Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
Another Rabbinical story is, that Abraham was only ten days in the cave
after his birth, and then he was able to walk, and he left it. But his
mother, who visited the grotto, finding him gone, was a prey to anguish
and fear.
Wandering along the bank of the river, searching for her child, she met
Abraham, but did not recognize him, as he had grown tall; and she asked
him if he had seen a little baby anywhere.
“I am he whom you seek,” answered Abraham.
“Is this possible!” exclaimed the mother. “Could you grow to such a
height, and be able to walk and talk, in ten days?”
“Yes, mother,” answered the youthful prodigy; “all this has taken place
that you might know that there is but one living and true God who made
heaven and earth, who dwells in heaven and fills the earth with His
goodness.”
“What!” asked Amtelai, “is there another god besides Nimrod?”
“By all means,” replied the infant son; “there is a God in heaven, who
is also the God who made Nimrod. Now go to Nimrod and announce this to
him.”
Abraham’s mother related all this to her husband, who bore the message
to the king. Nimrod, greatly alarmed, consulted his council what was to
be done with the boy.[298]
The council replied that he had nothing to fear from an infant of ten
days,--he, the king and god of the world! But Nimrod was not satisfied.
Then Satan, putting on a black robe, mingled with the advisers of
the monarch and said, “Let the king open his arsenal, arm all his
troops, and march against this precocious infant.” This advice fell in
completely with Nimrod’s own personal fears, and his army was marched
against the baby. But when Abraham saw the host drawn up in battle
array, he cried to heaven with many tears, and Gabriel came to his
succor, enveloped the infant in clouds, and snatched him from the sight
of those who came against him; and they, frightened at the cloud and
darkness, fled precipitately to Babylon.
Abraham followed them on the shoulders of Gabriel, and reaching the
gates of the city in an instant of time, he cried, “The eternal One
is the true and only God, and none other is like Him! He is the God
of heaven, God of gods and Lord of Nimrod! Be convinced of this, all
ye men, women and children who dwell here, even I am Abraham, his
servant.” Then he sought his parents, and bade Terah go and fulfil his
command to Nimrod.
Terah went accordingly, and announced to the king that his son, whom
the army had been unable to capture, had, in a brief space of time,
traversed a country across which was forty days’ journey.
Nimrod quaked, and consulted his princes, who advised him to institute
a festival of seven days, during which every subject and dweller on the
face of the earth was to make a pilgrimage to his palace, and there to
worship and adore him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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