1He entered and was passing through Jericho. 2There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn’t because of the crowd, because he was short. 4He ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully. 7When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”
8Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”
9Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
11As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately. 12He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13He called ten servants of his and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come.’ 14But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’
15“When he had come back again, having received the kingdom, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business. 16The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.’
17“He said to him, ‘Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
18“The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.’
19“So he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
20Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, 21for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn’t lay down, and reap that which you didn’t sow.’
22“He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn’t lay down and reaping that which I didn’t sow. 23Then why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank, and at my coming, I might have earned interest on it?’ 24He said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to him who has the ten minas.’
25“They said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ 26‘For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him. 27But bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.’” 28Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29When he came near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, 30saying, “Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, which no man has ever sat upon. Untie it and bring it. 31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say to him: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32Those who were sent went away and found things just as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35Then they brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt and sat Jesus on them. 36As he went, they spread their cloaks on the road.
37As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, 38saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”
39Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
41When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days will come on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, 44and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
45He entered into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”
47He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him. 48They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
We first encounter Abraham (father of many nations) as Abram (great father) in Genesis 11:26-31). He was the son of Terah, brother of Nahor and Haran, and uncle of Lot. Abram's brother Haran died while Abram was still in Ur of the Chaldees (Gen 11:28), where also he married Sarai, his half-sister. We discover toward the end of Genesis 11 that his father Terah left Ur, and went to the land of Canaan, via a city named Harana, where Terah died.
The story of Abraham becomes important in chapter 12, in which we are introduced to important biblical characters, locations, and events that set the stage for the remainder of the Bible. Yahweh came to Abram was commanded him to go to a land that He would show him. In this passage, Yahweh sets forth and unilateral and unconditional covenant, in which He promised to make from him a great nation, make his name great, and through him bless all of the families of the earth.[1]
"Abraham (Abram) was first of the patriarchs, father of Isaac and Ishmael, grandfather of Jacob and the traditional ancestor of the Jewish people. Abraham (originally Abram, which means "exalted father") came from Ur in Mesopotamia. His father, Terah, took him (with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot) to Haran. God called Abraham to leave this new home and to find another home elsewhere in Canaan. After a brief stay in Egypt, Abraham settled near Hebron where he became involved in a local political quarrel when Lot was taken prisoner by an alliance of four eastern chieftains. Abraham launched a successful attack against this confederacy and on his victorious return encountered the mysterious Melchizedek, king of Salem, to whom he gave a tenth of all the spoil he had taken in the battle.
For many years of their marriage, he and Sarah were childless, but God assured Abraham that he would eventually become the father of a great nation. Sarah disbelieved and persuaded Abraham to beget a child by her maid, Hagar, who bore him his first son, Ishmael. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him, and instituted with him a covenant of circumcision, giving him the new name of Abraham (meaning "father of a multitude") and told him that a son, to be named Isaac was shortly to be born to Sarah. When the boy was in his childhood, God ordered Abraham to take him up to a mountain in the land of Moriah and offer him up as a sacrificial victim. Abraham prepared to do so, but was prevented at the last moment from carrying out the sacrifice, and told that he would be blessed for his faithfulness in being ready to offer up his son.
When Sarah died Abraham bought the plot of ground (the field of Ephron in Machpelah) that became the burial place for many generations of his descendants. He subsequently made arrangements for the marriage of Isaac, and took another wife, Keturah, who bore him Zimran, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. At the age of one hundred and seventy five, Abraham died and was buried in Machpelah.
The principal narrative of the part of Genesis dealing with Abraham's history is interrupted in various places by other stories involving the patriarch. These include the parallel stories of his sojourns in Egypt and in Gerar. On both occasions Abraham lied about his relations with Sarah, jeopardising the fulfilment of God's promise (as both Pharaoh and Abimelech intended to take Sarah for themselves), while protecting himself. Both times God intervened to save him from the consequences of his deception. In another story we read of Abraham's intercession on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed for their wickedness."[2]
[1] See Genesis 12:1, for an explanation of God's covenant with Abraham.
[2] Based on the website Mini-Biografias de Personajes Biblicos Web de Recursos Cristianos) (trans. Mini-Biographies of Biblical Characters, Christian Resources Web).