Abraham

The Father of Faith (Art by Lorenzo Monaco)

### Aliases

Abram, Father of Faith, The Great Patriarch, Father of many, Father of many nations

## Relatives

### Offspring

Ishmael, Isaac, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah

**Abraham**, formerly called **Abram**, is the first prophet of God avatars, venerated as one of the three patriarchs of Judaism. He's the prophet of Abraxas and father of Ishmael and Isaac while also being the grandfather of Jacob.

## Overview

Abraham is the first known prophet of God, even if it was through one of His avatars, Abraxas. Any mortal who interacted with God beforehand is considered more so a friend or child of the Almighty than a true prophet. Through this, Abraham founded the religion of Yahwism; a religion dedicated to the worship of God's avatars while still worshiping the national deities of Canaan.

Abraham is often considered a father of religion, as many of the faiths that survived passed or formed after the Common Era were often either directly related to or spawned in opposition to one of the faiths that came from Yahwism.

### Abrahamic religions

Due to his major involvement in the main three faiths, Abraham is considered the ancestor. Due to this, many faiths are referred to as "Abrahamic religions".

* Yahwism - Religion of Ancient Israel, which worshiped the God Yaldabaoth alongside other gods such as Asherah, Baal, etc.
	+ Judaism - An ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people.
		- Christianity - A monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
			* Islam - A monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
				+ Bahá'í Faith - A religion teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.
			* Catholicism
			* Protestantism
			* Mormonism - The religious tradition of the Latter Day Saints Movement.
			* Satanism - A group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on Satan.
				+ Ayinnism - A satanic group who believe they're "traditional" by worshiping the actual Satan and his "mother".
			* Gnosticism - A collection of religious ideas and systems emphasizing personal spiritual knowledge over the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of the church.
				+ Hermeticism
					- Alchemy
			* Pastafarianism

## Personality

Abraham is somehow both incredibly clever and smart while also being very gullible at the same time. When it comes to dealing with fellow humans he's able to hold his own in a battle of intellect, though when it comes to the spiritual he's incredibly willing to take whatever they say at face value. While this shouldn't be held against him, as anyone in his position would most likely go along with whatever the deities were saying, it's his complete willingness to do as the deities desire that's being brought into focus. He constantly second guessing what other humans have told him, yet when it comes to gods he takes them at face value. Thankfully he has both Abraxas and the Angel of the Lord to guide him rather than some other manipulative malevolent spirit.

Abraham was a very kind and charitable man, valuing the strength and labor of the working class over any chances of becoming rich. Even at the perceived wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was willing to bargain with a deity in the hopes that he could save them. Though he was unsuccessful in his attempts, the fact that he was able to try in worth noting.

## History

### Origin and Calling

Abram was born to his father Terah and his mother Edna in the city of Ur Kasdim, it was here that he married his half sister Sarai. The city of Ur was a terrible one, it was incredibly disease and famine ridden, which resulted in the unfortunate death of Abram's brother Haran. Abram, Sarai, Terah, and Lot departed to Canaan in the hopes to find somewhere better to live, however they had to settle down in the ruins of a city where Terah, their father, died. Thankfully, Abram had managed to catch the attention of the Almighty god Abraxas. Abraxas called Abram to take his family to travel out of the land of Ur and to go further to Canaan, and that there will be a place for him and his descendants. Abram, Sarai, and Lot then traveled further, now with the help of a deity on their side.

They traveled as far as they could, though they had to stop and make a tent near a temple for Bethel so that they could gather their energy for the next day. There they built an alter for God, not their god Abraxas, but the one true God of Heaven. When they awoke, they traveled further and finally managed to make their way to Canaan, and settled down in the city Shechem.

### Egypt

When famine once again appeared in Canaan, Abram and his household were forced to leave once more in hopes to find something better. Abram turned to his wife Sarai and told her to never mention their marriage, for if the ruler of the land fancied her then there would be a chance that they would kill her husband to get to her. When they arrived in Egypt, the Pharaoh Khufu was told by his officials of the beautiful woman who just appeared in his domain.

Khufu met up with Abram and Sarai and, noticing that she wasn't married, asked to sleep with Sarai in exchange for money. They agreed to this offer and the Pharaoh had his way with her whilst she and her cohorts received extravagant payment. This unknowing sin caught the attention of Abraxas, who dished plagues on to Khufu's household for sleeping with another mans wife. Khufu, distraught at the travesty this had caused, asked Abram if Sarai was really his sister or if she was his wife. Abram stated that she was both, and that he lied to him about her being his wife out of fear that he would've been killed for his beautiful wife.

