Abraham
<p><b>Abraham</b> (<a title="Hebrew language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language">Hebrew</a>: אַבְרָהָם <a title="About this sound" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:He-Avraham.ogg"><img src="/df3e4a05-5fc3-5eab-92b4-7a41729cd532.png"/></a> <a title="He-Avraham.ogg" class="internal" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/He-Avraham.ogg">listen</a> <small class="metadata audiolinkinfo" >(<a title="Wikipedia:Media help" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_help">help</a>·<a title="File:He-Avraham.ogg" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:He-Avraham.ogg">info</a>)</small>; <a title="Syriac language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_language">Syriac</a>: <big >ܐܒܪܗܡ</big> <i>Oraham</i>; <a title="Arabic language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language">Arabic</a>: <big >إبراهيم</big> <i>ʾIbrāhīm</i>), is a key figure in the <a title="Bible" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible">Bible</a> of <a title="Judaism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism">Judaism</a> and <a title="Christianity" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity">Christianity</a><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-scripture_1-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-scripture-1">[Notes 1]</a></sup> and the <a title="Quran" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran">Quran</a> of <a title="Islam" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam">Islam</a>.
Originally called "Abram" (<a title="Book of Genesis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Genesis">Genesis</a> 11:26), Abraham's story is of the establishment of a <a title="Covenant (biblical)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_(biblical)#Abrahamic_covenant">covenant he is offered by God</a>: if he leaves his land, family and household in <a title="Mesopotamia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia">Mesopotamia</a>, God promises him a new land – the "<a title="Promised land" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_land">promised land</a>" – and family and inheritance in <a title="Canaan" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan">Canaan</a>. When he accepts the covenant (Genesis 17), he is given the name "Abraham"; the two names are generally understood to be <a title="Dialect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect">dialectical</a> variations of the same name, but, in popular<sup class="Template-Fact" >[<i><a title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed">citation needed</a></i>]</sup> <a title="Etymology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology">etymology</a>, "Abraham" was [is?] understood to mean "father of multitudes".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAndrews19906_2-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAndrews19906-2">[1]</a></sup> Various circumstances then imperil the covenant – difficulties in producing an heir, the threat of <a title="Slavery" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery">bondage</a> in Egypt, doubts about God – but all are overcome and it is eventually established.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHillWalton20102024-2030_3-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHillWalton20102024-2030-3">[2]</a></sup> The story ends with the death and burial of his wife <a title="Sarah" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah">Sarah</a> in a grave he has purchased in the town of <a title="Hebron" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron">Hebron</a>, followed by the marriage of his heir <a title="Isaac" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac">Isaac</a> to a wife (<a title="Rebecca" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca">Rebecca</a>) from his own people. These two episodes are used to claim the right of Abraham's descendants to the land and the exclusion of that land's previous inhabitants, the Canaanites, from those descendants' patrimony.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESka200930-31_4-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-FOOTNOTESka200930-31-4">[3]</a></sup>
The Bible's own chronology places Abraham as living around 2000 BCE,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEShea2000248_5-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShea2000248-5">[4]</a></sup> but the stories in Genesis cannot be related to the known history of that time. Accordingly, most biblical histories no longer begin with this <a title="Patriarchal age" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_age">patriarchal period</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMcNutt199941_6-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcNutt199941-6">[5]</a></sup></p>