Abraham: One God Three Wives Five Religions

First, God reaffirms the existing covenant with Abraham, reminding Him that His descendants will be made into a mighty nation. This matches and reaffirms the promise Hagar has received for Ishmael. Abraham, overwhelmed and grateful at the blessings in store for His son, prostrates himself in the dust. But, just as things seem settled, there is a surprise. God reveals that the nation to be born through Abraham’s heir, Ishmael, will not be the only nation founded by Abraham’s descendants.

What is more, Ishmael will no longer be Abraham’s only son. Ishmael will soon have a half-brother because it is now Sarah’s turn to have a baby. Like Hagar, Sarah will receive blessings through her descendants because “she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.”²

As a sign of His promise, God provides a new name for the Messenger of God. His birth name of Abram becomes Abraham. At first glance, there seems hardly any difference between Abram and Abraham. But although both names have the connotation of exalted father, the slight change enlarges the meaning to reflect the terms of this new covenant. Abraham means father of a multitude.³

Abraham’s wife also receives a new name. Sarai is renamed Sarah. In the view of many linguists, Sarai means noble or royal or even princess in the sense that a father might call his daughter my little princess. An alternate explanation is that Sarai is based on a root word that means quarrelsome or contentious, which is exactly how it is explained on many Web sites dedicated to the process of naming a baby.

Sarai’s new name, Sarah, is almost always explained as having the connotation of Princess with a capital P, though a few people hold out for the idea that it is taken from an Arabic root—saraa—and means having numerous progeny. In either case, the bestowal of a new name can be seen as a recognition of Sarah’s spiritual capacity as well as an indication of the lasting effect she will have on humanity. Four thousand years later, Sarah continues to be a very popular name, and she is still referred to as a woman who “glorified the human race” by her excellences.⁴

In return for all these blessings, God announces that succeeding generations must be faithful to Him. He also prophesies that the land of Canaan will eventually be given to Abraham and His offspring. Because some translations of the verses in Genesis describing the covenant are puzzling, it can be useful to read at least two translations and compare them. Here is one in modern American English:

“I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to make you into a mighty nation.” At this, Abram fell face down in the dust. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you. I will make you the father of not just one nation, but a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram; now you will be known as Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will give you millions of descendants who will represent many nations. Kings will be among them!

“I will continue the everlasting covenant between us, generation after generation. It will continue between me and your offspring forever. And I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. Yes, I will give all this land of Canaan to you and to your offspring forever.”⁵

Here is another translation, in more formal British English:

And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.⁶

Abraham is described as laughing at the idea that he and Sarah can have a child this late in life. To emphasize their ages, Abraham is said to be ninety-nine and Sarah ten years younger. But, as usual, we don’t really know how old the two of them were in solar years, though a good guess would be middle-aged. Not too old for children by today’s standards, but quite old in a society where women were generally expected to bear at least one child before the age of twenty. God, amusingly, acknowledges the humor of the situation by directing Abraham to call the son Isaac, which means he laughs.

One would suppose that the announcement of the advent of Isaac and the wonderful covenant that has come into being between God and the descendants of Isaac would call for a celebration.

Instead, Abraham becomes concerned that His first son, Ishmael, the cherished child born of Hagar, will now be ignored in favor of Isaac. Perhaps, Abraham worries, Ishmael will die early or be left out of the blessings after Isaac is born. As a loving father, Abraham pleads with God about the fate of Ishmael, saying, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” or, in another translation, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing.”⁷

To allay Abraham’s fears, God reaffirms the blessings that will be bestowed upon Ishmael and outlines them in even greater detail. “And as for Ishmael,” God says, “I have heard thee (remember the pun in this phrase; Ishmael means “God hears”); Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.” Having reassured Abraham that all the promises made to Ishmael will be fulfilled, God continues, “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.” The agreement with Isaac is not intended to be a short one because, God explains, “… I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.⁸

The elaborate and everlasting covenant with Isaac is sealed with a sacrifice, just as the first covenant was. This time, though, the sacrifice is quite different. No animals or birds are needed. Instead, God says, “Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.” All the males in Abraham’s camp are to be circumcised, and newborns will undergo the procedure when they are eight days old. Abraham obediently seals the covenant as directed: “And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.”⁹

Before the time of Abraham, there were already places in the world, including Australia and Egypt, where young men were routinely circumcised, probably as a symbol of passage into adulthood.¹⁰ The law given by Abraham differed from these customs because it was applied to babies. The initial circumcision, of course, was of the older males in Abraham’s household, but when Isaac was born, he was circumcised on the eighth day of his life, thus setting a pattern for when the operation should be performed. The law included the provision that in the generations to come, any male whose foreskin was not circumcised would be cut off from his people for breaking the covenant, a mandate that had the effect of ensuring that devout parents would circumcise their babies.

