Food for thought: "Get rid of your ignorance."
	YOU ARE IN DARKNESS.
abraham page 1 abraham page 2  abraham page 3

 DID SOMEONE THROW ABRAHAM INTO FIRE?

This seems to be a very contentious subject. 'Was he?' or 'Wasn't he?' As you have read in the Mandean story in the previous page, "Yurba (Bahram's personal superior entity) had been given power in this world, and he gave to Bahram such magic power that fire was unable to burn him."  Therefore the story about Abraham thrown into fire must have its origin in this Mandaean folk tale. The idea must have been borrowed from there and built into a story. While doing that stories about other personalities in history may have helped in building a theme.

In the Old Testament, we read in Daniel I that the king of Babylonia Nebuchadrezzar (it is not Nebuchadnezzar. The original Babylonian name is Nabu-Kudurri-Usur = 'The god Nabu has guarded the estate' = 'Nabu has guaranteed succession' ) takes clever and skillful sons of Israel to Babylon so they can learn to write the language. Amongst  them especially four - mainly Daniel - have distinguished themselves, because god has supposedly given them special wisdom and knowledge. In Daniel 3, Nebuchadrezzar wants them to kneel before a statue of the god. They are told that if they do not kneel they would be thrown into fire. They refuse, saying that their own god would save them. They are thrown into a fiery furnace, and they survive.

Another story is about king of Persia Cyrus who invades Lydia. Where king Croesus has claimed  holiness. Cyrus decides to test his claims and starts burning him on a pile of wood, but suddenly  feels regret. Unable to put the fire out starts praying to Apollo to save Croesus from burning. Upon which water pours down from the cloudless sky, puts out the fire and Croesus is  saved. Consequently Cyrus believes in the holiness of Croesus.

One more story is from 2500 years ago when Magi were living in western Persia. Zarathustra was born to one of the royal families of the Magi. One of the magicians said that this child would grow up and destroy the Magi. When Zarathustra was two years of age he was thrown into fire. His mother came and saw his son was untouched by and playing with fire.

The story about Abraham thrown into fire does not appear in the Old Testament. This story is related or referred to in various places in Kuran This indicates that the story is a remnant of the days of Hagarene teaching, which was the Sabian faith of the Mandaeans. The ruler called Nimrod in this story is the one who reportedly threw Abraham into fire (But there is no one in history of that name. The name appears only in the Old Testament, but again the reference is to name only, there is no story). Here is a piece of the truth. The story is not the Old Testament but mentioned in the Midrashim. Researchers claim that the origin of this story is a mistake by an ancient Jewish interpreter. Since he did not know Babylon, this interpreter, Yonathan, has mistaken 'Ur', the name of a town, for 'or' which is fire in Aramaic, and in his commentary he wrote, "When Nimrod threw Abraham into fire, it was not permitted to harm Abraham." (The original sentence may have been something like "when Nimrod confined-restricted   Abraham to / kept him in Ur, he was not harmed.")  This could be a source of inspiration for the story in the Muslim literature. We should never forget the story of Bahram the Mandaean where it is told that "..Yurba had been given power in this world, and he gave to Bahram such magic power that fire was unable to burn him." This must be another source of the story in Islam.

These stories are mythical, have no basis in reality. What do we find in the reference sources?  Encyclopaedias date this mythical Nimrod to 2450 B.C. Another mythical personality, Abraham of the Old Testament, must have been alive somewhere between 1900-1750 B.C. Firstly, both personalities are mythical. Secondly there is a difference of about 500 years between them, which makes further discussion on this story pointless. Another fairy tale written by mankind. This event could not have taken place.

Nimrod is not mentioned in Kuran. But like  the story of Abraham appearing in the Midrash Rabba, Nimrod appears only in Muslim tradition and in a story which is amongst  the Kuranic commentaries.

