Seeking to Build Zion: “The Souls We Had Won”
Chapter 4, part 2 of The Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People
By E. Douglas Clark
Abraham lost no time in seeking to reestablish Zion, for by the time he left Haran, he did so, as he comments in the Book of Abraham, with “the souls that we had won in Haran” (Abr. 2:15). [1] How had they been won? Abraham had lived in Haran for a number of years, [2] and from the moment he arrived there, says Jewish tradition, he attracted attention by his exemplary and magnanimous manner of life.
“The people of the land of Haran saw that Abram was good and upright with God and men, and that the Lord his God was with him.” [3] Similarly in the Qur’an, Abraham is repeatedly referred to as “the upright” [4] and is called “a man of truth” [5] or “very truthful.” [6] Indeed, in Islamic tradition, “one of his most prominent and distinctive qualities was that he was truthful par excellence.” [7]
He was also a missionary par excellence, freely imparting both spiritual and physical sustenance, with which in both regards he was blessed abundantly. In the Book of Abraham he specifically speaks of the “many flocks in Haran,” and, upon finally leaving the place, mentions “all our substance that we had gathered” (Abr. 2:5, 15). The hand of the Lord prospered him in his temporal affairs, which included raising livestock. He probably engaged in mercantile activity with merchants and caravaneers with whom he would have come in nearly constant contact, since his own journeys and residences seem to have been along the important trade routes. [8]
Abraham “was an immensely wealthy man who surely had business dealings of all varieties,” providing him “as much opportunity as the next man for sharp dealing, even dishonesty.” [9] But “he never drove a hard bargain[10] and he “took no advantage of others’ weakness,” for “all men received their due at his hand”[11] even though many with whom he dealt “were scoundrels – mean and inhospitable,” their “one guiding principle [being] the maximizing of profits.[12]
His life was in sharp contrast, his example such that many wanted to learn more of his principles and religion. “Word of his teaching traveled beyond the borders of the city, and spiritual pilgrims from elsewhere in Mesopotamia had no trouble finding Abram if they wished to go sit with him and learn.” [13]
For Abraham, the temporal blessings God placed in his hands were opportunities to extend blessings to others. “He was the father of guests,” reported al-Thalabi; “he would not eat the morning meal or evening meal without a guest.” [14]
The Midrash says that “Abraham our father used to bring them into his house and give them food and drink and be friendly to them … and convert them” in a joint effort with Sarah: “Abraham used to convert the men and Sarai the women.” [15] Thus does Abraham write about the souls “we” had won. Sarah was “an equal partner with her husband” in this endeavor, and though she was biologically barren, her success in winning souls to God’s kingdom were already making her the mother of many. [16]
The people of Haran “readily yielded to the influence of Abraham’s humane spirit and his piety. Many of them obeyed his precepts,” [17] and “he taught them the instruction of the Lord and his ways” [18] in this “large-scale missionary effort.” [19]
His teaching was as eloquent as his example, for the Lord had blessed him with the gift of mighty teaching, says the Qur’an: the Lord made Abraham “a prophet; and … bestowed upon [him] gifts of … grace, and granted [him] a lofty power to convey the truth unto others.” [20] He was “an eloquent speaker,” says Islamic tradition, [21] and according to Jewish tradition, “call[ed] out in a mighty voice to all the world.” [22] “He led them to righteousness by speaking persuasively.. Even the guilty he led to righteousness,”[23] as their hearts were changed and they felt to declare that “the Lord, He is God in the heavens above and the earth below, and you are Abraham, His prophet.”[24]
Thus was Abraham fulfilling his baptismal covenant to stand as a witness of God “at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9), doing what his latter-day descendants would likewise be commanded to do – “open their mouths” (D&C 60:2) and “declare my gospel with the sound of rejoicing, as with the voice of a trump” (29:4).
