60 Fun Facts About Abraham

Which of Abraham's sons inherited the divine promise of the land?

Ishmael was separately promised that he would found a great nation of his own.

Abraham is regarded as the forefather of the Jewish people through Isaac and of which other people through Ishmael?

That shared ancestry is why Judaism, Christianity and Islam are grouped as the Abrahamic religions.

Who was Abraham's father?

He was the ninth in descent from Noah.

In which city did Abraham's family originally live?

Some commentators, such as Nahmanides, thought he was born elsewhere and moved there later.

How old was Abram when he set out for Canaan with Sarai and Lot?

He travelled with Sarai and his nephew Lot to Shechem, where he built an altar.

In which town did Terah die, aged 205, after the family stopped there on the way to Canaan?

Abram, Sarai and Lot continued the journey without him.

What did Abram tell Sarai to say to the Egyptians when famine drove them to Egypt?

Pharaoh took her into his palace, was struck with plagues, and expelled the couple when he learned the truth.

When Abram and Lot parted, Lot chose the well-watered Jordan valley. Where did Abram settle?

He built yet another altar there and later welcomed heavenly visitors under its terebinths.

How many trained servants did Abram muster to rescue Lot from the Elamite army?

He split his force, launched a night raid at Dan and chased King Chedorlaomer to Hobah, north of Damascus.

Which king of Salem, a priest of El Elyon, blessed Abram and received a tenth of everything?

In the New Testament he appears only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he is discussed at length.

Whom did Abram expect to inherit his estate before God promised him a son?

God answered by promising descendants as numerous as the stars.

The Vale of Siddim, where four kings fought five, is identified in Genesis with which body of water?

The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were among the five who rebelled against Elam.

Sarai offered Abram which of her servants so that he might have a son?

After ten childless years in Canaan, the plan produced Ishmael.

How old was Abram when Ishmael was born?

An angel had told his pregnant mother to return and give him that name.

What did God command Abraham to do at 99 as the sign of the covenant?

He carried it out immediately on himself and on the 13-year-old Ishmael.

According to Genesis, what does the name Abraham mean?

Scholars think the true meaning is probably father is exalted, and that the Genesis gloss is a folk etymology.

How many visitors did Abraham entertain at the terebinths of Mamre?

He served them curds, milk and a choice calf, and one told him Sarah would bear a son within a year.

What did Sarah do when she overheard that she would bear a son in her old age?

Frightened, she then denied it.

Abraham bargained God down over Sodom. For how few righteous people would God finally agree to spare the city?

Not even ten were found, and Abraham watched the smoke rise the next morning like the smoke of a furnace.

What happened to Lot's wife when she looked back at the burning cities?

Lot had insisted the two visiting angels stay at his house rather than in the city square.

Which king of Gerar took Sarah into his household until God warned him in a dream?

He returned her with sheep, oxen, servants and a thousand pieces of silver as her vindication.

What place name arose from Abraham's oath with the king of Gerar over a well, sealed with seven ewes?

Abraham planted a tamarisk grove there and called on the everlasting God.

How old was Abraham when Isaac was born?

He circumcised the boy when he was eight days old and held a great feast when he was weaned.

What does the name Isaac mean?

It recalls the laughter of both his parents at the promise of a child in old age.

How much older than Isaac was his half-brother?

Sarah demanded that he and his mother be sent away after seeing him mocking at Isaac's weaning feast.

What skill did Ishmael become known for while living in the wilderness of Paran?

His mother later found him a wife from her homeland, Egypt.

In which land did God tell Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice?

Second Chronicles later places Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah, the site believed to be the Temple Mount.

What did Abraham sacrifice in place of Isaac?

He named the place Jehovah-jireh, and the episode is read in synagogues on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

What is the Hebrew name for the story of the binding of Isaac, read at Rosh Hashanah?

The Talmud, in tractate Taanit, treats it as a story of Isaac's willingness as much as Abraham's.

Which Danish philosopher explored Abraham's anguish over the sacrifice in Fear and Trembling (1843)?

He published it under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, John the Silent.

Where did Abraham bury Sarah?

He bought the cave and its field for the full price, establishing his right to the land.

