Abraham/fr

Abraham recevant les trois anges (Genèse 18:9-15), Jan Victors (années 1640)

Patriarche hébreu et ancêtre des douze tribus d'Israël (vers 2100-1700 B.C.), incarnation du Maître Ascensionné El Morya. Les juifs, les chrétiens et les musulmans lui accordent une place dans l'histoire en tant que premier à avoir adoré le seul vrai Dieu. Dans le récit biblique de sa vie, il est d'abord appelé Abram (qui signifie « le père, ou mon père, est exalté ») et est ensuite nommé Abraham par Dieu. Traditionnellement considéré comme signifiant « père d'une multitude de nations » d'après le passage de la Genèse 17:5, Abraham est actuellement considéré comme une variante dialectique d'Abram.

Preuves historiques

Les érudits pensaient autrefois qu'Abraham était soit un personnage mythique, soit un simple nomade ou semi-nomade sémite, et que le récit biblique de sa vie ne pouvait être considéré comme une biographie au sens strict, car il avait été écrit plus de mille ans après les événements qu'il décrivait. Comme l'écrit Richard N. Ostling dans le magazine Time, de nombreux spécialistes libéraux de la Bible considéraient Abraham « non pas comme un personnage historique, mais comme une sorte de roi Arthur sémite ».

Cependant, depuis la Première Guerre mondiale, des découvertes archéologiques dans deux villes du troisième millénaire avant J.-C., Ebla et Mari, ont révélé qu'une culture littéraire et urbaine sophistiquée existait avant et pendant l'époque d'Abraham. Cela a contraint les chercheurs non seulement à réévaluer l'image mythique ou pastorale traditionnelle du patriarche, mais aussi à reconsidérer sérieusement l'Ancien Testament en tant que document historique.

Premières années

La Bible décrit d'abord Abraham et sa famille comme des citoyens de la grande ville d'Ur en Chaldée, centre culturel, politique et économique florissant de la civilisation sumérienne, lettrée et technologiquement avancée. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, chef d'une équipe d'archéologues britanniques et américains qui a fouillé Ur peu après la Première Guerre mondiale, a écrit : « Nous devons revoir considérablement notre conception du patriarche hébreu lorsque nous apprenons qu'il a passé ses premières années dans un environnement aussi sophistiqué ; il était citoyen d'une grande ville et a hérité des traditions d'une civilisation ancienne et hautement organisée. »

L'historien du premier siècle Josèphe semble indiquer qu'Abraham était un homme de noble naissance et doté d'une grande puissance militaire. Citant des sources antérieures, Josèphe écrit : « Abram régna à Damas, étant un étranger venu avec une armée du pays situé au-dessus de Babylone, appelé le pays des Chaldéens. Mais après un long moment, il se leva et quitta également ce pays avec son peuple, pour se rendre dans le pays alors appelé pays de Canaan, mais aujourd'hui appelé pays de Judée. »

De plus, des découvertes archéologiques ont démontré que Canaan n'était pas peuplée de semi-nomades, mais était une terre de royaumes urbains culturellement avancés. L'éminent archéologue biblique William F. Albright a avancé la théorie selon laquelle Abraham aurait vécu vers 1800 B.C. et « était un riche caravaniers et marchand dont les relations avec les princes et les communautés indigènes étaient régies par des contrats et des traités (alliances). » D'autres ont décrit le patriarche comme le chef charismatique d'un clan de bergers, d'agriculteurs et de guerriers. Le chercheur Zecharia Sitchin affirme qu'Abraham était un noble sumérien né dès 2123 B. C. Il descendait d'une famille sacerdotale de sang royal et disposait d'une grande maisonnée et d'une armée privée.

Le livre de la Genèse, en effet, présente Abraham comme un « prince puissant » du pays^23,6 – un chef influent qui traite avec les rois, noue des alliances militaires et négocie des acquisitions de terres. Il aime la paix, est habile à la guerre et magnanime dans la victoire. Il incarne les idéaux de justice, de droiture, d’intégrité et d’hospitalité, et est également décrit comme un prophète et un intercesseur auprès de Dieu. Mais, plus important encore, Abraham est le prototype de l’homme qui demeure ferme dans sa foi en les promesses répétées du Seigneur selon lesquelles il serait le « père d’une multitude de nations »^17,5 – même lorsque les circonstances extérieures semblent indiquer le contraire.

L'appel de la Terre promise

Le voyage d'Abraham d'Ur à Canaan, József Molnár (1850)

Genesis tells us that Abraham, his father and his family left Ur to dwell some 600 miles away in Haran, a major commercial center in northwest Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent (where Syria now is). Although the Bible is silent on Abraham’s early years, according to Jewish oral tradition he was fully engaged in a battle to win converts to monotheism and is said to have smashed the idols of his father, Terah, an idol maker who the Book of Joshua says “served other gods.”