Abraham’s voice was mighty because of the Almighty, by whose inspiration Abraham spoke. Philo of Alexandria reported that the Spirit came on Abraham, making him persuasive in his speech and granting understanding to his hearers [25] – reminding us of Nephi’s words that “when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it into the hearts of the children of men” (2 Ne. 33:1).
Abraham is the great example of the Lord’s mandate to Latter-day Saints to teach by the Spirit (D&C 42:14), as exemplified also by the first Latter-day Saint, the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was “supernaturally blessed to teach, to speak, and to counsel” with convincing power. [26]
The converts that Abraham made in Haran, as Jewish tradition reports, “remained with [him] in his house and they adhered to him” [27] and “became God-fearing and good,” [28] being called “the people of the God of Abraham.” [29] Altogether they constituted a “great crowd.” [30] The Book of Jasher puts the number at seventy-two men, [31] most of whom presumably would be heads of families. If so, the total number would have been at least several hundred.
The number would continue to grow with Abraham’s travels and missionary labors; no less an authority than Maimonides says that Abraham’s converts came to be numbered into the thousands and tens of thousands. [32] If this seems exaggerated, one need only remember the remarkably rapid growth of the Church restored by Joseph Smith, who, like his forefather Abraham, was also a missionary par excellence.”
And according to the ancient pattern repeatedly seen in the Book of Mormon, Abraham would have organized and established the church, delegating priesthood authority and consecrating priests and teachers to administer to the new Zion community. The situation would have been the same as when Alma, “having authority from God,” had established “the church of God, or the church of Christ,” and had “ordained priests … to teach [the church members] concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, … command[ing] them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another” (Mosiah 18:17-18, 21).
In a similar manner, according to Hugh Nibley, “Abraham founded his Zion, and those who wished to follow became the followers of Abraham. By special rites and ordinances they were adopted into the family … So he founde[d] the church with the ordinances of the temple,” [33] even though there were yet higher ordinances he would still seek – not unlike the Latter-day Saints doing temple work in Kirtland even though there were additional ordinances yet to be revealed.
Such were the fervent efforts to build the kingdom of God by the man who, as he himself said, had left Ur seeking “peace, happiness, and rest” – not by looking forward to retirement, or by building his dream house away from humanity, but by living among them and serving them tirelessly. The “rest” that Abraham sought was not a life of affluent ease. He was striving to “enter into the rest of the Lord,” [34] obtainable only by serving Him with all of one’s heart, might, mind, and strength.
Call and Covenant
So it was that Abraham qualified for the momentous call that now came from God Himself, who personally appeared to Abraham and declared: “Arise, … for I have purposed to take thee out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession” (Abr. 2:6). For fourteen years, says the book of Jubilees, had Abraham resided in Haran, [35] having obediently left behind his native Ur and extended family. Now, after that long time of building life and relationships anew, of establishing himself and his family in this goodly location, he was asked to uproot everything yet again and take to the road toward a strange land.
“The challenge now thrust on him … was to journey to a distant land … in a very different place … among a different people … speaking a different language and practicing a different religion.” [36] It was daunting task at best.
But the divine reassurance of who was sending him seemed more than adequate as the Creator identified Himself, speaking of His creations:
I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains – Depart hence – and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning. (Abr. 2:7-8)
Early in life, Abraham had sought God as the Creator, and God now identified Himself to Abraham using what appears to be an allusion to the Creation, when the Lord had stretched His hand over the turbulent primeval waters to bring them under His dominion. [37] The same imagery may also look ahead to the time when the Lord would, through Abraham’s descendant Moses, stretch forth His hand over the sea for the salvation of Abraham’s chosen seed as they fled the Egyptian chariots. [38]
In addition, Abraham had probably read in the patriarchal writings how Christ had foretold that in His mortal ministry He would “walk on the waves of the sea” and would “motion to the waves and they will stand still.” [39] Abraham may well have recognized in the imagery a reference to when, as we can read in the Gospels, during a storm on the sea, the Savior “rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39; and see Matt. 8:26; Luke 8:24).
