This volume presents a scholarly journey through the centuries on what many religious and ethnic groups have understood as »Abraham's Family«. Abraham's family is brought in as a network of meaning to express opposition, antithesis or common ground within and between different religious movements.
Abraham, whom the apostle Paul calls the »father of us all« (Rom 4:16), was a central figure in Judaism from the outset and came to be important in Christianity and Islam. The Abraham tradition is an issue of narrative and counter-narrative, memory and counter-memory. Moreover, Abraham's family is brought in as a network of meaning to express opposition, antithesis or common ground within and between different religious movements. The contributions to this volume discuss the presentation and reception of Abraham's family in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The topics cover Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Second Temple writings, New Testament, Rabbinic literature, Greek, Latin and Syriac church fathers, as well as Jewish medieval interpretation and a twelfth-century Arabic travel report of a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Table of contents:
Lukas Bormann: Introduction
Part I: Abraham's Family in the Old Testament
Konrad Schmid: Remembering and Reconstructing Abraham: Abraham's Family and the Literary History of the Pentateuch -
Antti Laato: The Abraham Story in Genesis and the Reigns of David and Solomon -
Magnar Kartveit: Abraham and Joseph in Samaritan Tradition -
Lotta Valve: The »Wooing of Rebekah« and the Methodological Rift between Tradition History and Reception History
Part II: Abraham's Family in Ancient Jewish Literature
Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten: Abraham's Family in the Book of
Jubilees -
Aliyah El Mansy: »He is perfect, he is a true man!« (Jub. 27:17): Constructions of Masculinities in Abraham's Family -
Jesper Høgenhaven: Abraham and his Family in Qumran Biblical Exegesis -
Michael Becker: Abraham and the Sacrifice of Isaac in Early Jewish and Christian Exegesis: Conceptual Patterns in Development -
Christian Noack: Abraham's Family in Philo
Part III: Abraham's Family in the New Testament
Lukas Bormann: Abraham as »Forefather« and his Family in Paul -
Angela Standhartinger: Member of Abraham's Family? Hagar's Gender, Status, Ethnos, and Religion in Early Jewish and Christian Texts -
Christfried Böttrich: Abraham and his Children in Luke-Acts -
Guido Baltes: The Prodigal Son and his Angry Brother: Jacob and Esau in a Parable of Jesus? -
J. Cornelis de Vos: Abraham's Family in the Epistle to the Hebrews -
Eva-Maria Kreitschmann: Abraham's Family Network in the New Testament Writings
Part IV: Abraham's Family in Early Christian Literature
Martin Meiser: Abraham and His Family in Ancient Greek and Latin Patristic Exegesis -
Anni Maria Laato: Divided by a Common Ground: The Prophecy of Jacob and Esau (Gen 25: 19-26) in Patristic Texts up to Augustine with respect to Modern Inter-Faith Dialogue -
Michaela Durst: Abraham and
Hellenismos in Julian the Apostate's
Contra Galilaeos: Challenging Christian Knowledge about the Divine
Part V: Abraham's Family in Jewish Exegesis and in Encounter with Islam
Reuven Firestone: Hagar and Ishmael in Literature and Tradition as a foreshadow of their Islamic Personas -
Mariano Gomez Aranda: The Conflict between Jacob and Esau in Medieval Jewish Exegesis: Reinterpreting Narratives -
Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler: Maqām Ibrāhīm and the Sacred Landscape of Mecca According to Ibn Jubayr -
Catalin-Stefan Popa: Syrians and the Appeal to Abraham in the Early Islamic Times
