into a fairly complete biography, which, taken in conjunction with hints afforded by the later Scriptures, leaves on the mind a finished picture of the " Father of the Faithful." Accessory to the Scripture account are the history of Josephus and some treatises of Philo, which contain additional facts more or less mythical, derived from certain records or Jewish traditions. Eusebius in his " Praeparatio Evangelica," adds some circum- stances, and a. few of the Fathers afford a little further information, Ephraem Syrus is said to have composed a work on Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, which however, if existing in MS., has not been published. A plentiful crop of legends has, as was natural, risen around the true story of this celebrated man.
Many of these will be found in " The Book of Jubilees," which under the name of Kvfale has been discovered in an Abyssinian dress, and translated in Ewald's "Jahrbucber," ii. and iii. The most copious collection, however, gathered from the Talmud and other sources, has been made by Beer in his " Leben Abraham's nach Auffassung der jiidischen Sage."
The Koran has contributed largely to this legendary lore. Other Mussulman traditions are found in Weil's work, "The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud." Immense assistance to understanding the various phases of the Patriarch's life has been derived from the inter- predations of the cuneiform inscriptions of the East and the hieroglyphs of. Egypt, embodied in the works of Schrader, G. Smith, Rawlmson, Sayce, Brugsch, and others. Topography is cleared by the travels of Robinson, Thomson, Stanley, Tristram, Loftus, Porter, Malan, etc., and the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The commentaries of Kalisch; Delitzsch, and especially Dillmann (ed. 1886), afford the most valuable information. Of monographs on this subject very few exist. The best and most recent is that by Dr. Oswald Dykes, " Abraham, the Friend of God. The Rev. R. Allen's work, " Abraham; His Life and Times, as by a Contemporary," is a romance founded on reliable ^materials, but extending only to the arrival at Haran. The Rev. H. Blunt published some " Lectures on Abraham " in 1831, and the Hon. L. J. Barrington a book entitled " but these are rather homiletic and edificatory than scientific. It is almost unnecessary to add that the Dictionaries of the Bible, such as those of Herzog, Winer, Smith, Kitto, and McClintock and Strong, contain epitomes of the most necessary information, with references to other works which bear on the subject.
Author: Deane, W. J. (William John), 1823-1895
Publication date: 1888
Company:New York Chicago [etc.] : Revell
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