Abrahamic Religions - Etymology

Etymology

It has been suggested that the phrase, "Abrahamic religion", may simply mean that all these religions come from one spiritual source. Christians refer to Abraham as a "father in faith". There is an Islamic religious term, Millat Ibrahim (faith of Ibrahim), indicating that Islam sees itself as having practices tied to the traditions of Abraham. Jewish tradition claims descendance from Abraham, and adherents follow his practices and ideals as the first of the three spiritual "fathers", Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

All the major Abrahamic religions claim a direct lineage to Abraham.

• Abraham is recorded in the Torah as the ancestor of the Israelites through his son Isaac, born to Sarah through a promise made in Genesis. All variants of Judaism through the early 20th century (prophetic, rabbinic, reform, and conservative) were founded by Israelite descendants.
• The basic text of Christianity is the Bible, the first part of which, the Old Testament, leading to the same ancestry claim as above. The Catholic Old Testament does include a few books that neither the Protestants nor the Orthodox Jews felt were inspired and more historical in nature.
• It is the Islamic tradition that Muhammad, as an Arab, is descended from Abraham's son Ishmael. Jewish tradition also equates the descendants of Ishmael, Ishmaelites, with Arabs, as the descendants of Isaac by Jacob, who was also later known as Israel, are the Israelites.

Other terms sometimes used include Abrahamic faiths, Abrahamic traditions, religions of Abraham, Abrahamic monotheistic religions, semitic religions, Semitic monotheistic religions, and Semitic one god religions.

However, the term "Abrahamic faiths", while helpful, is also misleading. It conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination. While there is commonality among the religions, in large measure their shared ancestry is peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences. For example, the common Christian beliefs of Incarnation, Trinity, and Jesus' Resurrection are not accepted by Judaism or Islam (see for example Islamic view of Jesus' death). There are key beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are not shared by most of Christianity (such as strict monotheism and adherence to the Law), and key beliefs of Islam and Christianity not shared by Judaism (such as the prophetic and Messianic position of Jesus, respectively), and so on.