As Abraham plays so important a part both in the history and the imagination of the Jewish race, we may quote here a score or so of the Talmudic traditions regarding him. The traditions, as is like, contributed quite as much, if not more, to give character to his descendants as his actual personality and that spirit of faith which was the central fact in his history. Races and nations often draw more inspiration from what they fancy about their ancestry and early history than from what they know; their fables therefore are often more illuminative than the facts.
Abraham was Ethan the Ezrahite, who is mentioned in Ps. lxxxvii. 1.
Abraham's mother was Amathlai, the daughter of Karnebo.
Abraham was the head of a seminary for youth, and kept both laws, the written and the oral.
Abraham observed the whole ceremonial law, even before it was given on Sinai.
From the day Abraham was compelled to leave the idolatrous worship and country of his fathers, it is reasonable to suppose that his tent would become a rendezvous for his neighbors who shrunk like himself from the abominations around them. There, from his character, by which he recommended himself as the friend of God, he might very naturally be looked upon as a religious teacher, and men might gather together to learn from his lips or profit by his example. Hence, making due allowance for Eastern hyperbole, the statement of the Book of Jasher (chap. xxvi. verse 36) is not undeserving of credit, where it is said that "Abraham brought all the children of the land to the service of God, and he taught them the ways of the Lord." The same remark applies to what is said in Targ. Yerushalmi (Gen. xxi.), that Abraham's guests went not away until "he had made them proselytes, and had taught them the way everlasting." His son Isaac, says the Targ. of Ben Uzziel, went to school at the "Beth Medrasha de Shem Rabba."
Though Abraham kept all the commandments, he was not perfect till he was circumcised.
In whatever sense this may have been written, and whatever the interpretation that may be put upon it, there is one sense in which it is absolutely and eternally true, and that is, that, in order to be perfect, a man's life must be as pronounced on the negative side as the positive, in its denials as in its affirmations, and that it is futile to attempt to obey God unless one at the same time renounce all co-partnery with the devil. Circumcision is the symbol of this renunciation, and it is only as such it has any radical spiritual significance. Till he was circumcised, it is said, God did not speak to Abraham in Hebrew. Not till then is sacredness of speech, any more than sacredness of life, possible. Doubtless among the Jews circumcision was the symbol of their separation from the ethnic religions; and hence the jealousy with which their prophets looked upon any compromise with idolatry. Hatred of that, utter and intense, was the one essential negative pole of genuine Judaism, and circumcision was its sign and seal.