Early Christians also associated the chariot with that event, and used both the chariot and the sea as important symbols associated with Christ and His ordinance of baptism. Cyril of Jerusalem, for example, spoke of Christ walking on the water as “the charioteer of the sea” and as the “charioteer and creator of the waters.” [40] Other writers apparently compared the waters of baptism to the chariot or the throne of God, [41] while Gregory of Nyssa observed that by receiving the Holy Spirit after baptism, “our mind is taken up in the chariot of fire and carried through the air to the glories of Heaven.” [42]
In light of such symbolism, it seems more than coincidental that it was just after Abraham’s baptism and receipt of the Holy Spirit that he heard the Lord speak of His chariot and of the sea. Early Christians further spoke of Elijah’s fiery chariot (in which he, like Enoch, was taken to heaven) as a type of baptism, and a type of Christ’s ascent to heaven after his Resurrection, [43] an event of which Abraham had also read in the patriarchal records.
Indeed, Moses reportedly referred to God as “the Rider of the Heavens” in a passage alluded to by an ancient kabbalistic book attributed to none other than Abraham. [44]
After identifying himself to Abraham, the Lord proceeded to pronounce promise after promise of blessing and glory, all centered in his family and future posterity:
Only a brief summary of these breathtaking promises has survived in our traditional Genesis text (Gen. 12:2-3), which mentions nothing about the gospel or priesthood that Abraham had just received and which he and his posterity would offer to the nations as a blessing. But the Apostle Paul seems to have understood the larger picture as portrayed in the Book of Abraham, for he wrote, as summarized by one scholar, that God spoke “his word of blessing to all nations through Abraham, but Abraham could only be that channel of blessing by hearing, believing and obeying,” and in turn “the nations could only appropriate that blessing by imitating his faith.”[45]
But even the terse Genesis account of God’s call and blessing of Abraham emphasizes the contrast between him and the rebellious generation in which he lived, as well as his pivotal role in God’s plan for the human race and the rest of human history. The covenant granted to Abraham makes him, in the words of one scholar, “the most pivotal and strategic man in the course of world history.”[46]
Or, as expressed by the rabbis, through the Abrahamic covenant “the order of the world was established.”[47] Indeed, to try to compress the scope and significance of what God promised to Abraham into the single word “covenant” is illusory, for as one scholar emphasizes, there is simply no English word that adequately covers the concept of the covenant in Judaism. [48]
As Abraham had heard, this covenant would be the defining factor throughout the rest of human history. But already its effects were in process, for, as Abraham had just been told, all those accepting the gospel would henceforth be accounted his seed – a process that Joseph Smith described as including literal physiological changes. [49] Childless though Abraham remained, yet the converts he had already made were accounted his seed!
To this day, converts to Judaism “are considered to be born anew, children of Abraham and Sarah,” [50] and are even given new names, men the name of Abraham, women the name of Sarah. [51] Indeed, Judaism expressly teaches that “Sarah was an equal and indispensable partner of Abraham in the covenant and in the propagation of the faith,” [52] and that “there can be no covenant without Sarah.” [53]
Already at Haran, what we see, to use the words of a modern writer, is “this one man, Abraham … in the process of becoming a people.” [54] And we see also the promise that must have brought untold joy to the heart of both Abraham and Sarah, still childless – the promise of literal posterity, the promise that will “run as a leitmotif through the Abraham [story].” [55]
It must have seemed as rain after a long drought, the divine word that both Abraham and Sarah would surely have interpreted as assurance that their long trial of infertility was about to end, that they were about to be blessed with the great desire of their hearts. Abraham’s blessing and glory centered in family and posterity. He was to become the new father of the human race, possessing, as he himself mentions, the right of the firstborn, even Adam (Abr. 1:3), and being promised that his posterity would do as Adam’s once did (D&C 107:54): rise up and bless him as their father.