Here we must look into the differences between the Old Testament and Mishnah. There is no Day of Judgment in the Old Testament. Paradise and hell are the natural consequences of the existence of angels and Satan.  Mishnah is a section of the Talmud. Since Mishnah was finalized (in written form) by the sages who lived before 70 A.D., and Gemara (commentaries on Mishnah) 150 years later, around  220 A.D., Talmud (Mishnah+Gemara) must have been around  in the Hagarene Messenger's  time, and consulted on almost every occasion by the Jewish people. This is one of the explanations for the existence of this in Kuran. Likewise the Old Testament mentions the name of the son to be sacrificed as I'zak. But Talmud and Mishnah give the name of this son as Ish'mael. All of these may be taken as indications that the Abraham and fire was also inspired  by  the Talmud.

It is also almost certain that the essence of the story of Abraham breaking the images in the Temple and his searching for the god among the stars, Sun and Moon (which has nothing to do with the story told in Genesis) and then rejecting their 'godhood' was taken from the Mandaean folk tales, where it is told that  "..he (Abraham) entered (as a circumcised person) one of their idol-temples when he heard a voice speaking to him: ‘O Abraham! you went away from us with one sin and you return with two sins.  Go away and do not come to us again.’ Thereupon Abraham seized by wrath, broke the idols in pieces and left their community.”

Supposedly as a result of the famine in the land Abraham takes his family to Egypt. He was 90 years old. Abraham's wife Saray is beautiful, and in order to prevent Egyptians take her away from him and then kill him, he presents his wife as her sister. Pharaoh takes her as his wife. But god sends all kinds of plagues to pharaoh and the land, as a result of which pharaoh  returns the wife to Abraham with presents and sends them away. There is no explanation in the Old Testament. But the story is treated extensively in one of the Qumran texts in an explanatory fashion. In addition to the details we know there is an explanation as to why he presented his wife as his sister. Abraham sees a dream one night. His wife interprets the dream: She would present herself as the sister of Abraham in order to save his life. This story is written on gazelle skin dated to 50 B.C.-50 A.D. When we  begin with this Qumran text we find traces of the sacred marriage ceremonies, and the ceremonies of the new year; and the abundance brought about by the fertility cult which makes up the Sumerian story of fertiliity. Sumerian story is as follows: Inanna is married to Dumuzi. Sometime later she visits her sister - the Goddess of the nether-world. There she was told that she would not be permitted to leave without leaving someone as her substitute. Her husband - Dumuzi - does not feel sad because of  her absence. Learning this Inanna requests the nether-world cins (jinns) to take Dumuzi as her substitute. Dumuzi runs away, and sees a dream while sleeping out in the country. One of a couple of reeds side by side is uprooted. He tells this dream to his sister which is the goddess of dreams. She interprets the dream as her brother (Dumuzi) would be taken away again and she would be sad because of this. Dumuzi is taken away. Her sister, manages to get the assembly of gods to accept her as the substitute for Dumuzi for half a year. Thus Dumuzi and her sister alternate for half a year in staying in the underworld. Every time Dumuzi comes up from the underworld, he is united with her wife,  and the new year begins, and abundance follows. The ruling king that year and the priestess symbolize this event by getting married amid  celebrations. The similarities between the stories of Inanna and Saray are as follows:

• Both Inanna and Saray  are beautiful.

• Abraham dreams of one of the two trees uprooted; and Dumuzi dreams one of the two reeds uprooted.

• Abraham's wife interprets the dream and says Abraham would be killed; Dumuzi's dream is interpreted by his sister who says that Dumuzi would be taken to the nether-world.

• In order to save Abraham, his wife goes to the Pharaoh for two years; Dumuzi's sister descends to the underworld for half a year to save Dumuzi. In other words they both spend certain periods away from the male characters of the stories.

• Marriage of Saray  to Pharaoh is parallel to the marriage of priestess to the king, as a consequence of which abundance is brought to the land of Sumer. The marriage between the Pharaoh and Saray brings wealth to Abraham and his nephew (or brother; Genesis 14:14-16 says 'brother') Lot.

Thanks to the research done by the distinguished Turkish Sumerologist M. İ.  Çığ, this new and extremely important dimension has been established for the first time (Prophet Abraham, Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkey,1997). M. I. Çığ also points out the similarities between the Abraham-Saray story and the Kret myth of the Ugarit.

