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| Witztum cites other stanzas from the same poem which are somewhat reflective of Abel's passivity in verses 28-29 of the Quranic passage. He finds closer parallels on this point in the other Syriac sources mentioned above.<ref>Joseph Witztum, ''Syriac Millieu'' pp. 132-33</ref> Also very important is that there are various lexical correspondances between the Arabic and Syriac vocabulary used in the Quranic passage and its Syriac precursors.<ref>Joseph Witztum, ''Syriac Millieu'' pp. 143-44</ref> | | Witztum cites other stanzas from the same poem which are somewhat reflective of Abel's passivity in verses 28-29 of the Quranic passage. He finds closer parallels on this point in the other Syriac sources mentioned above.<ref>Joseph Witztum, ''Syriac Millieu'' pp. 132-33</ref> Also very important is that there are various lexical correspondances between the Arabic and Syriac vocabulary used in the Quranic passage and its Syriac precursors.<ref>Joseph Witztum, ''Syriac Millieu'' pp. 143-44</ref> |
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| ==Abraham saved from the fire==
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| ===Qur'anic Account===
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| At the end of the Quranic passage quoted in the previous section above, {{Quran-range|21|68|71}}, Allah saves Abraham from the fire. Similarly, see {{Quran|29|24}} and {{Quran-range|37|97|98}}.
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| {{Quote||They said, "Burn him and support your gods - if you are to act." Allah said, "O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham." And they intended for him harm, but We made them the greatest losers. And We delivered him and Lot to the land which We had blessed for the worlds.}}
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| ===Midrash Account===
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| This is believed by academic scholars to derive from a Rabbinic reinterpretation of the city named "Ur of the Chaldeans" in the biblical book of Genesis. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis15%3A7&version=NIV Genesis 15:7] says God brought Abraham "out of Ur of the Chaldeans". In the centuries before Islam, Jewish Rabbis began to interpret this phrase to mean "fire" of the Chaldeans (for example, Reynolds cites Genesis Rabbah 38:13 (quoted in the previous section above) as well as the Babylonian Talmud, Peshahim 118a).<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' pp. 512-13</ref> This Jewish reinterpretation is also mentioned by Jerome in the 4th century CE.<ref name="Jerome" /> "Ur" has the same consonantal structure as the Hebrew word for fire. Various elaborate legends subsequently arose, building on this idea that Abraham was saved from a fire. The Book of Jubilees (a 2nd century BCE elaboration on Genesis) from the biblical apocrypha contains the earliest form of the legend, in which Haran is burned to death trying to save the idols set on fire by his brother Abraham (a Rabbinic interpretation of [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011%3A28&version=NIV Genesis 11:28] "Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans").<ref>Dr. Rabbi Yishai Kiel [https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-the-midrash-has-abraham-thrown-into-nimrods-furnace Why the Midrash Has Abraham Thrown into Nimrod's Furnace] - TheTorah.com</ref>.
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| However, "Ur of the Chaldeans" is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, and in some of those verses it is unambiguously clear that the phrase refers to a place: [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011%3A28&version=NIV Genesis 11:28], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011%3A31&version=NIV Genesis 11:31], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis15%3A7&version=NIV Genesis 15:7], and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%209%3A7&version=NIV Nehimiah 9:7]. Indeed, [[w:Ur|Ur]] was a real Sumerian city that has been excavated by archaeologists, although it was ruled by the Chaldeans only from the 7th century BCE. The biblical anachronism may be explained if the majority of Biblical scholars are correct to believe that the written books of [[w:Torah|the Torah]] were a product of the Babylonian captivity (c. 6th century BCE), based on earlier written sources and oral traditions, and that it was completed with final revisions during the post-Exilic period (c. 5th century BCE).
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| ==The House built by Abraham and Ishmael== | | ==The House built by Abraham and Ishmael== |