Why was this covenant with its lavish blessings given to Abraham? He himself tells that he had sought the Lord through righteousness (Abr. 1:2; 2:12), part of the concept of hesed. Another part is Jehovah’s “loyalty” and “love” in “accept[ing] … Abraham and his descendants into the covenant” and “fulfilling the conditions thereof.” [56]
This dual dimension of hesed is captured perfectly by what Nephi said of Abraham: the Lord “leadeth away the righteous into precious lands,” and “loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made” (1 Ne. 17:38-40).
Judaism further recognizes that the spread of love and mercy, or hesed, is “the very purpose of the covenant of Abraham.” [57] In fact, the Talmud speaks of “bestowers of lovingkindness, sons of bestowers of lovingkindess, who hold fast to the covenant of Abraham our father.” [58]
And why, the rabbis ask, did God’s pronouncement of blessings include the promise to curse those that cursed Abraham? Because when Abraham had been reviled and cursed for teaching righteousness, he had not responded in kind, but had kept silent; therefore, God would step in and curse those who cursed him. [59]
The principle would be expressed by Moroni: “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord, and vengeance is mine also” (Morm. 8:20).
1. Compare NRSV Genesis 12:5. Most modern translations similarly read here the “persons” that were “acquired.”
2. Jubilees says fourteen. Jubilees 12:15, in VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 71. Jasher says three years. Jasher 13:3, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 36.
3. Jasher 13:2, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 36.
4. Reuven Firestone, “Abraham,” in McAuliffe, Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, 1:5, translating the term hanif in Qur’an 2:135; 3:67, 95; 4:125; 6:79, 161; and 16:120, 123.
5. Qur’an 19:41, in Asad, Qur’an, 460, omitting a bracketed word.
6. Reuven Firestone, “Abraham,” in McAuliffe, Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, 1:5, translating Qur’an 19:41.
7. Holy Qur’an 4:1589.
8. This is one factor, among others, that has led some scholars, including William F. Albright, to surmise that he must have been a caravaneer. (See discussion in Klinghoffer, Discovery of God, 35, which rejects the theory.) But it seems that such activity with its extended absences would have been inconsistent with the leadership burden he carried of presiding over the community of saints whom he led. Caravaneering would also seem at odds with his constant need to offer hospitality to travelers passing through his own neighborhood. In addition, had he been a caravaneer, he may well have already traveled the trade route southward into Canaan, in which case the Lord would not have spoken to him of the “strange land” to which He was sending him (Abr. 2:6). Nor do any of the legends make him out to be a caravaneer.
9. Scherman and Zlotowitz, Bereishis: Genesis, 1(a):385.
10. Nibley, Abraham’s Creation Drama, 2.
11. Breed, Abraham, 72.
12. Nibley, Approaching Zion, 321.
13. Klinghoffer, Discovery of God, 51.
14. Brinner, Lives of the Prophets, 165.
15. Midrash Rabbah on the Song of Songs 1:3:3, in Freedman, Midrash Rabbah: Song of Songs, 39. See also Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:203.
16. Tuchman and Rapoport, Passions of the Matriarchs, 5.
17. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:205, citing Yashar.
18. Jasher 13:2, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 36.
19. Munk, Call of the Torah, 1:262.
20. Qur’an 19:49-50, in Asad, Qur’an, 462. The brackets are mine; the passage actually speaks not only of Abraham but also of Isaac and Jacob. For clarity, I have unbracketed the words “unto others,” which are bracketed in the original.
21. Knappert, Islamic Legends, 1:73.
22. Klinghoffer, Discovery of God, 31, quoting Maimonides.
23. Levy, A Faithful Heart, 54, quoting Zohar.
24. Maaseh Avraham Avinu 4:102-105, in Levy, A Faithful Heart, 38.
25. As pointed out in Wedderburn, Baptism and Resurrection, 282, citing Philo’s Virt. 217.
26. Madsen, Joseph Smith, 96.
27. Jasher 13:2, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 36.
28. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:205, citing Yashar.