We all know the story about Abraham's wife, who is unable to give him a child, suggests her Egyptian slave Hagar/Hacar to her husband so that she (Hacar) would give Abraham a child. This story in Genesis 16 is another proof that the Hebrew mythology has derived a lot from the Sumerians, because what is told in Genesis 16 is exactly a Sumerian tradition.  Hacar becomes pregnant, and as the would-be-mother of a child from Abraham, starts acting the superior vis a vis Saray, who tells this to Abraham and when he gave her permission to act as she pleased towards Hacar, Saray deals harshly with her slave. Hacar flees to the desert. God's angel sees her there, tells her to go back to Saray's side and gives her the good news that she is going to have a son. This angel wants her to call her son Ish'mael. Hacar, pleased with the fact  that  god has seen and heard her, says "Hay you have seen me here!", and names the water well there Beer-la-hay-roy,  which means  'the well of the one who is hay'.

The problem of Abraham's inheritance has its origin in another Sumerian law. The Old Testament tells us that Abraham is without a child and Saray gives her Egyptian slave Hacar to him, so that he may have a child. Hacar gives birth to Ish'mael. And later on Abraham's wife Saray gives birth to I'zak. Hacar despises Saray and Saray has Hacar and her son Ish'mael taken to the desert and left there. Abraham's god approves this act. Again this is based on a Sumerian law called the Lipit-Ishtar law  where it is written that, if a man's wife bears a child, even if the slave and her child are given their freedom, children of the slave could not share the inheritance with the master's children.

In Genesis 24 a story is related where Abraham asks his slave to go to his (Abraham's) native country and find a bride for his (Abraham's) son I'zak. Slave goes to the country of Abraham's brother Nachor. There he sees and chooses Rebeka, who is 'the daughter of Betuel, the son of Nachor's wife Milka. He brings Rebeka riding a camel and accompanied by lots of camels (But there is something wrong here. Archaeological finds have proven that camels were still not domesticated then). I'zak marries Rebeka and Abraham marries a slave named Ketura. Since Saray  was 127 years old when she died, Abraham must be 137. Despite his very old age he marries Ketura, who gives him more children (Who in his sound mind would believe in this nonsense?) Rebeka puts on her veil and covers herself when he meets her would-be husband I'zak. But we are told something else in Genesis 38:14-18: Only harlots covered their faces. So, why did Rebeka feel the need to cover her? The covering of the head and face is an old story originating from Sumer. There the sacred prostitutes belonging to the temple had to cover themselves out of temple grounds to show that they belonged to the temple, performing a divine duty, and should not be bothered.

Here is another story: Tamar is Judah's daughter-in-law. When Tamar's husband Er (son of Judah) was killed by  god, Judah wanted his second son Onan to take Tamar as wife. Onan married Tamar but 'spilled his seed on the ground' (He performed coitus interruptus), upon which god was displeased and he slew Onan. So Tamar is left alone. Judah tells her to go to her father's house as a widow, until his (Judah's) son Shelah is grown. Tamar goes to her father's house and starts living there. Time comes and Judah's wife dies. Judah goes to Timnath. Tamar hears this, takes off her widow's garments, and wraps herself with a vail/veil. She sits in an open place on the way to Timnath. She is aware that Shelah has grown and she was not given to him as wife. Judah sees her, thinks her to be a harlot 'because she covered her face',  they reach a deal and make love. When Judah learns that the woman is pregnant, orders her to be killed by burning. But when he learns that the child is from him the matter is closed. Let's read  Leviticus 20:21 where it is ruled: "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless."  So what Judah has wanted, and what his son Onan did was against the Mosaic law. The tradition which is the origin of this event is formulated in the article 193 of the Hittite law: "If a man dies without a child, his wife should marry her husbands brother; if he dies also, she should marry the father of her husband; if he dies also, she should marry her husbands nephew. A child from any one of these would take his fathers name and inheritance." If we go by this rule Tamar might have performed this trick on her father-in-law to acquire the inheritance. Judah's - the father-in-law - wish, before learning the truth, that the woman should be burnt, is an Indian tradition. In India the woman either marries with someone from the family or she is burnt.

This is the reconstruction of the man called Av'ram-Abraham in the Old and New Testaments, and Ibrahim in Kuran. The patriarch, prophet, and ancestor of the 'religions of the book.' Who actually was Bahram the Mandai.