How Many Children Did Abraham Have?

The truth is, “God only knows,” because God promised Abraham that his progeny would be as countless as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5) or the grains of sand in the sea. But let’s start with what the Bible tells us.

 

Genesis 16 tells us the story of Abram and Sarai, Hagar and Ishmael, while 16:15 relates that “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.”

 

In Genesis 17, when Abram (meaning “Exalted Father”) is ninety-nine years old, God makes a covenant with him, changes his name to Abraham (“Father of a Multitude”), promises, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful .. I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you,” and decrees circumcision as a sign of the covenant. God also changes the name of Abraham’s wife, Sarai, to Sarah (meaning “Princess”), promises to give Abraham a son by her even though she is eighty-nine years old, “and she shall be a mother of nations.” Abraham laughs at this idea, so God says the boy will be named Isaac, which means laughter.

 

In Genesis 18, God appears to Abraham in the form of “three men” and makes this promise: “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” But “Sarah was listening … had passed the age of childbearing (menopause)” and so “laughed within herself.” “And the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh? ... Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.’”

 

There is a pause in the story as we learn of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, as well as the curious story of Abraham and Abimelech in Genesis 20. When the story resumes in Genesis 21, “the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and … Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. … Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him” and Sarah was ninety. In having two sons by two different women in his old age, Abraham is a model and precursor of Zacharias, another old man who miraculously fathers John (the Baptist) with his wife Elizabeth and then begets Jesus with Mary in the first chapter of Luke. As Gabriel explains to Mary, “with God nothing will be impossible.” But God works through the natural laws and principles of science and mathematics which He created; and it is clear from Matthew 1:1-16 that the men do all the begetting.

 

In Genesis 23, we are told that “Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years … and … Abraham buried Sarah his wife.” Genesis 24 tells the story of Rebekah becoming the wife of Isaac to comfort him after his mother’s death; but then in Genesis 25, Abraham marries Keturah and has six more sons! God’s covenant with Abraham and most of Abraham’s wealth goes to Isaac, “but Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines … and sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.” [JHK Note: This raises an interesting question -- “Did those gifts every return?” I say, “Yes! With the Three Kings who bring gifts to Jesus.”]