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By Yuri Ruban,
PhD in History, PhD in Theology
PhD in History, PhD in Theology
A journey through the pages of the Orthodox calendar takes us far back – almost two thousand years before the birth of Christ. On October 9/22, the commemoration of "the righteous Abraham the Patriarch and his nephew Lot" is recorded. The story of Abraham inaugurates the history of God's people and is found in the first book of the Bible.
"And the Lord said to Abraham: 'Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great'" (Gen. 12:1-2). Here lies a turning point in the spiritual history of humanity.
The significance of the calling of Abraham, a resident of the famous Sumerian city of Ur (referred to in the Bible as "Ur of the Chaldeans"), is defined by the fact that at some future time "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" in him (Gen. 12:1-3). He and his future people are chosen as representatives of all humanity, united by common ancestry and in relation to God, selected for service to all mankind.
From Mesopotamia, Abraham journeyed to the land of Canaan, which became for him and his future descendants the Promised Land ("promised" by God), and he lived there, wandering along the Mediterranean coast. The local inhabitants referred to him as a "Hebrew," that is, a "migrant from beyond the river [the Euphrates]," and treated him with respect. Abraham participated in the defeat of a punitive expedition of the Mesopotamian kings, liberated the captured Lot, and received the blessing of Melchizedek, who is a prototype of Christ Himself. The solemn establishment of the covenant of God with Abraham, later referred to — upon the coming of Christ and the fulfillment of the promises — as the Old Covenant (or testament), marked the beginning of the path to the New Covenant. His bodily sign was circumcision, and the sign of the promise of offspring was the change of his name: from Abram ("exalted father") to Abraham ("father of multitudes," that is, "father of many nations").
Abraham sets up his tent by the oak grove of Mamre (near Hebron) and hosts the Three Travelers, usually depicted as angels, which in Christianity is interpreted as a veiled manifestation of the Holy Trinity. This episode in his life gave rise to the remarkable iconographic type known as the "Old Testament Trinity," the pinnacle of which is the icon "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev. Meanwhile, the angels save Lot, who lives in Sodom, as the only decent man in the city (all others being representatives of "sexual minorities"), and the fire fallen from heaven destroys this place of moral corruption. (It is interesting to ponder what they would say if they were now in our city, walking through certain nightclubs!)
First, Abraham has Ishmael by the handmaid Hagar (the forefather of the Arabs), and later he has the legitimate heir Isaac with the elderly Sarah. The boy grows, and then comes the ultimate, extraordinary test of the patriarch's faith: he is commanded to offer Isaac as a sacrifice! Abraham raises the knife over the child, but an angel diverts his hand (recall the famous Rembrandt painting in the Hermitage). This illustrates the essence of the concept of "faith": it is not an abstract philosophical belief in God, which imposes no obligations (doubt in His existence is permissible only in one case, see Ps. 13:1), but faith in God – loyalty and trust in the living, personal God, which transforms one’s entire life. Soon after, Sarah dies, and Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah and a portion of land from the local inhabitants for her burial; he himself later finds rest in this ancestral tomb.
“Once upon a time, there was a man who, as a child, heard a wonderful story about how the Lord tested Abraham, and how Abraham endured the test, maintaining his faith. When he grew older, this man himself read the same story with even greater admiration. And the older he became, the more frequently his thoughts returned to this story, the more he marveled at it, and yet the less and less he understood it,” wrote Søren Kierkegaard about himself, calling Abraham the “Knight of Faith.” The path of life for every spiritually developed person will eventually cross a Rubicon, and it is impossible to navigate this without turning to the story of Abraham.
Literature
Shchegolev N. The Calling of Abraham and the Church-Historical Significance of This Event. Kiev, 1873;
Starkova K. B. "Abraham's Journey" (1Q Gen Ap XXI, 8–20) // Palestine Collection. L., 1986. Issue 28 (91). Pp. 69–73;
Kierkegaard S. Fear and Trembling.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
