In Abraham Al-Jazeera, journalist Rageh Omaar interviewed Dr Stavrakopoulou about the father of the faith’s role in the Old Testament. In this article she focuses on the biblical claim that God promised Abraham the land of Canaan, the land now claimed by Israelis and Palestinians today.
Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology at the University of Exeter. Her research is primarily focused on ancient Israelite and Judahite religions, and portrayals of the religious past in the Hebrew Bible.
Abraham is often hailed as the father of the three dominant monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam – but it is his status as the genealogical ancestor of the Jewish people which is perhaps most significant. According to the Torah, God promises Abraham a homeland and a multitude of descendants on the condition that Abraham is willing to bind himself and his household to God in an obedient and exclusive relationship. Importantly, these promises of land and the perpetuation of generations extend to all those claiming direct descent from Abraham – rendering this an enduring promise of land and progeny to all Jewish people. The Promised Land is ancient Canaan, which today includes both Israeli and Palestinian territories. Abraham thus remains a potent symbol of modern-day land claims in this region.
Given Abraham's crucial role in Judaism, his story is told in some detail in the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, in some ways, Abraham's story is the first detailed 'biography' of a biblical character, beginning with his origins in Mesopotamia, taking in his journeys to and around the promised land of Canaan, and ending with his death, and burial in his tomb at Hebron.
An historic deal
Key episodes in this biblical biography reflect the ideological importance of the deal struck between Abraham and God. These include the circumcision of Abraham and all the men and boys in his household, which functions as a bodily sign of the agreement or 'covenant' between Abraham and God; Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac, the beloved son born to him by his wife Sarah, to fulfil God's explicit command; and the expulsion into the wilderness of his other son, Ishmael – born not of his wife, but of the slave girl Hagar, who is expelled along with her son.
These episodes seem intended to illustrate not only Abraham's obedience to his God, but also the way in which the divine promise of land and progeny is to be fulfilled. It is through the line of Isaac, and not Ishmael, that Abraham's descendants will be legitimated; by expelling one son and risking it all in attempting to sacrifice the other. Abraham's strict obedience to God is rewarded with the 'rescue' of Isaac, who will go on to father Jacob, from whom the nation of Israel will arise. Within early Judaism, circumcision is thus understood as an identity marker, demonstrating the continued ethnic and religious kinship of Abraham’s descendants.
The ideological dynamics of the biblical biography of Abraham are directly related to the period in which it was written. All scholars agree that the biblical stories about Abraham were written several centuries after the period they seek to describe, and many scholars now pinpoint the time of composition to the period of the exile in the sixth century BC, when the Israelites were conquered by the Babylonians, and their elites and religious leaders were taken captive to Babylon in Mesopotamia.
A blueprint for the future?
At this time of national catastrophe, the story about an ancestor who was similarly located in Mesopotamia but given a homeland in Canaan and a multitude of descendants was perceived as an ancient blueprint of God's plan for his people in Israel. It demonstrated that God would act again in bringing Abraham’s descendants back to the land he had given to their ancestor, and ensure that the nation wouldn't die out, but would continue to thrive for generation after generation. Just over a century later, the descendants of these exiles returned to the land, just as they believed their ancestor Abraham had done, and this was taken as 'proof' of God's enduring promise of a homeland for Abraham’s descendants.
This biblical tradition has left a powerful legacy: today, many Jews, Christians and Muslims claim Abraham as their ancestor and assert their exclusive right to the land on this basis. The fact that most scholars agree that he is unlikely to have existed seems irrelevant in the face of the land conflicts afflicting the people living in the territories identified as Abraham’s.