The Bible records that when Abraham was 75 and his father had died, the Lord called him to forsake all—his kindred and his father’s house, the culture and cults of Mesopotamia—and journey to “a land that I will show thee.” The Lord promised: “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”

Abraham left Ur with his wife, Sarai (whose name was later changed by God to Sarah), his nephew Lot, and “all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.” When they arrived in the land of Canaan, the Lord appeared to Abraham and again promised, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” And it is written that here Abraham erected an altar to Yahweh “and called upon the name of the LORD.”

Abraham meeting Melchizedek, mosaic in St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice (13th century)

When a severe famine struck the land, Abraham traveled south to Egypt. Afraid that the Egyptians would kill him because his wife was such a beautiful woman, Abraham represented Sarah as his sister and allowed the Pharaoh to take her into his household. As a result, the LORD plagued the Pharaoh and his house. When the Egyptian ruler learned the truth, he quickly sent Abraham and Sarah away with all the servants, cattle and riches Abraham had acquired in Egypt.

Once back in Canaan, the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham began to quarrel and the two kinsmen separated. Abraham generously offered first choice of the territory to Lot, who settled in the fertile plain of Jordan toward Sodom while Abraham dwelt in the seemingly less desirable land of Canaan in Hebron. After Lot departed, the LORD told Abraham that he would give the patriarch and his seed all the land that he could see—north, south, east and west. And although Abraham was still childless, the LORD affirmed that his seed would be as innumerable as “the dust of the earth.”

Following this, Abraham—fully in the role of a military leader—armed 318 of his own “trained servants” and joined other chieftains in the land to defeat a powerful coalition of kings and rescue Lot, who had been captured. Returning from this victory, Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem (Jerusalem) and priest of the most high God (El Elyon), who “brought forth bread and wine” and to whom Abraham gave a tithe (tenth) of the spoils. Abraham returned all the captives and goods that had been plundered to the King of Sodom and refused the king’s offer to partake of the goods himself.

Birth of Ishmael and Isaac

Once again the LORD appeared to Abraham and said, “I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward,” assuring him that his seed would be as innumerable as the stars. But Sarah, still barren after ten years in Canaan, proposed after the custom of the day that Abraham sire a child by her maid Hagar, who then bore Abraham a son, Ishmael.

Thirteen years later, when Abraham was 99 and Sarah 90, the LORD revealed himself to the patriarch as El Shaddai, “the Almighty God,” and established an everlasting covenant with Abraham to be a God unto him and his seed. He promised to give Abraham and his descendants “all the land of Canaan.... Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.”

Abraham and the Three Angels, James Tissot (c. 1900)

The LORD also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and told Abraham that she would be “a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.” He revealed that Sarah would bear a son, Isaac, “at this set time in the next year” and that Isaac, not Ishmael, was to be Abraham’s heir.

Then one day, as Abraham “sat in the tent door in the heat of the day” in the plains of Mamre, three “men” announced to him that Sarah would bear a son. Sarah, overhearing this, “laughed within herself” because she was past the childbearing age. And the LORD said unto Abraham, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh.... Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”

Following this, the LORD confided to Abraham his intention to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham, cast in the role of an intercessor, secured God’s assurance that Sodom would be spared if but ten righteous men could be found therein. Although the city was ultimately destroyed, two angels warned Lot of the impending calamity and he escaped.

Finally, as the LORD had prophesied, Sarah “conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age.... And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast.”

The Sacrifice of Isaac, workshop of Rembrandt (1636)

Sacrifice of Isaac

Yet the supreme test of the patriarch’s faith was still to come. God commanded him to sacrifice his only son and long-awaited heir upon a mountain in the land of Moriah.

At the end of a three days’ journey, Abraham built an altar and laid Isaac upon the wood. As he raised his knife to slay the young boy, the angel of the LORD called out, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” Abraham sacrificed a ram instead, and for the final time the LORD confirmed his covenant:

In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

After Sarah passed on, Abraham sent his oldest servant to find a wife for Isaac from among his own people in Haran so that Isaac would not intermarry with the Canaanites and contaminate the seed of the people of God. The servant returned with a granddaughter of one of Abraham’s brothers, Rebekah. Abraham himself took another wife, Keturah, who bore him six children. Although the patriarch provided for his other children, he “gave all that he had unto Isaac.”

Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried beside Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, which is hallowed today by Jews, Christians and Moslems—all of whom trace their origins back to Abraham. After the death of Abraham, God confirmed his covenant with Isaac: “Unto thy seed I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father ... because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws.”

“Friend of God”

Abraham’s personal relationship with God and his exemplary faith have earned him the title “Friend of God” in both Christian and Moslem scriptures (“El Khalil” in the Arabic language of the Koran). He is, as the apostle Paul says in Romans, the father not only of the Jews, but “of all them that believe.”

The Moslems (who believe that the Arabs are descended from Abraham through Ishmael) revere the patriarch more than any other figure in the Bible. Inscribed on the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem is the passage from the Koran, “There is no God but Allah, and Abraham is beloved of Him.”

Sources

El Morya, The Chela and the Path: Keys to Soul Mastery in the Aquarian Age.