abraham destroyed idols bible verse

2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children[ a] by her." This can be seen clearly in the rich collection of essays, edited by Lee Levin and Amichai Mazer,The Polemic about the Historical Truth of Scripture(Jerusalem, 5761) [Hebrew]. I cannot deny that the intuition of religious people, whether they be simple believers or great scholars, prefers to see the Torahs narratives as based in factual history. Nimrod proclaims to Abraham that we should worship fire. So he got a club, or some other weapon, and knocked off the heads of some, the arms and legs of others, and made a general wreck among the idols, but left the biggest untouched. 38 And he found Abram his son still sitting in the house; and he said to him, What is this work thou hast done to my gods? What are they if not dry historical descriptions? One approach (the older and more nave one) claims that the job of a historian is to make a copy of the past and place it, as-is, before present day students of history. 6The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and (I)the tithe of [d]sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps. English Revised Version He is the father of three children including the Patriarch Abraham. When I ask myself the question, What is more important: that Abraham lived in Ur 3500 years ago, or that he should live for 3500 years in the hearts of the people of Israel, I choose the second option. [7], There are several different ways in which this Midrash has been discussed. Therefore, by necessity we would need to distill from his historical persona what parts of his life were his own choice, (i.e. Hosea 2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. Abram is now 50 years old; he has lived with Noah and Shem for 39 years and a cave for 10. Hence the verse in Genesis 11:28, And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.[6], The Midrash is not the only mention of this storythe Quran discusses the story in great detail as well. 5 From . They meant the world to me and taught me crucial lessons. My thanks to Hillel ben-Sasson for sharpening this point. The consequence was, his father and the idolatrous priests of that day sought to take his life. 31 And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God. The missing years of Abraham's early childhood are explained through a series of Midrashim. How Modern Prophets Contextualized This Account, [Abraham] understood that there was a God in heaven, a living and true God, and that no man should worship any other God but Him. In essence, we exchange a conversation about God for an encounter with God. 59 Now therefore put away this evil deed which thou doest, and serve the God of the universe, as thy soul is in his hands, and then it will be well with thee. This is the meaning of the phrase, In every generation a person must look upon himself as if he left Egypt.[14], This perspective is reflected in the world of halacha as well. This claim, however, can be countered by making recourse to the premise of comparative literature, where it is one and the same whether a given story has a historical basis or not: comparison between texts always offers useful and challenging insights. Nevertheless, such an opportunity would be limited. Rabbi Yehudah said: It applies even to unclean animals. Rabbi Yehudah said to them: But wasnt the sciatic nerve forbidden to the sons of Jacob, and they were permitted to eat unclean animals! They said to him: The law was stated at Sinai but was included in its proper place. For a summary of the issues surrounding pre-Sinaitic rules, see the entry in theEncylopedia Talmudit, One may not learn [rules] from the time before the giving of the Torah, (vol. Note: This essay was translated and adapted by Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, with the approval of Rabbi Dr. Kula, from the introduction to his book, Existential or Non-Essential. So Nimrod declares they worship water. God stopped him from actually following . To me, the key question is whether ones approach to exploring the ahistoricity of the narrative is in order to reduce the vital importance of the Torah and its message or whether it is the opposite, to increase it, as I suggest above. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem . On its own, the sentence can be understood as conveying the opposite meaning, as a call for those involved in studying the exodus from Egypt to remove themselves from the present, to transport themselves through time and view the event the way it would have been viewed by Moses and Aaron, Datan and Abiram. I cannot thank them enough for the happy homelife they created for me and my siblings. The Bible tells us the Lord said to him: Get thee up from thy fathers house, from the land wherein thou wast born, and go up to a land I will show unto thee, and which I will afterwards give unto thee for an inheritance. And we are told that he went up, not knowing whither he went. 4, It is said Abrahams father was an idolater, and that he had a number of gods in his house. 16 And Abram came to his fathers house and saw twelve gods standing there in their temples, and the anger of Abram was kindled when he saw these images in his fathers house. The interpretive strategy of the accepted rendition is paramount emphasizes the importance of our mediated encounter with the text, the reading that I was taught by my teacher, and he his teacher, going all the way back to the law given to Moses at Sinai. In short, the tradition is of utmost value. A different approach (cutting edge and more realistic) assumes that reconstruction of the past, with a point-by-point accurate portrayal, is impossible. Shalom Carmy; Orthodox Forum; Northvale: Aaronson, 1996), 159-180. 