Barbara Johnson Witcher

Heirs of Abraham Barbara Johnson Witcher

More than ever before, we learn about today's Middle Eastern wars as the animosity between the Arab world and Israel escalates. "Will there ever be peace?" everyone asks. Attempting to answer that question, Heirs of Abraham is a historical family saga stretching over a time span of almost four thousand years. Starting in 1948 when the State of Israel was founded and ending with terror in Jerusalem in modern times, it follows the lives of the Biblical nomad Abraham, who is the foundation of the world's three great religions - Islam, Judaism and, indirectly, Christianity - and his two sons. There is Ishmael, born of an Egyptian slave whose descendants are today's Arabs. And there is Isaac, son of Abraham's beloved wife and the Jews' patriarch. Set against the backdrops of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Israel - of wars and famines, goat-haired tents and kings' palaces - this is the story of real people whose actions will have an everlasting effect on all future generations and worlds. Following faithfully the Holy Bible's accounting in Genesis, we meet Abraham, who struggles with faith, power, love and cowardice. And his women - Sarah, the wife and Hagar, the slave - whose love for him and hatred for each other never die. Finally, there are the two brothers' descendants who have been pitted against each other for thousands of years in the age old battle for survival and "the land".