Why did Abraham abandon Ismail?

According to the bible Abraham was commanded by God to leave Ishmael and Hagar in the desert. What was the rationale behind this action? Did God have other plans for Ismail (to father the Arabs)? Was Abraham unable to care for two wives? Or was Sarah jealous of Hagar?

The irrational acts of the prophets were usually commanded by God because you don't ask "why"!

At one time the Jews and Persians were like brothers. They had common enemies: the Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks and Egyptians

Abraham, like Ismail, Moses and many (if not most) of the Old Testament figures never existed. They were created in the last centuries BCE to give the Jewish people a conscience of national unity and to justify their historical claims.


It is generally recognised by scholars that there is nothing in the Genesis stories that can be related to the history of Canaan of the early 2nd millennium: none of the kings mentioned is known, Abimelech could not be a Philistine (they did not arrive till centuries later), Ur could not become known as "Ur of the Chaldeans" until the early 1st millennium, and Laban could not have been an Aramean, as the Arameans did not become an identifiable political entity until the 12th century.[19] Joseph Blenkinsopp, Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, notes that the past four or five decades have seen a growing consensus that the Genesis narrative of Abraham originated from literary circles of the 6th and 5th centuries BCE as a mirror of the situation facing the Jewish community under the Babylonian and early Persian empires.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#Historicity_and_origins


Edited by Menumorut - 06-Jul-2011 at 15:35

Interesting but not what is reported by the Hebrews. His name according to their tradition was Abram.

Abraham first appears as Abram in the book of Genesis until he is renamed by God in Genesis 17:5. The narrative indicates that abraham means “the father of a multitude" (Hebrew: ʼaḇ-hămôn goyim).^[14] However, scholars do not accept the narrative's definition to be the etymology of Abraham because, though "ab-" means "father", "-hamon" is not the second element, and "-Raham" is not a word in Hebrew. The word in Hebrew for "multitude" is rabim. Johann Friedrich Karl Keil suggested that there was once a word raham (רָהָם) in Hebrew that meant "multitude", on analogy with the Arabic ruhâm which does have this meaning, but there is no evidence to support this;^[15] another possibility is that the first element should be abr-, which means "chief", but this yields a meaningless second element, "-aham". David Rohl suggests the name comes from the Akkadian "the father loves",^[16] but scholars would prefer an origin based on Hebrew.

Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 09-Jul-2011 at 01:21

Originally posted by Nick1986 It's interesting that a lot of ancient Jews seem to have been named after their future deeds. Were their parents aware of their destiny, or did prophets like Abraham change their names (or receive them from their descendents) after such events (like the birth of his two sons) came to pass?

Deeds??

Like smashing the heads of infants against walls of conquered cities??

They kill Cannanite children, even today my friend.

Originally posted by FioDeus They kill Cannanite children, even today my friend.

No they don't. The Palestinians are descended from the biblical Jews (who absorbed the surviving Canaanites) who stayed in the Holy Land. In addition to genocide, modern Israel is guilty of fratricide.

Originally posted by FioDeus Originally posted by Nick1986 It's interesting that a lot of ancient Jews seem to have been named after their future deeds. Were their parents aware of their destiny, or did prophets like Abraham change their names (or receive them from their descendents) after such events (like the birth of his two sons) came to pass? Deeds?? Like smashing the heads of infants against walls of conquered cities??

I hope you're ironical. The Jewish Scriptures are no more historically accurate than other ancient peoples' myths. Some people on this forum seem not to be aware how such myths appeared, from simple invention of scribes or from oral traditions.

You can compare with the way fake traditions were fabricated in Middle Age or even in the Modern Age. Kings and priests needed to have some sort of authority, and a noble origin tale is invented. People hear a rumour and transmit it to others and so a 'historical tradition' is born.

For example, in Middle Age was common for the Barbarians invading Europe to try to make connection between them and people from the past. The Goths and the Danes claimed that they are the ancient Dacians (who were not a Germanic people) and the Hungarians that they are the same people with the Huns etc.

The Jewish Scriptures contain references to some real figures (like the kings David and Solomon) but the stories about patriarchs and prophets were invented pretty late (see my message above). There was not any Abraham, nor coming in the promised land or slavery in Egypt.

Historians and archaeologists agree that the Jews are the autochtonous population that lived here from the Neolithic or earlier. Their material culture shows not a foreign origin but a direct continuation of the earlier local cultures, identified as belonging to the so called Canaanites.

Reading the Wikipedia articles about these mythical figures will enlighten you in a measure.

Edited by Menumorut - 21-Aug-2011 at 18:40