From that time on, circumcision of male babies as a sign of the continuing covenant between God and man began to be practiced among the followers of Abraham, and it continued among the followers of Moses. It is thought that at least some of the Arabs who descended from Ishmael also practiced circumcision, though it is not clear if Muḥammad was circumcised or not.¹¹ After Muḥammad’s death, many of His followers took up the practice of circumcision as a sign of their understanding of the relationship between Abraham and Muḥammad—even though Muḥammad Himself did not comment on circumcision in the Qur’án. Currently, circumcision is the norm in most Muslim countries.

In pondering the rationale behind the rite of male circumcision (female circumcision, by contrast, is never mentioned or condoned in any of the divine scriptures), one wonders why such a traumatic procedure was chosen, especially since the child on whom it is performed has no say in the matter. If the child can’t agree or disagree, the involuntary act cannot be taken as a sign of his own belief. A few hundred years after Abraham, in fact, the prophet Jeremiah made it clear that true circumcision has nothing to do with flesh and everything to do with the state of one’s soul by saying, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart …” The New Testament makes an even more dramatic declaration by swearing that men who have never been circumcised can be counted as believers if their faith is real: “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ …”¹²

It is possible that Abraham chose circumcision simply because His followers would need, over the next few centuries, a dramatic rite by which to remember their relationship to the covenant and to the Revelation of Abraham. Circumcision certainly serves as a powerful tool for connecting the heart of a father—who sympathizes completely with the cries of his baby—to the heart of Abraham when He heard the cries of His own children.

But, aside from all the drama and symbolism, valuable though they might be in establishing a group’s religious identity, there is another excellent reason why Abraham might have chosen circumcision rather than a tattoo or some other mark of faith. Circumcising males when they are just a few days old turns out to be an extremely effective public health measure. Large medical studies done in the late twentieth century revealed a purely physical side-benefit that the American Urological Association sums up this way: “For the first three to six months of life, the incidence of urinary tract infections is at least ten times higher in uncircumcised than circumcised boys.”¹³

In a pre-antibiotic age, urinary-tract infections could easily kill a baby or damage the kidneys of those who survived. The followers of Abraham who faithfully circumcised their boys would have been rewarded with healthier babies and a higher survival rate than groups who didn’t practice early circumcision, even though they wouldn’t have been aware of the science behind the survival.

A second physical benefit is that men who are circumcised as infants have a lower rate of penile cancer later in life. A third advantage—discovered only recently—is that in areas where condoms are not routinely used, circumcised males are less likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases because “circumcision reduces the rate of infection by 50 to 60%.”¹⁴

After the covenant with Isaac has been fully described and sealed with circumcision—but before the actual birth of Isaac—Abraham receives three unexpected visitors who arrive during the heat of the day. Or, looking more carefully at the story, the Lord, accompanied by two men, comes to visit Abraham: “And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,” saying, “if I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by.”¹⁵

Sarah and Abraham welcome the visitors and prepare a feast for them. After the feast, one of the visitors begins chatting with Sarah. He informs her that he will visit again in a year, at which time she will have a son. The information about the impending conception of Isaac isn’t new information because the covenant between God and Isaac has already been made known to Sarah and Abraham. Why, then, is the birth of Isaac mentioned, and what is the purpose of these men? As straightforward visitors, they don’t make sense. In many ways, they don’t even seem to be fully human. Interpretations abound, from the theory that these men have been sent to test Abraham’s goodness (he passes the test by preparing food for them) to the notion that “these angel visitors symbolize the trinity.”¹⁶

Another prophetic interpretation emerges from the viewpoint expressed by St. Augustine, who notes that although Abraham saw three men, he addressed them as though they were one, bowing before them and saying “Lord (singular), do not pass your servant by.” According to Augustine, there was something about the three men that one “could not doubt that God was in them as he was wont to be in the prophets.”¹⁷ If God was in all three men, then it is possible to infer that they are not men but Messengers of God, and that their visit is a portent of things to come. In that case, the angelic visitors represent the three Messengers who will be descendants of Isaac—Moses, Jesus, and Bahá’u’lláh.