Khufu exclaimed that he would have let them stay if he had told the truth, that he would never cross the boundary of marriage willingly. This, along with the plagues it brought, convinced Khufu that Abram and his cohorts were too much trouble to keep around, so he banished them out of Egypt.

### Conflict with Lot

After they were banished from Egypt, Abram and his cohorts were forced to take up residence once more near a temple of Bethel. Due to the small amount of land they could use, Abram's flock and Lot's flock had to occupy the same space. This became a problem to the shepherds, who had to deal with each others separate flocks of the household. Abram has suggested to Lot to pick a separate area for his flock so that the conflict may die down. Lot chose to bring his flock to the plain of Jordan, a land that was well watered, and had his living space moved to Sodom. Abram himself settled in Mamre and built another alter to God.

### War between Sodom and Elam

For unknown reasons, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had gone to war with the civilization of Elam. Lot, who lived in Sodom at the time, was captured by the Elamites as a spoil of war as they defeated the armies of Sodom. One of the survivors ran to Abram and told him what happened, hoping to get allies from a prophet. Abram, distraught that one of his family members was in danger, mustered up an army of three hundred eighteen servants all trained in the art of combat to pursue the Elamites and hopefully save Lot.

They eventually caught up to the army tired from the Battle of Sidim they just finished. Abram devised a plan to attack the Elamites when they weren't expecting by splitting into separate groups and attacking them whilst they slept. When they attacked at midnight, they were able to both save those who were taken captive as well as execute the king of the Elamites, Chedorlaomer, in the process. They freed Lot and recovered all that was stolen from Sodom during the war.

When Abram returned with the retrieved goods, the king of Sodom personally asked to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh. During the meeting, the at the time king of Jerusalem, Melchizedek, came with gifts of bread and wine for the newly appointed hero. The king blessed both Abram and Abraxas, and Abram gave the king a tenth of what he had brought. The king had offered a deal to Abram that he would keep his possessions if he would return his people, though Abram denied as he believed that his allies should be given what they were entitled to.

### Covenant and Hagar

On a seemingly mundane day in Abram's life, the Angel of the Lord came to him in a vision to repeat promises of a land where his numerous descendants, as many as the stars, can take residence. The angel, with the permission of the Almighty, had established a covenant between God and Abram. Abram's descendants would eventually establish the various lands and tribes of Canaan; the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaims, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.

Abram and Sarai were confused as to how he would be the ancestor to nations as they were unable to have children by this point. Sarai came up with an idea however, that Abram would sleep with Hagar, a slave of hers, and hopefully foster a child. Hagar became pregnant from this, and started to despise her mistress for forcing a child upon her. Sarai became more abusive in retaliation which caused Hagar to flee into the wilderness with Abram's unborn child. The Angel of the Lord caught up with Hagar and told her to return back to Abram to have their child, that her child will be the ancestor to a legendary figure, the angel further told her that her child will be named Ishmael.

Hagar, taking the advice of the angel seriously, went back to Abram's camp to have their child. Ishmael was then born, Abram was eighty six years old.

### New Name

When Abram was at the age of ninety nine, Abraxas came down and gave him a new name to similar to the god's own, he was renamed to "Abraham" or the "father of many nations". With this new name, Abraham was given the news that to keep the covenant of God alive that he would need to circumcise any further descendants he has. Sarai was also given the name "Sarah", and Abraxas blessed her to finally be able to carry Abraham's children. Abraxas returned to his heavenly abode, and Abraham had his entire household of men circumcised.

### Three Visitors

While Abraham was sitting outside the entrance of his tent on a hot day, he looked up and saw three men coming from the presence of God. Two of them were the True Archangels Gabriel and Raphael. Abraham quickly ran up to them and bowed before them, offering to wash their feet and feed them his best. They obliged and Abraham excitedly ran to his wife and told her to make ash cakes with choice flour, he then told their servant to prepare a choice calf. When the food was finished, he set it in front of them under a tree, where they ate.

Gabriel said that when they return next year Sarah will have a son from Abraham. Sarah had overheard this and started to giggle with joy from the revelation. Raphael asked Abraham why she would laugh, as through God anything is possible, to which Sarah denied ever laughing.

