encinardemamre.com Bible Characters Dictionary is a dictionary of Bible characters, which is only people. 1187 entries. It has substance but is very short on its definitions.

Abraham

Abraham (Abram) was first of the patriarchs, father of Isaac and Ishmael, grandfather of Jacob and the traditional ancestor of the Jewish people. Abraham (originally Abram, which means “exalted father”) came from Ur in Mesopotamia. His father, Terah, took him (with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot) to Haran. God called Abraham to leave this new home and to find another home elsewhere in Canaan. After a brief stay in Egypt, Abraham settled near Hebron where he became involved in a local political quarrel when Lot was taken prisoner by an alliance of four eastern chieftains. Abraham launched a successful attack against this confederacy and on his victorious return encountered the mysterious Melchizedek, king of Salem, to whom he gave a tenth of all the spoil he had taken in the battle.

For many years of their marriage, he and Sarah were childless, but God assured Abraham that he would eventually become the father of a great nation. Sarah disbelieved and persuaded Abraham to beget a child by her maid, Hagar, who bore him his first son, Ishmael. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him, and instituted with him a covenant of circumcision, giving him the new name of Abraham (meaning “father of a multitude”) and told him that a son, to be named Isaac was shortly to be born to Sarah. When the boy was in his childhood, God ordered Abraham to take him up to a mountain in the land of Moriah and offer him up as a sacrificial victim. Abraham prepared to do so, but was prevented at the last moment from carrying out the sacrifice, and told that he would be blessed for his faithfulness in being ready to offer up his son.

When Sarah died Abraham bought the plot of ground (the field of Ephron in Machpelah) that became the burial place for many generations of his descendants. He subsequently made arrangements for the marriage of Isaac, and took another wife, Keturah, who bore him Zimran, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. At the age of one hundred and seventy five, Abraham died and was buried in Machpelah.

The principal narrative of the part of Genesis dealing with Abraham’s history is interrupted in various places by other stories involving the patriarch. These include the parallel stories of his sojourns in Egypt and in Gerar. On both occasions Abraham lied about his relations with Sarah, jeopardising the fulfilment of God’s promise (as both Pharaoh and Abimelech intended to take Sarah for themselves), while protecting himself. Both times God intervened to save him from the consequences of his deception. In another story we read of Abraham’s intercession on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed for their wickedness.

Genesis 11.27-18.33; 20.1-25.12; 26.1-5; 35.27; 49.30, 31; 50.13, 24; Exodus 2.24; 3.6-16; 6.3, 8; 32.13; 33.1; Deuteronomy 6.10; 9.5; 29.13; 30.20; 34.4; Joshua 24.2, 3; 2 Kings 13.23; 1 Chronicles 1.27, 28, 34; Psalms 105.42; Isaiah 29.22; Micah 7.20; Matthew 1.1, 2, 17; 8.11; 22.32; Luke 3.34; 13.28; 16.22-31; 20.37; John 8.33, 37, 39, 40, 52, 53, 56-58; Acts 3.13, 25; 7.2-8,17, 32; Romans 4:1-23; 9.7; 11.1; 2 Corinthians 11.22; Galatians 3.6-9,14, 16, 29; 4.22; Hebrews 2.16; 6.13-15; 7.1, 2, 4-10; 11.8-10, 17-19; James 2.21-23; 1 Peter 3.6

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Moses

Moses was the son of Amram and Jochebed, a descendant of Levi, brother of Aaron and Miriam, husband of Zipporah, father of Gershom and Eliezer, and the law-giver of the Jews. Moses was born in Egypt. The Pharaoh’s policy of exposing Jewish children prompted his parents to conceal Moses, but when he proved impossible to hide any longer his parents placed him in a watertight basket and set this adrift on a river. Found by Pharaoh’s daughter, he was brought up as her child in the royal household. His sister, Miriam, who witnessed the discovery, brought Moses’ true mother to Pharaoh’s daughter to serve as nurse-maid for the infant.

