Abraham's Oak

Abraham’s Oak

By Henry Ossawa Tanner

“Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.”

Genesis 13:18

“Now the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.”

Genesis 18:1 

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The Oak of Abraham, also called the Oak of Mamre, is a still-standing ancient tree found near Hebron, in the West Bank, that has been venerated by Jewish and Christian pilgrims for more than 2,000 years as the location where Abraham (then still called Abram) pitched his tent and built an altar to the Lord after God’s promise of the land of Canaan to him and his offspring. 

Writing in 60 A.D., the Jewish scholar Josephus referred to this tree as Ogyges (meaning ‘primeval’, ‘from earliest ages’, or ‘gigantic’), and recorded that it had stood since the creation of the world. St. Jerome later wrote of large fairs being held under the Oak of Abraham during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the Oak was a frequent stop for pilgrims during the Crusades who used its wood for medicinal purposes, the belief being that such a use prevented any illness up to the day of death.

That Abraham chose to dwell near an oak is significant. In ancient Israel, the oak was a spiritually important tree, revered partly for practical reasons. Standing as tall as 20-25 feet with a thick trunk, heavy branches and dense leaves, the oak is one of the best shade trees in the eastern Mediterranean. Oak trees also produce copious amounts of acorns, which were an important food source for a nomadic people, and its wood is hard and sturdy enough to resist the grazing of animals that reduced other plants to ruin. Moreover, in the barren and rugged landscape of Canaan, oaks stood out against the sky and could be seen for miles, beckoning the weary traveler to rest in their shade. 

God’s choice to appear to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre made sense to the first listeners of this important episode in Israel’s history because the rest, the shelter, and the provision symbolized by
oak trees was symbolic of the covenant God was to forge on that day in the shade of their branches. There, beneath the Oaks of Mamre, God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would give birth to a nation and their descendants would become a light to the world. Though Abraham and Sarah doubted and even laughed at the thought of such an impossible thing, later generations knew God’s promise had come true because they were the living proof of
that promise, so that, when they saw the Oaks of Mamre, they were reminded that God can do extraordinary things in the lives of God’s people.  For generations, people would point to those oaks and say, “Something sacred happened here.”  

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“The life of faith isn’t a life of mounting up with wings but a life of walking and not fainting. It isn’t a question of sanctification but of something infinitely greater: of faith that has been tried and has stood the test. This was the faith of Abraham, a tried-and-tested faith built on a real God.” – Oswald Chambers

“There’s a story told in the Midrash. It begins with Abraham sitting in the door of his tent in the plain of Mamre in the heat of the day. And this was an especially hot day, you see. It said it was a day like the breath of Gehinnom—like the breath of Hell. And he was worried, because, he says, some poor stranger might be lost out there. Someone might have lost his way, and be perishing. So, he sent his faithful servant Eleazer out to look everywhere. He sent him out in all directions, and he came back, saying, ‘No I can’t find anyone anywhere.’ But Abraham continued having these feelings, so he went out himself, though he was very sick at the time. He was sick and ailing, and old, and he went out into that Hell. And he looked and searched, but he found no one. And, at the end of the day, he came back exhausted toward his tent. As he approached the tent, the three strangers were standing there. It was the Lord and the two heavenly beings with Him. Abraham throws himself down on his face, and then it is in that moment that the Lord promises him Isaac. As a reward for what he had done. This supreme offering. It’s a very moving story. He’d gone out to look for his fellow man out in that dusty hell, you see, all alone. Eleazer couldn’t find anyone, and he said, ‘I think I can find someone.’ Well, he found something. He found the answer to the thing he’d prayed for all his life. His son Isaac. It’s a beautiful story.” – Hugh Nibley

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