Genesis 17:5-6 Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you.… "Abram the Hebrew" stands at the head of many a great stream of history, like the river of Eden which parted into four. Of the leading faiths of the world, there are three which cherish his name with equal veneration; and these three are the only monotheistic faiths. To the Jew, the Moslem, and the Christian alike, the prophet Abraham forms a common ancestor. Trace these three forms of belief to their fountainhead, and they meet in the tent of that ancient confessor, exiled in the dawn of the world for his faith in the unity of God. Divided in so much else, the Englishman and the Turk, the Moor and the Arab, the Catholic and the Jew, agree in deriving their spiritual, if not also their natural, descent from that primeval "friend of God." Most literally has the promise of his new name been fulfilled. He has become a "father of many nations." (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |