#thepatriarch

Bible

The Bible takes its name from the Latin Biblia ('book' or 'books') which comes from the Greek Ta Biblia ('the books') traced to the Phoenician port city of Gebal, known as Byblos to the Greeks. Writing became associated with Byblos as an exporter of papyrus (used in writing) and the Greek name for papyrus was bublos.

Although the Bible is often considered a single, cohesive, work, it is actually an anthology of ancient writings by many different authors over many centuries, which were collected in a single book. The Bible contains works of poetry, religious-themed narratives, philosophical musings such as The Book of Ecclesiastes, epistles, and the apocalyptic masterpiece known as The Book of Revelation.

The common thread in all these collected works is the existence of an all-powerful deity who is the creator of the universe and has an interest in the personal lives and final fate of human beings. The books of the Christian Bible were arranged in the sequence one finds them in today to tell the story of the creation of the world by a supreme deity, the fall of man from paradise, and humanity's redemption by the Son of God but these books were not written in that sequence nor would the original authors of the Old Testament works have had that particular story in mind.

The Bible of Judaism (collected and authorized by c. 3rd century BCE) contains the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the Tanakh (the stories of the judges and prophets) and makes no mention of Jesus Christ. The God of the Bible in these works is the God of Judaism - a single all-powerful deity - and, prior to the appropriation of Hebrew scriptures by early Christianity, the stories which made up the Bible told the story of God's care for and intervention in the affairs of the Israelites of the Middle East.

Structure of the Bible

In Judaism, the scriptures are called the Tanakh and are recognized as comprising 24 books divided into three categories: The Pentateuch (or Teachings of the Five Books of Moses), The Prophets, and The Writings. Christianity, which appropriated the Tanakh and claimed it as their own early theological history, call it the Old Testament. Early Christian writers, years after the probable date of the death of Jesus, penned the gospels and The Book of Acts. Paul the Apostle wrote most of the epistles which make up the 27 books of the Christian New Testament and whose theology informs the gospels. The Book of Revelation, attributed to John of Patmos, is the last book of the Christian Bible.

It is difficult to accurately date the composition of the books which make up the Bible, but scholars generally agree that the Pentateuch dates to the 10th and 6th centuries BCE and that the Tanakh was fixed as scripture well before the 1st century CE. The books of the Christian New Testament were composed between 60-110 CE (the Gospels), 45-130 CE (the Epistles), and 68-100 (The Book of the Revelation of St. John). Many people of the ancient world, and even today, believe the Bible to have been written by God. It is held to be the bestselling book in history and has influenced religious thought worldwide for centuries.

Abraham, the Patriarch

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham is a venerated patriarch whose relationship with God provides the foundational story for God's beneficial relationship with humanity. According to biblical tradition (and some say myth), Abraham (c. 20th century BCE) was born in or near the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, most likely in southern Chaldea. Abraham (originally named Abram), married his half-sister, Sarah (originally named Sarai) and began a long journey from Mesopotamia to Haran, and then later to Canaan and Egypt. Detailed in the book of Genesis, chapters 12–25, Abraham's name comes to mean "Father of a multitude" and/or "the friend of God." His journey, as depicted in the Bible, is a long and dramatic one, with Abraham and Sarah encountering many different cultures, customs, and people groups along the Fertile Crescent from Mesopotamia to Egypt.

The Traditional Story of Abraham

The Bible notes that at age 75, Abraham received a divine invitation or calling from God (Yahweh) to travel to a distant land where God would reward him beyond measure. Genesis 12:1–3 states:

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. (12:2-3)

Despite the inherent dangers of traveling at such an old age and through unknown and unfriendly territory, Abraham trusted God and took his entire family (including his father and nephew Lot) and personal possessions on his trek to this promised land.

The first part of the trip purportedly took them to Haran, in northern Mesopotamia, where his father, Terah, died at age 205. In the second part of the trip, Abraham's caravan entered and toured through Canaan, where God appeared to Abraham, saying, "To your offspring I will give this land" (12:7). In celebration and worship, Abraham built an altar to God and then "went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east" (12:8). As earlier, Genesis notes that Abraham built another altar to God before moving again to the Negev, southwest of the Dead Sea.