Children of Abraham — Abrahamic Religions 1 (C1)

THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS · LESSON 1 OF 5

Children of Abraham

C1 (B2–C2) · 70 minutes

Where do you stand?

Task Give each statement a number from 1 to 5. Keep your numbers: you will need them at the end of the lesson.

1

strongly agree

2

mostly agree

3

on the fence

4

mostly disagree

5

strongly disagree

Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

The three religions have more in common than they have differences.

You can understand the history of Europe without knowing these stories.

Religion is more about what you do than what you believe.

In numbers

Task In 2020, what share of the world's people belonged to each group? Agree on a guess with your partner and write a % in each box. Then guess: which group grew fastest from 2010 to 2020?

Jewish

Christian

Muslim

Religiously unaffiliated

%

%

%

%

The figures

World population by religion, 2020 (Pew Research Center, 2025)

Jews

Christians

Muslims

Religiously unaffiliated

0.2%

28.8%

25.6%

24.2%

14.8 million

2.3 billion

about 2 billion

1.9 billion

Together, Jews, Christians and Muslims make up more than half of the world's people. From 2010 to 2020 the number of Muslims grew by 347 million, more than all other religions combined. Christians grew by 122 million, but their share of the world fell by 1.8 percentage points.

READING

Children of Abraham

Task Read the text. Then agree with your partner on one thing all three traditions share, and one place where they split.

In the Book of Genesis, God calls Abram, later renamed Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic), to leave his country and his father's house for a land he will be shown (Genesis 12). God promises him land, descendants and blessing in a covenant, a binding agreement between God and a people (Genesis 15, 17). Abraham trusts the promise, and God "counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6, KJV).

Later tradition made Abraham a

champion of monotheism, the worship of one God only. In a Jewish midrash (Genesis Rabbah 38), the young Abraham smashes the idols in his father's shop. In the Quran (Surah 21), Ibrahim breaks his people's idols, sparing only the largest, and God makes the fire they throw him into "coolness and peace" (Pickthall).

Then the family divides.

READING · CONTINUED

Children of Abraham

Sarah's Egyptian servant Hagar bears Abraham a son, Ishmael (Ismail); later Sarah bears Isaac (Ishaq). In Genesis, the covenant passes through Isaac to his son Jacob, renamed Israel, father of the twelve tribes; Ishmael is promised a great nation of his own. In Muslim tradition, Ismail helps Ibrahim raise the foundations of the Kaaba in Mecca (Surah 2:127), and Muhammad descends from him. The Quran calls Ibrahim a hanif, a pure worshipper of the one God, "not a Jew, nor yet a Christian" (3:67, Pickthall).

Paul, writing to Christians in Galatia, argues that all who share Abraham's faith are his children, whatever their descent (Galatians 3).

The label Abrahamic religions is modern. It spread in the twentieth century, helped by the French Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon, and became a watchword of interfaith dialogue. Critics such as Aaron Hughes and Jon Levenson argue that it blurs real differences: each tradition claims Abraham as a model of its own faith.

One family, three branches

Abraham

Ibrahim

1. Who is missing from this tree?

2. Who would draw this tree differently, and how?

3. Christianity's arrow is not a bloodline. Does that make it a different kind of branch?

4. Is a family tree a fair picture of how religions relate?

Isaac

son of Sarah

Ishmael

son of Hagar

Jacob

Israel

… Muhammad, c. 570–632 CE

… Moses

Jesus of Nazareth

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

Shared, or not?

Task For each line, write Y, N or ? under each tradition. Where you write ?, say what it depends on.

Y = yes · N = no · ? = it depends

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

1. Abraham is a model of faith in one God.

2. Moses (Musa) is a prophet who received God's law.

3. Jesus (Isa) is the Messiah.

4. Muhammad is the final prophet.

5. Jerusalem is a holy city.

6. Fasting is a religious duty.

7. Every believer who is able should make a pilgrimage.

8. Some foods are forbidden by religious law.

9. One day each week is set apart for rest.

10. God will judge all people at the end of time.

One story, three tellings: Abraham's test

Task Read the three tellings. What stays the same? What changes? Which version is hardest to accept today, and why?

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham: he must offer his son Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Abraham binds Isaac on the altar, but an angel stops him, and a ram caught in a thicket is offered instead. Jews call the story the Akedah, "the binding", and read it at Rosh Hashanah, when the ram's horn is blown.

Christians read Genesis 22 as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion. Isaac carries the wood for the offering up the hill (Genesis 22:6), as Jesus carries his cross; a father gives up a beloved son. The Letter to the Hebrews (11:17–19) praises Abraham's faith: he reasoned that God could raise Isaac even from the dead.

In Surah 37:99–111, Ibrahim dreams that he must sacrifice his son, and asks the boy's view. The son answers, "O my father! Do that which thou art commanded" (Pickthall). God ransoms him "with a tremendous victim". The Quran does not name the son; most Muslim scholars hold it was Ismail. Muslims remember the story at Eid al-Adha.

The same God?

Task Rate each position on the 1–5 scale. Then defend the one you rate highest against one of the others.