42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to do all thou hast told me? At this point, Terah took Abraham to Nimrod. not in the hands of heaven,) in order to say something about the God he discovered and followed. then he. He has two wives, Sarah and Hajar and is well into his old age and childless. Can these idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? Save 15% for life! Exodus 20:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. It is precisely this struggle with which I attempt to grapple in my book. Haran is the son of Terah, brother of Abraham, and the father of Lot. 19Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in (U)the pasture lands of their cities, or in each and every city, (V)there were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone genealogically enrolled among the Levites. [1] Many commentaries throughout the generations have taken up this question; see, for example, Ramban on Genesis 11:28 and Maharal of Prague inNetzah Yisrael, ch. Please support us. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. 1, 14:53, p. 163. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help. The story has been used as a way to discuss monotheism and faith in general. 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. King James Bible But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: New King James Version But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images [1] According to Jewish tradition, Terah was an idolater. Said he, Father, I did not do anything to them, they quarreled among themselves and went to work fighting and knocked one another down, broke one anothers heads and knocked off one anothers arms and legs. Oh, said his father, my sons do not tell me anything of that kind, for they are made of wood and they could not move or stir from their place nor knock one another down; it has been some other agency that has done it. Why, father, said he, would you worship a being that could not stir or move, that had hands and could not handle, that had legs and could not walk, a mouth that could not speak, and a head and it was of no use? Rambam, in contrast, uses this claim to explain why God commanded humans to act in certain ways and forbids them to act in others.) Amplified Bible Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went out together to go from Ur of the Chaldeans into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran [about five hundred and fifty miles northwest of Ur], they settled there. The text designates Terah, Abraham's father, as a "manufacturer of idols." One day, while Terah is away from his workshop, he entrusts it to young Abraham. Last edited on 18 February 2023, at 01:39, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_and_the_Idol_Shop&oldid=1140022488, This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 01:39. NASB, Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Red Letter Edition, NASB, Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, 2nd Edition, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New American Standard Bible, NASB, Super Giant Print Reference Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Large Print, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print. When a man would come to buy [an idol], [Abraham] would ask him: "How old are you?" He did his Ph.D.in Jewish thought atBen Gurion University, focusing on the writings of Rav Kook. [21]An ant and an elephant are running through the desert. [3]See the long discussion inResponsa Rashba(1:414), where Rashba uses strong language to criticize various sages who suggested a philosophical-allegorical understanding for a number of biblical characters, including Abraham. Abraham told him that the gods had had a quarrel among themselves, and, said he, here is the fellow, (pointing to the big one he had spared) that did it. Said the father: My son, why do you tell me such a thing. Abraham took a stick and shattered all the idols in the store, and then he placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. This one, enraged against them on account of their behavior, took the hatchet and broke them all, and, behold, the hatchet is yet in his hands, as thou mayest see., Then Terah turned in wrath upon Abraham, and he said: Thou speakest lies unto me! 10Azariah, the chief priest (K)of the house of Zadok, said to [f]him, (L)Since the contributions started coming into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat with plenty left over, for the Lord has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over.. Among the many events described in the book of Genesis, there are a handful that carry with them a mitzvahrequirementthe circumcision of Abraham (Gen. 17) and the injuring of Jacobs sciatic nerve (Gen. 32:25-33), for instance. Douay-Rheims Bible And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural, Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, A Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same, Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct, gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative, Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural, Holy things must be eaten in the holy place, and holy things must be eaten in the holy place, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, OT Law: Deuteronomy 12:3 And you shall break down their altars (Deut. 45 And forget the Lord God who made heaven and earth, and who created you in the earth, and thereby bring a great evil upon your souls in this matter by serving stone and wood? A man walked in and wished to buy an idol. 14 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). The Torah describes various events from its own unique perspective. [27] Putting this view forward before those who believed that God had a body probably caused those believers a crisis of faith. [b](P) 23Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Discourse by President John Taylor, Duties of the SaintsThe Atonement, etc. 5As soon as the [c]order spread, the sons of Israel abundantly provided the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly (H)the tithe of everything. Will you really sweep it away and not spare[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Some critics of the Bible point to the story of Abraham, who laid his son Isaac on an altar and prepared to sacrifice him as directed by God (Genesis 22:1-14). The believer, who adapts the divine message to his or her own life, chooses to look upon the events of the past described in the Torah from the divine perspective. The giving of the Torah at Sinai turns a story or mitzvah included in it into the barometer for proper religious behavior. He was looking forward. Rambams approach here applies to our case as well. Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. But Abram said that the largest of the idols had killed all the others in a fight over an offering brought to them. Recounting the Census: A Military Force of 5,500 (not 603,550) Men, Reconstructionism Reconciles Rationalism and Revelation, Rabbi Chiyya said: Terah was an idol worshiper. (C) 18Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation,(D) and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. Once he went on a trip and he placed Abraham in charge of the store in his place. TheTorah.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.We rely on the support of readers like you. Whether our actions motivate us to work for labor and the downtrodden or peace in Israel, we activate a certain "Abraham" within to destroy the idols of prior perspectives and belief systems, and . This Abraham is entirely in the hands of heaven (in a different and positive sense). [26]It would be wrong to simplify the dichotomy by trying to distinguish between the simple person, who would wish to hide from contradictions since answering them would be beyond this persons ability, and the learned person, who, ostensibly, can deal with such tensions. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Kush was the son of Ham, the lowest and least important of Noah 's three sons. 33 And when Abram saw all these things his anger was kindled against his father, and he hastened and took a hatchet in his hand, and came unto the chamber of the gods, and he broke all his fathers gods. Cautiously, I would like to suggest that doing so is not important. [13]Even if its conclusions will, in the end, be rejectednot always and not necessarilyby practical halacha. When the Torah describes various events that appear to be rooted in a concrete time and place, its account is more a retelling than a reconstruction. See also Ravads commentad loc. Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. The idols argued about which one should eat the offering first, then the largest idol took the stick and smashed all the other idols. What is a believer to do, when he or she is convinced that a new religious outlook, as innovative and brazen as it may be, not only doesnt diminish the value of faith but even colors it in stronger and more vibrant colors? 3He also appointed (D)the kings portion of his property for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and for the new moons and for the appointed festivals, (E)as it is written in the Law of the Lord. Thou speakest lies to me. I simply believe it. When his father saw that his son Abraham had broken his gods he was very angry with him. This, however, is when this person accepts the [mitzvot] and fulfills them because the Holy One commanded this in the Torah and informed us through our teacher Moses, that the descendants of Noah had been so commanded (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, 8:11). 10 These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. [17] Is it surprising that Gods narrative is the story of humanity writ large? Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. It is the Torah of God, turning its face to Torah students in every generation. [2] Terah also made and sold idols, as the Midrash Genesis Rabbah 38 explains. So Nimrod declares they worship clouds. "[5] There is no description of a biblical interaction between Nimrod and Abraham. Studying the real life of the giant among men, our founding father, Abraham the man of faith and kindness, would, in theory, give us an opportunity to uncover the God in which he places his trust. Nimrod is a descendant of Noah and is considered to be a "mighty one on the earth. 31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." 32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. 26 And Abram saw on the day when he was sitting amongst them, that they had no voice, no hearing, no motion, and not one of them could stretch forth his hand to eat. [18]It must be admitted that the long genealogical lists, which specify the origins of the entire human species (see, for instance, Gen. 4:18-5:32), stand in some tension with the above-offered claim. If the stories about the ancestors of the nation had not been included in the Torah at Sinai, it seems likely that they would be without any religious implications. 20 And Abram said to his father, My lord, shew them to me I pray thee; and Terah brought Abram into the chamber of the inner court, and Abram saw, and behold the whole room was full of gods of wood and stone, twelve great images and others less than they without number. When a man would come to buy [an idol], [Abraham] would ask him: How old are you? The man would respond: Fifty. [Abraham] would reply: Whoa to this man, you are fifty years old and yet you bow to one who is only a day old! The man would then feel embarrassed and slink away. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. The business deal or the event is the main matter of significance, describing the event in writing is simply a means of conveying knowledge of that deal or event to others. From whence sprang the suggestion to interpret the Torah against the way it has been read? Delivered at Provo, Sunday Afternoon, August 28th, 1881, Reported by Geo.

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