From whom did Abraham buy the burial cave?

He insisted on paying the full price rather than accepting it as a gift, so his claim would be permanent.

How old was Sarah when she died?

Her death opens the Torah portion named for her, Chayei Sarah, the life of Sarah.

After Sarah's death Abraham took a concubine named Keturah. How many sons did she bear him?

They were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah, and they received only gifts while Isaac inherited everything.

At what age did Abraham die?

He lived to see Isaac marry Rebekah and the birth of his twin grandsons Jacob and Esau.

Which two sons buried Abraham?

They laid him beside Sarah in the cave he had bought.

Which ruler built the huge rectangular enclosure that still stands over Abraham's burial cave in Hebron?

The compound is the second-holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount.

Rabbinic tradition holds that Abraham worked in his youth in his father's shop selling what?

Legend adds that he was saved from a king's fiery furnace after smashing the idols of the Chaldeans.

What name does the Talmud give Abraham's mother?

Hanan bar Rava taught it in the name of Abba Arikha in the 3rd century.

What is Abraham called in Jewish tradition, meaning "our father Abraham"?

Jews name God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

Which apostle argued that Abraham's faith, before the Mosaic law, made him the prototype of all believers?

He makes the case in Romans 4 and Galatians 3.

Abraham is the patron saint of which trade?

The Roman Catholic Church calls him our father in Faith in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

Andrei Rublev's famous icon The Trinity depicts which episode from Abraham's life?

It shows only the visitors as beardless youths at a table, without Abraham and Sarah.

In how many chapters of the Quran is Abraham mentioned?

That is more than any other biblical figure except Moses.

What Arabic title, meaning Friend of God, is given to Abraham in Islam?

He is also called a hanif, a monotheist, and the archetype of the perfect Muslim.

According to most Muslims, Abraham and Ishmael built which structure as the first house of worship on earth?

The Maqam Ibrahim, a stone said to bear his footprints, stands nearby in the Great Mosque of Mecca.

Which Islamic festival honours Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son?

It falls on the 10th of Dhu'l-Hijja and is marked by the ritual sacrifice of a livestock animal.

In Islamic narrative, which well in Mecca sprang up when Ishmael and his mother were left in the desert?

It lies inside the Great Mosque and was said to be re-excavated by Muhammad's grandfather Abd al-Muttalib.

Which king, in Islamic tradition, tried to burn Abraham in the biggest fire the world had ever seen?

When Abraham emerged unharmed, much of the king's society began to believe in God.

The 2020 normalisation agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain were named after the patriarch. They are known as the Abraham what?

They were signed in Washington on 15 September 2020, with Sudan and Morocco following.

Which Bob Dylan song opens with God telling Abraham to "kill me a son"?

Abram was also the name of Dylan's father.

The 1994 Steve Reich opera The Cave takes its title from which site associated with Abraham?

Its narrative follows Abraham's family as understood by people of different faiths.

How old was Sarah, according to Abraham's laughing question, when the son was promised?

He asked whether a hundred-year-old man could father a child at all.

Who were Abram's two brothers, according to Genesis?

Their father Terah was ninth in descent from Noah; Nahor and his wife Milcah had children while Abram and Sarai did not.

Whom did Abraham live to see Isaac marry?

He also lived to see the birth of his twin grandsons Jacob and Esau.

Which weekly Torah portion, whose name means 'Go forth', begins Abraham's story?

His story continues through Vayeira, Chayei Sarah and Toledot.

In the Druze faith, Abraham is regarded as the third 'spokesman' after which two figures?

The Druze also count him among seven prophets who appeared across history to transmit monotheism, or tawhid.

Which Gospel contains the parable of a beggar resting in the 'Bosom of Abraham'?

Artists often showed Abraham cradling a naked child rather than the banquet scene the text describes.

Which French illustrator produced over twenty works on Abraham, more than Rembrandt or Chagall?

Rembrandt made at least seven, Chagall at least five and Doré six.

George Segal's 1987 sculpture of Abraham's farewell to Ishmael was made using what technique?

Segal used the same life-casting method that made his white plaster figures famous.