29. Zohar, Lech Lecha 79a-79b, in Sperling and Simon, Zohar, 1:268.
30. Ibid.
31. Jasher 13:21, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 38.
32. Soloveitchik, Man of Faith, 83, citing Maimonides.
33. Nibley, Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price, Lecture 24, 10-11.
34. See Alma 12:36; 13:12; 13:16-17; 60:13; and Moroni 7:3.
35. Jubilees 12:15, VanderKam, Jubilees, 71.
36. Klinghoffer, Discovery of God, 51-52.
37. Commenting on the statement in Isaiah 23:11 that the Lord “stretched his hand over the sea,” John Watts notes that “the sea … is often pictured as Yahweh’s original archenemy. It is also seen as the one who first fell to Yahweh’s expression of his cosmic dominion of all things.” Watts, Isaiah 1-33, 307. Many biblical passages associate the power of chaos with the sea at the beginning of creation, and allude to Yahweh’s victory over that power and His exercise of dominion over the sea. See Toorn, Becking, and Horst, Dictionaries of Deities and Demons, 740-42. See also Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon.
38. Commenting on the statement in Isaiah 23:11 that the Lord “stretched his hand over the sea,” Hans Wildberger notes the allusion to the Exodus story, where Moses stretches out his hand over the sea (Ex. 14:26), and where Yahweh is said to have brought Israel out of Egypt with an outstretched arm (Deut. 4:34). Isaiah 13-27, 430.
39. Testament of Adam 3:1, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:994.
40. Danilou, Primitive Christian Symbols, 78.
41. Danilou, Primitive Christian Symbols, 78-83, citing, among other sources, Tertullian, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Odes of Solomon.
42. Danilou, Primitive Christian Symbols, 78-79. Danilou discusses other early Christian authors and texts that speak to the subject, including the very early Odes of Solomon.
43. Danilou, Primitive Christian Symbols, 71-88.
44. The passage is Deuteronomy 33:26, alluded to in the Sefer Yetzirah. See Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, 206
45. Wedderburn, Baptism and Resurrection, 349.
46. Adams, Ancient Records and the Bible, 187.
47. Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, 245, quoting introduction to Lamentations Rabbah.
48. Akenson, Surpassing Wonder, 91.
49. The “Holy Ghost … is more powerful in expanding the mind, enlightening the understanding, and storing the intellect with present knowledge, of a man who is of the literal seed of Abraham, than one that is a Gentile, though it may not have half as much visible effect upon the body; for as the Holy Ghost falls upon one of the literal seed of Abraham, it is calm and serene; and his whole soul and body are only exercised by the pure spirit of intelligence; while the effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile, is to purge out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham. That man that has none of the blood of Abraham (naturally) must have a new creation by the Holy Ghost. In such a case, there may be more of a powerful effect upon the body, and visible to the eye, than upon an Israelite, while the Israelite at first might be far before the Gentile in pure intelligence.” Galbraith and Smith, Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 170-71.
50. Unterman, Dictionary of Jewish Lore, 160; see also Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2:116.
51. See Unterman, Dictionary of Jewish Lore, 160.
52. Soloveitchik, Man of Faith, 83.
53. Ibid., 85.
54. Feiler, Walking the Bible, 81. Feiler’s observation is made in the later context of Abraham and Isaac in Gerar.
55. Westermann, Genesis 12-36, 279. The original quote reads: “The promise of a son runs as a leitmotif through the Abraham cycle.”
56. Glueck, Hesed in the Bible, 73-74; and see Botterweck and Ringgren, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 5:60-62.
57. Warren Zev Harvey, “Grace or Loving-Kindness,” in Cohen and Mendes-Flohr, Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, 302.
58. Kethuboth 8b, in Epstein, Bablyonian Talmud.
59. Kasher, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, 2:117