2. The superabundant wealth of the gospel as a medium of the Divine energies of redemption. — The Christian faith is full of spiritual resources on which the soul may draw to the utmost of its needs. In the teaching of our Lord, the prodigality of His illustrations, their varied character, and the frequency with which He likens the Kingdom to a ' feast,' with all its suggestions of a large welcome and an overflowing abundance of good things, are very characteristic of His own attitude towards the gospel He preached ; and St. Paul is pre- eminent among NT writers for the way in which he has grasped the same idea, and caught the spirit of the Master in his exposition of spiritual realities. (Cf. ' How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare ' [Lk 15'^]
• Cf. the well-known expression, 'abomination of desolation,' applied to a heathen altar (Dn 12ii ; cf. 1 Mac I-m, Mt 24i6, Mk ISi'*). See art. ' Abomination of Desolation ' in IIDB.
with ' the grace of God, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, liatli abounded unto many' [Ro 5'*; also
17. 19. -'0. :;i
-"•-'], and many other passages.) 3. The call for an adequate response on the part of believers to the varied and abundant resources of the gospel. — Here, again, St. Paul exhausts the power of language in urging his con- verts to allow the Divine energies of salvation to have their way with them. The normal type of Christian is not reached till his nature is flooded with the grace of God, and he in turn is lifted into a condition which is characterized by an abounding increase of hope, grace, love, good works, and fruit- fulness of character. ' Therefore, as ye abound in (everything), see that ye abound in this grace also ' (2 Co 8'') expresses one of his favourite forms of appeal. He was not satistied to see men raised to a slightly higher plane by their faith in Christ ; they were to be ' transformed in the spirit of their minds' (Ro 12-) ; they were always to 'abound in the work of the Lord ' (1 Co IS^s ; cf. 2 Co 9^) ; and, as ' they had received ' of him how thej^ might walk and ' to please God,' they were exhorted to ' abound more and more' (1 Th 4^), and that especially because they knew what commandments ' had been given them by the Lord Jesus ' ( 1 Th 4^). It was a subject for joyfulness to him when he found his converts thus responding to the poAver of God (see 2 Co 8"-)- As regards his realization of this Divine abundance in his own experience, we find him breaking out into an ecstasy of thanksgiving at the thought of what God has done for him, and of the sense of inward spiritual abundance which he consequently enjoys, so that he feels quite in- dependent of all outMard conditions, however hard they may be (cf. Ph 4""'^). This is the language of a man who enjoys all the resources of the God- head in his inner life, and who can, therefore, be careless of poverty, misfortune, sickness, and even the prospect of an untimely end.
Literature. — See Sanday-Headlam, and Lightfoot (especi- ally Notes on Ejiistlen of St. Paul), on the passaj^es referred to, also Phillips Brooks, The Light of t fie World, 1S91, p. HO, and ExpT viii. [1897] 514a. E. GrIFFITH-JoXES.
ABRAHAM ('A^paA/x). — Addressing a Jewish crowd in the precincts of the Temple, St. Peter emphasizes the connexion between the Hebrew and the Christian religion by proclaiming that ' the God of Abraham . . . hath glorified his servant (iralda ; cf. RVm) Jesus ' (Ac S'^). This Divine title, which is similarly used in St. Stephen's speech (7^^), was full of significance. All through the OT and the NT the foundation of the true religion is ascribed neither to the Prophets nor to Moses, but to Abraham. Isaac (Gn 26^^) and Jacob (SH-) wor- shipped the God of Abraham, but Abraham did not worship the Elohim whom his fathers served beyond the River (Jos 24^ ^^ "). He was the head of the great family that accepted Jahweh as their God. Jews, Muslims, and Christians are all in some sense his seed, as having either his blood in their veins or his faith in their souls. To the Jews he is ' our father Abraham ' (Ac 7*, Ro 4^^, Ja 2-'), 'our forefather {rbv tr poirdropa) according to th6 flesh' (Ro 4^). To the Muhammadans he is the 'model of religion' {imam, or priest) and the first person 'resigned {mitslim) unto God' (Qur'an, ii. 115, 125). To the Christians he is 'the father of all them that believe' (Ro 4^'), 'the fatlier of us air (4'^). Taking the word Abraham to mean (according to tlie popular word-play, Ro4" || Gn 17*) ' a fatlier of many nations,' St. Paul regards it as indicating that Abraham is the spiritual ancestor of the whole Christian Church.
1. In the Epistles of St. Paul. — As Abraham was the renowned founder of the Jewish nation and faith, it was crucially important to decide
ABRAHAM
ABEAHA^I
whether the Jews or the Christians could claim his support in their great controversy on justifica- tion. The ordinary Jews regarded Abraham as a model legalist, whose faith in God (Gn 15^*-) con- sisted in the fultiliiient of the Law, which he knew by a kind of intuition. According to the Jewish tradition [Berenhith Rahh. 44, Wiinsche), Abraham saw the whole history of his descendants in the mysterious vision recorded in Gn IS^"^-. Thus he is said to have 'rejoiced with the joy of the Law ' (Westcott, M. John [in Speaker's Com.], 140). In the philosophical school of Alexandria there was a much higlier conception of faith, which was re- garded as ' the most perfect of virtues,' ' the queen of virtues,' 'the only sure and infallible good, the solace of life, the fulfilment of worthy hopes, . . . the inheritance of hai)piness, the entire ameliora- tion of the soul, which leans for support on Him who is the cause of all things, who is able to do all things, and willeth to do those which are most excellent' (Philo, Quis rer. div. her. i. 485, de Abr. ii. 39). In these passages faith, in so far as it expresses a spiritual attitude towards God, does not ditier much from Christian faith. Nor could anything be finer than the Rabbinic Mechilta on Ex 14^^ : ' Great is faith, whereby Israel believed on Him that spake and the world was. ... In like manner thou findest that Abraham our father inherited this world and the world to come solely by the merit of faith whereby he believed in the Lord ; for it is said, and he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness' (Light- foot, Galatians, 162). But the ordinarj^ tendency of Judaism was to give Abraham's life a pre- dominantly legal colour, as in 1 Mac 2^" ' \Yas not Abraham found faithful in temptation, and it w-as reckoned unto him for righteousness ?'