Bible Dictionary
ABRAHAM
ABRAHAM
(ABRAM) = «Father of elevation».
His name was altered by God, who called him ABRAHAM. There is no known etymological explanation for the change from Abram to Abraham.
The text comments on this change like this: “because I have made you the father of a multitude of people.” In this name (Abraham) the blessing of the Gentiles is assured.
Abraham’s family dwelt in Ur of the Chaldeans, and they were all idolaters (Josh. 24:2). As time went by, the nations, descendants of Noah, had turned their backs on the knowledge of God, and God had consequently given them over to a reprobate mind; In the development of the pagan system, many truths originally handed down through the line of the ancient patriarchs were perverted and obscured, and all the natural relationships that God had created were perverted (Rom. 1:18-32).
From this state of things, God sovereignly called Abram to leave not only the idolatrous nation to which his ancestors belonged, but also his family and his father’s house.
He was to go to a land that God would show him. Through his response of faith, he became the father of believers, and the friend of God.
1. his life.
He was 75 years old when he received the word to go to Canaan (Gen. 12: 4), and the promise that those who bless him would be blessed, and those who cursed him would be cursed; and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3).
In Ur of the Chaldees he had married Sarai. It was after the death of his brother Haran that Abram left Ur with his wife; he set out for Haran; He obeyed only partially at first, for he left with his father and his nephew Lot, and remained several years in Haran, until the death of his father.
From then on, it seems that Abram begins to obey. God repeats the order in Haran. But again his obedience was not total, for he took Lot with him. It will not be until the separation from Lot that the promises given to Abram will begin to be fulfilled (Gen. 13:14).
It is unknown whether Abram was Terah’s firstborn, although he is listed first among his brothers (Gen. 11:26-27). It is possible that this first place was given to him by his calling, as the father of the chosen people.
From Haran to Canaan was the Damascus route, which Abram most likely took as he headed south. He was 75 years old when he left Haran, and lived 10 years in Canaan before taking Hagar as his concubine (Gen. 16:3); When Hagar had Ishmael, Abram was 86 years old (Gen. 16:16). Consequently, the journey from Haran to Canaan lasted less than a year.
During the first ten years of his wanderings in Canaan, Abram pitched his tents in Shechem, where God promised him that land for his descendants.
There he built an altar to Jehovah. He then went on to Bethel, where he erected another altar, calling on the name of Jehovah (Gen. 12:6-8). A famine broke out, and Abraham went down to Egypt, where, fearing for his life, and lacking faith then, he said that Sarai was his sister; Because of her beauty, she was taken to Pharaoh’s house, but God protected her, and Abraham and Sarai were expelled from Egypt after a rebuke (Gen. 12:10-20).
He returned to Canaan, and planted his camp again in Bethel, before the altar which he had erected before (Gen. 13:3). Seeing the great increase in his wealth in livestock, quarrels arose between his shepherds and Lot’s shepherds, so they decided to separate.
Abraham gave Lot the right to choose where to go (Gen. 13:9), and Lot chose the Jordan Valley (Gen. 13:11). Abram then placed his camp in the oak grove of Mamre in Hebron (Gen. 13:18), Jehovah declaring that he would give him all the land that he could see, to him and to his innumerable descendants (Gen. 13:14- 17).
Abram dwelt in Mamre for at least 15 years, perhaps 23 or 24. He had entered into an alliance with some Amorite princes (Gen. 14:13). Together with them, Abram undertook a war expedition against Chedorlaomer and other kings associated with him; These had invaded Sodom and Gomorrah, plundered them, and taken their inhabitants captive, including Lot.
After his victory over these kings and the deliverance of Lot and all the others, Abram refused to take even a thread of the spoil offered to him by the king of Sodom; he did not want to become rich from such a source (Gen. 14:23); But he received the blessing of Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who came out with bread and came to meet him: to him Abram gave tithes of everything.
God now revealed himself to him as his shield and great reward.
As Abram lamented his lack of descendants, God confirmed the promise to him (Gen. 15:5). “And [Abram] believed the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
This is the first mention of faith. When he asked how he would know that he was going to possess the land, God made a covenant with him with sacrifice, as was the custom in the East (Gen. 15:9-10).
However, this covenant was not confirmed by both parties, but only by God (Gen. 15:17-21) as it was only God, under the appearance of a torch of
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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