478 myths · Page 9 of 16
Between the pieces Abraham saw Babylon, Greece, and other powers march through sacrifice. He also learned how study would stand in for a fallen Temple.
Nimrod threw Abraham into fire for refusing idols. From the furnace he named the God of kings and shopkeepers. Outside, he unmade an old woman's stolen god.
Ishmael was seventeen, no toddler on a hip. The bottle had run on Abraham's merit until Hagar drifted back to her father's gods. He fainted under a shrub.
Two years after the furnace, Nimrod dreamed Abraham rising from fire with a sword and an egg that drowned kings. A chick pecked out the tyrant's eye.
Israel marked doors with lamb blood and circumcision blood. Heaven saw both, said live twice, and tied that mercy to Yom Kippur forever.
Yitzchak was not a soft joke. Each letter held Abraham's ten trials, Sarah at ninety, the eighth-day cut, and a father one hundred years old.
After Isaac's birth the Philistine king brought twenty advisors for a three-generation treaty. Later he dressed Isaac and Rebekah as proof they were spouses.
After the night raid that freed Lot, Abraham sorted spoil for Shem, son of Noah. Angels answered his prayer and named God his shield.
Four gates faced every desert road. Travelers ate under Abraham's trees, then learned to bless God, not the host, for bread.
Promised all of Canaan, Abraham still stood in Hebron as a stranger and paid for Sarah's tomb, then refused to bless Isaac lest jealousy crack the house.
The Jebusites sold Abraham the cave only after he swore his seed would not seize their city. Generations later Esau sold his share for gold.
The servant ran the whole household and had a daughter of marrying age. He asked once. Then he swore an oath to go and find someone else.
Gerar's king had taken Sarah, and every womb in his house shut. Abraham asked God to let them multiply instead. Abimelech's barren wife bore a child.
The Temple stood finished and its doors stayed shut for almost a year. The streets laughed at Bath-sheba's son. Then fire fell from heaven.
To seal a peace with a Philistine king, Abraham handed over seven ewes. God had not asked for them, and Samson, Saul, and Eli's sons paid the bill.
Famine drove them to Egypt. At the river Abraham saw Sarah's face like the sun, locked her in a chest, and bargained tax rates until the lid was forced open.
One man against royal armies. Abraham cried that without God's glory he was nothing, and the night itself split so he could slaughter enemies until morning.
Good flax hardens under the pestle. Poor flax crumbles. On Moriah God pressed Abraham until the blade hovered, then opened a thicket with a ram.
Aner feared crippling in war. Eshkol feared blood loss. Mamre told Abraham to obey the God who saved two hundred forty-eight limbs, and God came to his oaks.
Ganon said God told him to lead his tribe out of Egypt. They packed gold and weapons but no food, and the shepherds of Gath would not sell them sheep.
Before circumcision Abraham fell on his face at every word from heaven. After the covenant he stood, and the gate of Gehinnom (afterlife of judgment) closed.
For fifty-two years the mountains quaked over Sodom as a call to return. When the city refused, the same heaven that sends manna poured fire instead.
God promised Abraham land and stars. At the tenth trial he stayed silent on rumor and paid full silver only to bury his dead.
Abraham wondered where to cut the covenant. He fell on his face, a scorpion bit the place, and he rose already marked as God's partner.
Rabbi Bana'ah linked Abraham splitting wood on Moriah to the split sea. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said the waters opened in Abraham's covenant merit alone.
After Shechem fell, allied kings gathered to wipe out Jacob. Their own counselors recited Abraham's miracles until the armies turned home.
God renamed Abram as Abraham, father of many nations. Then Abraham loaded Ishmael and Keturah's sons with gifts and gave everything else to Isaac.
A prophet stood in the Temple court wearing a wooden yoke on his neck. Another prophet walked up, tore it off him, and smashed it in front of the crowd.
Moses rejected an angel and demanded God walk among Israel. When Joshua later asked the captain whose side he took, the angel wept from his feet.
At ninety-nine Abram feared circumcision would leave him incomplete. God added a letter to his name, then marked him with age so no scoffer could deny Isaac.