Though brought up in the royal household, Moses was obliged to flee from Egypt after he murdered an Egyptian whom he had seen beating an Israelite. He stayed with the priest of Midian, Jethro, and took his daughter Zipporah as his wife, becoming at this time the father of his first son, Gershom.

Later God spoke to Moses, from a bush, which appeared to burn but not to be consumed. God told him to return to Egypt, and secure the release of his countrymen from their oppressors. At first Moses’ efforts to do this led to even harsher treatment for his people. Pharaoh, having previously given permission only to retract it later, reluctantly allowed the Israelites to go, after a succession of plagues (pollution of the Nile; frogs; swarms of gnats and of flies; cattle-plague and boils; hail; thunderstorms; locusts; thick darkness, and the slaying of the firstborn).

The last of the plagues was accompanied by the feasts of Passover and unleavened bread – the former serving as a memorial of the “passing over” of the angel of death (which spared the children of the Israelites, whose houses were marked with blood on the lintel); the latter being a reminder of the haste of the departure from Israel. A last attempt by Pharaoh to re-enslave the Jews was thwarted when the waters of the Red Sea, which had miraculously receded to let the Israelites cross, engulfed his chariots.

Subsequently Moses led the Israelites through the desert, stopping at various stages of the Journey, sometimes for years at a stretch, before arriving at the “promised land” of which God had spoken to him. During the journey and the various halts on the way, God showed His election of Moses by various signs. Among these was the feeding of the people by the strange substance, known by them as “manna”, which appeared overnight, and later by flocks of quails, which alighted near the Israelite camp. After a successful military campaign against the various peoples whose territory they were crossing, the Israelites arrived at Sinai. Here God summoned Moses to speak with him on the mountain, and gave him the stone tablets on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. On his return from the mountain, Moses found that the Israelites had made an idol and were offering sacrifices to it. Enraged, he smashed the stone tablets, but later received fresh ones in their place.

After the giving of the law, Moses led the Israelites on to Canaan, stopping for several years at the oasis of Kadesh-barnea. Here a group of rebellious Levites – headed by Korah, Dathan and Abiram challenged his authority – but this revolt was promptly ended by the miraculous punishment of the offenders, who (along with their families) were swallowed by a fissure in the ground. A milder criticism of Moses from Miriam led to her being afflicted with leprosy. Following further successful military campaigns, Moses prepared to lead the Israelites over the Jordan and into Canaan. Though he was allowed to see the Promised Land before the Israelites crossed the Jordan to enter it, Moses was not allowed to make the crossing – apparently, a punishment for an earlier loss of faith. Having seen Canaan, Moses was told to ascend Mt. Nebo where he would die. The place of his death was unknown to the Israelites, but there is a tradition that God buried him.

Exodus 2.1 – Deuteronomy 34.12; Joshua 1.1, 2, 5, 7, 13-17; 3.7; 13. 8; 17.4; 20.2; 21.8; 24.5 1 Samuel 12.6, 8; 2 Kings 18.12; 21.8; 1 Chronicles 6.3; 23.13-15; Psalms 90; 99.6; 103.7; 105.26; Isaiah 63.11; Jeremiah 15.1; Micah 6.4; Malachi 4.4; Matthew 8.4; 17.3, 4; 19.7, 8; 22.24; 23.2; Mark 1.44; 7.10; 9.4, 5; 10.3-5; 12.19, 26; Luke 5.14; 9.30-33; 16.29, 31; 20.28, 37; 24.27, 44; John 1.17; 3.14; 5.45-47; 6.32; 7.19, 22, 23; 9.28, 29; Acts 3.22; 6.11, 14; 7.20-44; 15.1, 5, 21; 26.22; 28.23; Romans 5.14; 9.15; 10.5, 19; 1 Corinthians 9.9; 10.2; 2 Corinthians 3.7, 13, 15; 2 Timothy 3.8; Hebrews 3.2-5, 16; 7.14; 8.5; 9.19-21; 10.28; 11.23-28; 12.21; Jude 9; Revelation 15.3