Abraham
WordNet
noun
(1) The first of the Old Testament patriarchs and the father of Isaac; according to Genesis, God promised to give Abraham's family (the Hebrews) the land of Canaan (the Promised Land); God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son
"Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each has a special claim on Abraham"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From Abraham < (Abraam) < אַבְרָהָם (ʾAḇrāhām). Glossed as אָב (av = 'father') + המון (hamon = 'multitude') "father of a multitude (of nations)" in Genesis; or from Hebrew אַבְרָם, 'exalted father' or '[my] father is exalted', from אָב (av = 'father') + רָם (ram = 'high', 'lofty').
Proper noun
- A prophet in the Old Testament and Koran; the Semitic patriarch, father of the Jewish patriarch Isaac (by his wife Sarah) and the Arab patriarch Ishmael (by his concubine Hagar).
- .
Quotations
- 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 17:5
- Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but they name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
- 1980 — Werner Keller, The Bible as History (tr. by William Neil), ch.7, p 93
- As one would expect of caravan people around 1900 B.C., the caravan people depicted in the Khnum-hotpe grave had donkeys, whereas the Bible says that Abraham and his people, who according to the traditional interpretation are supposed to have lived at the same period, already possessed camels.