Diederick santer biography of abraham

His wife Sarah, who preceded him in death at the age ofhas the distinction of being the only woman in the Bible where we know her age at death. Important events and people in the life of Abraham include his calling by God and receiving the command to migrate to Canaan. His wife Sarai, nephew Lot and his wife, and the remaining family join him in the journey.

The Eternal promises, several times, to bless him and his descendants. After God miraculously heals Sarah's womb she gives birth to Isaac. This "father of the faithful" is blessed to meet with a Priest of the Most High God named Melchizedek, who is actually a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. After visiting Abraham two angels save Lot and family before the destruction of Sodom.

Lot's wife becomes a pillar of salt when, while fleeing, she turns to view God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally, Abraham's faith is tested when God commands him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. In our next lesson, we will learn about the life of the person God used to delivery his people out of slavery and give them his holy law. The setting worked in so many ways for the play the 'overhearing' manipulations their friends set up, the power structure, the roles of Don John, Hero, Leonato and Claudio and once David had finished work on his second novel the brilliant 'The Understudy' he began on the script.

Often first draft scripts can be like an artist's preliminary sketches - a sense of the general shape, an idea of the theme and tone, and not much more - however on this occasion the script arrived fully-realised. David had mined Shakespeare's play for everything he could, then created his own world, his own tone and humour, and made something truly new and fresh.

The later patriarchal history in — tells the story of Joseph. It begins with the story of conflict between Joseph and his brothers, then moves to Joseph's rise to power in Egypt and Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers in the end. Many interpreters have described this large, unified storyline as a novella about Joseph. Between these first and last sections is Genesis — These chapters contain the early patriarchal history, collections of stories about the first fathers of the nation of Israel.

In this series, we are concerned with one portion of this middle segment of Genesis. In general terms, the early patriarchal history divides into two parts: the life of Abraham in — and the life of Jacob in — Now this twofold division may be surprising at first because in Scripture we frequently hear mention of three early patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Diederick santer biography of abraham

So, we might have reasonably expected the literary structure of these chapters to be threefold as well, first telling us about Abraham, then about Isaac and then about Jacob. But in actuality, no portion of the early patriarchal diederick santer biography of abraham is devoted to Isaac as the main figure. Instead, he serves only as a transitional figure.

His life is told first as a part of Abraham's life and then as a part of Jacob's life. And as a result, the early patriarchal history actually divides into only two main parts: the life of Abraham and then the life of Jacob. Our concern in this series is with the first half of the patriarchal period, Moses' record of Father Abraham. So let's take a closer look at the structure of Abraham's life as it is presented in Genesis — Abraham Now that we have seen where the life of Abraham fits within the overarching structure of Genesis, we should turn to our next concern: the structure of Abraham's life in Genesis — To explore the structure of Abraham's life, we will look at these chapters on two levels: on the one hand, we will simply identify the basic units or episodes of Abraham's life, and on the other hand, we will examine how these various episodes have been arranged into the portrait of Abraham we have in Genesis.

Let's first identify the basic units or episodes of Abraham's life. Basic Units Moses wrote about Abraham's life in seventeen basic segments or episodes: First, Abraham's favored lineage ina genealogy that describes Abraham's family heritage. This passage is followed by an account of Abraham's failing father ina second genealogy that describes Abraham's travels with his father Terah.

Abraham's migration to Canaan inthe story of Abraham's initial call and travel to the Promised Land. Abraham's deliverance from Egypt inthe time when Abraham sojourned in Egypt and God delivered him. Abraham's conflict with Lot inthe story of struggle between Abraham's men and Lot's men. Abraham's rescue of Lot inthe time when Abraham went to war to rescue Lot from kings who had captured him.

Abraham's covenant promises inthe account of God's covenant assuring Abraham that he would have many descendants and a permanent homeland. Abraham's failure with Hagar inthe time when Abraham had a child, Ishmael, with Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar. Abraham's covenant requirements inthe account of God's covenant that reminded Abraham of the necessity of loyalty to the commands of God.

Sodom and Gomorrah in —the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's rescue from that destruction. Abraham's intercession for Abimelech inthe time when Abraham prayed for Abimelech the Philistine. Abraham's sons Isaac and Ishmael inthe story of Isaac's birth and the expulsion of Ishmael from Abraham's family. Abraham's treaty with Abimelech inthe time when Abraham entered into an agreement with Abimelech over land and water rights.

Abraham's test inthe well-known episode in which God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham's burial property inthe story of Sarah's death and the purchase of a burial site. A wife for Abraham's son Isaac inthe time when Rebekah became Isaac's wife. And finally, Abraham's death and heir inthe closing story of Abraham's passing and the record of his descendants.

