Abraham in the Idol Shop is a Midrash, which is to say a story from The Talmud about how Abraham in The Book of Genesis became the Chosen One.
Abraham was the son of Terach, an idol worshipper and after a woman asked him to conduct a sacrifice for her, he instead smashed all the idols save the largest and told his father Terach that it smashed the rest with Terach responding “they don’t have cognition” eliciting the Armour-Piercing Question “why do you worship them then”. Abraham is then challenged on his monotheism by King Nimrod who throws him into a furnace to burn him to death, but Abraham miraculously survived. Abraham’s brother Haran then proclaims himself a worshipper of the G-d of Abraham claiming that “He shall surely save me as He saved my brother” but instead Nimrod throws Haran into the fire and Haran dies. Abraham and his family then have to leave Ur Kasdim.
Tropes in this story include:
- An Aesop: Do not condition acts of religious worship on miracles. Also, be willing to face death for what you truly believe in.
- Adults Are Useless: Downplayed inasmuch as it doesn’t specify how old Abraham was but his father Terach does not solve any problems here.
- Abusive Parents: Subverted, it’s not Terach who tries to kill Abraham but Nimrod.
- Armour-Piercing Question: If idols don’t have cognition, then why worship them.
- Armour Piercing Response: Nimrod challenges Abraham on why he doesn’t worship fire, because water extinguishes it, on why he doesn’t worship water, because clouds contain it, on why he doesn’t worship clouds, because wind moves them, on why he doesn’t worship wind “because Man carries the wind”.
- A God Am I: Implied as Nimrod’s motivation for opposing Abrahamic monotheism.
- Big Bad: Nimrod fulfills this role.
- The Chosen One: An explanation of why Abraham
- Crapsaccharine World: Downplayed but it’s set in an idolatrous world wherein monotheists are burned at the stake, though it’s still not nearly as vicious as several of the experiences of the Hebrews of the Bible.
- Origins Episode: For Abraham in the Book of Genesis.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For Haran.
- What Have I Done: Terach’s reaction to his son’s death.