### Sodom and Gomorrah

When they were finished eating, the three visitors gathered together and discussed the wickedness of the cities Sodom and Gomorrah. The sins being discussed were so detestable that it caught the attention of Abraxas. Abraxas was so incredibly disgusted at what he heard that he prepared to destroy the cities when Lot and his family had left. Abraham, the kind man that he was, bargained with Abraxas to give mercy to the cities if they could find ten righteous members of the cities.

Gabriel and Raphael went down into the cities to check if Abraham's bargain could hold any water, though outside of Lot they couldn't anyone worthy enough to be considered "righteous". The next morning, when Abraham looked back to the cities he found engulfed in flames, and even though his family was able to escape Abraham knew that he wasn't able save anyone else.

### Abimelech

Abraham and his household had to move once more, this time they settled in Gerar. It was here when Abraham tried a trick he used before in the land of Egypt, he told Sarah that they had to refer to each other as siblings once more so that Abraham wasn't killed. When the ruler of Gerar heard of Sarah being unmarried, he had her brought to him though he didn't sleep with her yet. The next day, Abimelech approached Abraham asking him why he lied about Sarah being his sister rather than his wife. Turned out Abraxas went to Abimelech in a dream to tell him not to sleep with Sarah because she was married to Abraham.

Abraham corrected the king, Sarah was indeed his half sister as well as his wife, though this didn't answer his question. Abraham explained that he thought that they didn't believe in God and therefore would kill him in order to sleep with his wife. Abimelech was understanding in his explanation, and to pay for any damages he gave Abraham sheep, oxen, servants, a thousand silver pieces, and some land for him and his household. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech and his kingdom to show that they were righteous men in the eyes of God.

Abraham was later approached by Abimelech and his troops after a violent confrontation between a servant and Abraham at a well. Abraham claimed that the servant tried to steal the well from Abraham, though Abimelech didn't believe him. Abraham then provided proof that the well belonged to him, which lead to Abimelech naming the location of the well, Beersheba, as a show of remorse. Abraham then planted a tamarisk grove near Beersheba and called upon Abraxas.

### Isaac and Ishmael

Abraham was a hundred years old, as was prophesied by Abraxas, Sarah and Abraham finally had a child to inherit his family's land, a child named Isaac. Sarah giggled with joy at this, she seemed even more happy than Abraham that they were finally able to have a baby boy. Ishmael wasn't as cheerful as his father, he mocked the newborn for seemingly no reason. Sarah was disgusted by this and demanded Abraham to banish both Ishmael and Hagar from their household so that they didn't inherit the household.

Abraham became distressed from this and wanted to calm his wife, but he didn't want Hagar and Ishmael to suffer all on their own. He called upon the advice of Abraxas, who told him to relax and do as his wife asked. Abraham wanted reason to do so, and Abraxas reassured him saying that much like Isaac, since Ishmael was of Abraham's seed that he will make a nation. The next morning, Abraham brought Ishmael and Hagar out, gave them bread and water in order to survive, and sent them away.

### Binding of Isaac

When Isaac grew older, younger than an adult but older than a child, Abraxas came to Abraham and demanded that he take his son the land of Moriah and sacrifice him in order to show his allegiance to God. Abraham traveled for three days to the highest mountain in that land, having Isaac following behind carrying the wood he would sacrificed on. When Isaac asked what animal they would be sacrificing, Abraham said that it would be a lamb provided by God Himself.

At the top of the mountain, Isaac was tied and blindfolded so that nothing would go wrong in the process. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son when the Angel of the Lord stopped him right before the knife touched Isaac's skin. The angel provided him a ram to sacrifice instead of his son, saving Isaac from being killed. The location was later called Jehovah-jireh, and for his obedience Abraham was given another promise of numerous descendants. Abraham returned back to Beersheba.

### Final Years

When Sarah died, Abraham wanted to bury her in the best place he could buy, the Cave of the Patriarchs. After her death, Abraham took Keturah as a concubine with whom he had six children; Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham was alive long enough to see his son, Isaac, get married to Rebekah and have twins, Jacob and Esau. Abraham lived to the age one hundred and seventy five, and died a very happy man, he was buried in Machpelah where both Ishmael and Isaac would eventually rest.

## Myths and Legends

Abraham is an incredibly important figure in the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism he's the founder of the covenant between the Jews and God. In Christianity he's seen as the ancestor of all believers of God, Christian or otherwise. And in Islam he's seen as one of the ancestor's of Muhammad, a very important figure in his own right.