1

strongly agree

2

mostly agree

3

on the fence

4

mostly disagree

5

strongly disagree

Yes: one God, understood differently. Vatican II said of Muslims that "together with us they adore the one, merciful God" (Lumen Gentium 16, 1964), and the theologian Miroslav Volf argues for "same God" in Allah: A Christian Response (2011).

A

B

No. A God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (the Trinity) and a God of absolute oneness (tawhid) who "begetteth not nor was begotten" (Surah 112, Pickthall) cannot be the same God.

C

Jews and Muslims, yes; Christians are the hard case. In the twelfth century, the Jewish philosopher Maimonides judged Islam strictly monotheistic, but classed Christian worship of the Trinity as idolatry.

D

The question is badly framed. "The morning star" and "the evening star" describe one planet, Venus (the philosopher Gottlob Frege's example). The three may refer to the same God while describing God very differently.

Private reflection

Task Choose one prompt and write privately. Nobody will read what you write. Sharing afterwards is optional.

Prompt 1

Think of a story from these traditions that you met as a child, at school, at home, in a film or in a painting. What did it mean to you then, and what does it mean now?

Prompt 2 (lighter)

Think of a building, a festival or a place connected with one of these traditions that you have seen. What do you remember about it?

Back to the scale

Task Rate the four statements from "Where do you stand?" again. Has any of your numbers moved?

1

strongly agree

2

mostly agree

3

on the fence

4

mostly disagree

5

strongly disagree

Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

The three religions have more in common than they have differences.

You can understand the history of Europe without knowing these stories.

Religion is more about what you do than what you believe.

Before Lesson 2

This week, notice one place where Abraham's family turns up around you: a name, a painting, a street, a building or a festival.

Judaism

Note where you found it and which tradition, or traditions, it comes from. Sharing it next week is optional.

Christianity

Islam

Next lesson: Key Stories in Judaism. The stories at the heart of the Jewish year, and why they are still retold.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (1)

ONE FAMILY, THREE BRANCHES suggested answers; others are possible

• Who is missing: the women, Sarah and Hagar, appear only as labels; Isaac's other son Esau; the six sons Abraham had with Keturah (Genesis 25:1–2); Abraham's nephew Lot. The "…" on the arrows hides centuries of prophets, kings and teachers.

• Who would draw it differently: many Muslims would not draw Islam as a new branch at all, but as a return to the original religion of Ibrahim (Surah 3:67). Many Christians would draw a line from Abraham directly to all who share his faith (Galatians 3:7), and Matthew's Gospel traces Jesus' own descent from Abraham (Matthew 1:1–2). Many Jews would question whether Christianity and Islam share the covenant at all. Historians would point out that this is a tree of traditions, not of documented history.

SHARED, OR NOT? Judaism / Christianity / Islam

1 Abraham is a model of faith in one God: Y / Y / Y. Genesis; Hebrews 11 and Galatians 3; the Quran names him a hanif (3:67).

2 Moses (Musa) is a prophet who received God's law: Y / Y / Y. The Torah is the heart of Judaism; Christians read it as part of the Old Testament; the Quran says Musa received the Tawrat (Torah).

3 Jesus (Isa) is the Messiah: N / Y / ?. Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah, who is still awaited in traditional Judaism. The Quran does call Jesus "the Messiah" (al-Masih, 3:45; 4:171), but as a human prophet, not the Son of God, and it says he was not crucified (4:157).

4 Muhammad is the final prophet: N / N / Y. The Quran calls him "the Seal of the Prophets" (33:40).

5 Jerusalem is a holy city: Y / Y / Y. For Jews, the site of the Temple; for Christians, of the crucifixion and resurrection; for Muslims, the site of al-Aqsa, the third holiest mosque after Mecca and Medina, and the first direction of prayer.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (2)

6 Fasting is a religious duty: Y / ? / Y. Jews are commanded to fast on Yom Kippur; Muslims during Ramadan (2:183). Catholic and Orthodox churches set fast days, but many Protestants treat fasting as voluntary.

7 Every believer who is able should make a pilgrimage: ? / N / Y. The Torah commands pilgrimage to Jerusalem at three festivals a year (Deuteronomy 16:16), but this lapsed when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. Christian pilgrimage (to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago) is valued but no church requires it. The Hajj to Mecca is one of the Five Pillars, once in a lifetime for those able (3:97).

8 Some foods are forbidden by religious law: Y / ? / Y. Jewish dietary law (kashrut) and Islamic law (halal and haram) both forbid pork, among other things. Most Christians have no food laws, but Ethiopian Orthodox Christians avoid pork, and some churches forbid meat on certain fast days.

9 One day each week is set apart for rest: Y / ? / ?. The Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) is a commanded day of rest. Most Christians keep Sunday as the Lord's Day, but how strictly they rest varies; Seventh-day Adventists keep Saturday. Muslim men are obliged to attend Friday congregational prayer, but the Quran tells believers to go back to their business after it (62:9–10); Friday is a weekend day in many Muslim-majority countries.

10 God will judge all people at the end of time: ? / Y / Y. Traditional Judaism teaches the resurrection of the dead and divine reward and punishment (both among Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith), but Judaism has always put less weight on the afterlife, and Reform Judaism dropped belief in bodily resurrection. Christian creeds and the Quran both teach a Day of Judgement.