amulet was to be folded and worn on the bosom for nine days, then Hung backward before sun- rise into a stream flowing eastward. See Abrax- as; Amulet.
AB'RADA'TAS. A king of Susa, who at first
fought against Cyrus the Great, but who after-
ward, in consequence of the latter's kindness to
Panthea, his wife, who had been captured
by the Persians, yielded to Cyrus and became
his ally. Abradatas perished in the war against
Croesus the Lydian. The story of his romantic
ail'ection for Panthea and her suicide after his
death appears in the fifth book of Xenophon's
Ci/ropcedia.
A'BRAHAM. The Father of the Hebrews,
whose story is given in Genesis xi-xxv. It con-
sists of a series of incidents In the patriarch's
life, put together in a consecutive narrative
and emanating from different literary sources.
In Genesis xi : 10 the genealogy of the Sheniites
(or sons of Shem) is taken up, leading up to
Terah, the father of Abrani, Nahor, and Haran.
The home of Terah and his sons is Ur of the
Chaldees — a place commonly identified with the
site of the mound Mugheir, in southern Baby-
Ionia — but after the death of Haran the Tera-
hites joui-ney northward to Haran and take up
their settlements at that place. Terah dies in
Haran, and Abram, accompanied by his wife
Sarai and his nephew Lot (the son of Haran),
quits Babylonia by divine command and pro-
ceeds by a circuitous northern route via Damas-
cus to Canaan. He halts at various places, nota-
bly Shechem and Bethel, where he erects altars
to Yahweh (chap. xii.). Leading a pastoral life,
we next find him in Egypt, whither he has been
driven in consequence of a famine in Palestine.
Sarai's beauty attracts the attention of the
Pharaoh, and but for Yalnveh's intervention
Abram would have been obliged to give up his
wife, whom he had represented to be his sister.
Pharaoh obliges Abram to leave Egypt, and he
accordingly returns to Bethel with Lot. At this
juncture the separation between Abram and Lot
takes place in consequence of quarrels between
the followers of the two chiefs. Lot chooses for
himself the rich pasture land of the .Tordan Val-
le}', while Abram remains in Canaan proper,
though removing to Hebron. He becomes in-
volved in a war with the kings of the .Jordan
Valley in order to rescue Lot. who had been
taken captive. He not only succeeds in this en-
terjirise, but aids in restoring the kings of Sodom
and Gomoriah to power and magnanimously re-
fuses any compensation for his services (chap,
xiv) . At the time that Abram left Haran he was
seventy-five years old. At Damascus he is joined
by lOliezer, who becomes his trusted servant, and
on whom the succession to Abram's property
would fall in the event of Abram remaining
childless. This contingency is eliminated by the
birth of Ishmael, a son by Hagar, a concubine
of Abram, and an Egyptian maid-servant of
Sarai. Subsequently, however, when Abram is
ninety-nine years old and Snrai ninety, a son,
who is called Isaac, is born to them (chap, xvii),
and who becomes the heir of »bram in prefereiice
to Ishmael. At the time that this son is prom-
ised to Abram and Sarai. through the appearance
of Vahweh himself to Abram, the names of the
patriarch and his wife are changed by the Lord
to Abraham and Saran, respectively, the former
being interpreted as embodying the promise that
the patriarch will become "the father of a mul-
titude of nations." The promise of a son to be
born to Sarah is confirmed by a visit of Yahweh
accompanied by two angels, all three in hu-
man form, who partake of Abraham's hospitality
and make a similar announcement. The two
angels proceeil to Sodom and Gomorrah, while
Yahweh remains behind and reveals to Abraham
the intended destruction of the cities of the plain
because of the wickedness and corruption pre-
vailing there. Abraham pleads with Yahweh to
save the cities for the sake of the righteous, and
Yahweh agrees to do so provided only ten right-
eous men are found in the district. As a matter
of fact, the cities are destroyed and only Lot and
his family are permitted to escape (chap. xvii).
Before Isaac is actually born, Abraham is rep-
resented as proceeding to the extreme south of
Palestine, known as the Xericb, and at Gerar en-
counters the King (Abimelech ) .who takes into his
harem Sarah, whom Abraham again passes off
as his sister, Jehovah warns Abimelech, and Sarah
IS released (chap. .x). The birth of Isaac is re-
counted in the 21st chajiter. Eight days after
his birth he is circumcised— an act which is re-
garded as symbolizing the covenant established
between Jehovah and those descended from Abra-
ham (Genesis xvii : 23-27). Some years later
the faith of Abraham is put to a severe trial by
the divine command to sacrifice his beloved son
(chap. xxii). Abraliam proceeds to carry out
the decree, but is withlield from doing so by
Jehovah himself, who, satisfied with the test,
accepts a ram which providentially makes its
appearance. The last three chapters of the nar-
rative are taken up with the account of Sarah's
death, lier burial in the cave of JIachpelah at
Hebron, purchased by Abraham from Ephron
the Hittite. the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah,
and the death of Abraham, which, however, does
not take place until his marriage to Keturah,
by whom two sons are born to him. The death of
Abraham takes place when he has reached the
age of one hundred and seventy-five years, and
he is interred by the side of Sarah at Machpelah.
Many modern Bible critics regard this cycle of
Abrahamic stories as embodying a mixture of
early and late traditions, a recast with a view of
presenting Abraham as a type of the pious, ob-
servant Jew. Besides the biblical stories, other
tales were current, or became current among the
.Jews of post-exile days, many of which were
taken up into that portion of ralibinical literature
known as the ilidrash. In this way the biblical
narrative was supplemented by incidents in the
early career of Abraham, on which Genesis has
nothing to say. These stories bring Abraham
into association with Ximrod. The historical
kernel in the Genesis chapters is quite insignifi-
cant. The genealogical lists are fictitious, the
names representing in most cases not individuals
but clans, of whom some faint traditions have
survived. There is, however, no reason to doubt
the existence of an ancient hero whose name
was preserved in two forms, Abram and Abra-
ham, the former representing perhaps a contrac-
tion or dialectical variation of the latter, and
to whom as a popular personage various sto-
ries that had come down from various periods
were attached. Of the "historical" Abram or
Abraham hardly anything more can be asserted
than that his home appears to have been Hebron.
The wanderings of the Terahites. among whom
Abram is reckoned, reflect the faint recollection