As we can see, the story of Abraham's life follows the basic order of events as they occurred in his life. The stories begin with him relatively young and under the authority of his father, and they end up with Abraham growing old and dying. On occasion, there are allusions and implicit connections among the various episodes of Abraham's life.

But by comparison with other portions of the Old Testament, Abraham's life story consists of a series of seventeen relatively independent episodes. Each of these episodes was designed to report events in Abraham's life and to teach specific lessons to Moses' original Israelite audience. As Moses led them from Egypt toward the Promised Land, each of these episodes was to have much to offer them as they lived their lives just as it has much to offer us as we live our lives today.

Having introduced the basic episodes of Abraham's life, we are now in a position to explore how these units hold together. How is the story of Abraham unified? What logic organizes them? Simply put, the episodes of Abraham's life cluster around specific themes and these clusters form five symmetrical or balancing steps. Arrangement First, as we might expect at the beginning of the patriarch's life, Moses' record begins with Abraham's background and early experiences with God.

This section includes: Abraham's favored lineage, his failing father, and his migration to Canaan. These chapters explain how Abraham entered into his special relationship with God by focusing on his family's background and his initial migration to the Promised Land. The second cluster of episodes in Abraham's life concentrates on Abraham's earlier contacts with other peoples in — It includes his deliverance from Egypt, his conflict with Lot, and his rescue of Lot.

These three episodes hold together because they concentrate primarily on Abraham's encounters and interactions with representatives of several groups of people. In these chapters the patriarch dealt primarily with the Pharaoh of Egypt, his nephew Lot, invading kings, the king of Sodom and Melchizedek the king of Salem. The diederick santer biography of abraham and central section of Abraham's life focuses on Abraham's covenant relationship with God in — This portion of the patriarch's life consists of three episodes: Abraham's covenant promises, Abraham's failure with Hagar, and Abraham's covenant requirements.

The fourth section, which appears in —, turns to Abraham's later contacts with other peoples. These chapters hold together primarily because they concentrate on Abraham's interactions with other groups of people. These chapters describe Abraham in relation to Sodom and Gomorrah. These four episodes further illustrate how the patriarch interacted with Lot and his family, as well as how he related to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and to the Philistine Abimelech.

As we might expect, the fifth and final section of the patriarch's life in —, deals with matters toward the end of Abraham's life, especially with his progeny and death. It records how God tested Abraham. It records Abraham's purchase of burial property. It records how Abraham found a wife for his son Isaac. And it also records Abraham's death.

These chapters focus on Abraham's wife Sarah and her son Isaac the true heir of Abrahamgiving them honor over Abraham's other wives and their sons. Because the episodes of Abraham's life are relatively independent of each other, when people first read about Abraham, they often have a sense of wandering aimlessly from one event to another.

They read the stories of Abraham as if Moses mentioned this event and that event with little forethought or planning. But despite this first impression, the stories of Abraham's life are actually organized into batches or groups of episodes that share central themes. Our simple five-step outline reveals that Moses actually planned what he was going to say about Abraham.

On a large scale the record of Abraham's life takes the shape of a symmetrical drama. Each part balances with a corresponding part in the drama. In —, we find attention focused on Abraham's family background and on his initial experiences with God. In contrasting balance with these initial concerns, the closing material in — gives attention to Abraham's final years and to his progeny.

Beyond this, the second section of Abraham's life consists of episodes that primarily delineate Abraham's interactions with people from other tribes and nations. Abraham Abram is Born Abram his birth name before being renamed Abraham is the third son born to a man named Terah living in Ur of the Chaldees. At the time of his birth his older brother Haran is about 60 years old Genesis with second brother Nahor at an unknown younger age.

Terah is about years old at the time of Abraham's birth. The family into which he is born was known to worship pagan deities Joshua Modern archeology dates the city of Ur, located in ancient Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River, to around 3, B. It was resettled, after the great flood took place inby Noah's son Shem and his descendants.

Leaving Ur of the Caldees Terah, at the age ofdecides to move his entire family out of Ur after the death of Haran Genesis Those leaving include Abraham, now 70, his wife Sarah SaraiAbraham's brother Nahor and his wife, as well as Lot Haran's son and his wife Genesis - The family migrates northwest to a city named Haran located in a region of ancient Syria named Padanaram.

God then calls Abraham, now age 75, and commands he leave the city for the land of Canaan. Nahor and his family, however, although they stay in the city Genesis - 5will play a major role in the lives of the patriarch's descendants. Abraham's future son Isaac will end up marrying Rebekah, the daughter of Nahor's son Bethuel - 23, Bethuel's son Laban will employ Isaac's son Jacob for many years and provide him two of his own daughters, Rachel and Leah, as wives.

After arriving in the city, God appears to him and promises his descendants the land of Canaan. The travelers continue their journey south, staying for an unknown time near Bethel before continuing their journey verses 8 - 9.