Editing Abraham (section)

===Christian iconography===
[[File:Праведни Авраам и прaведни (покајани) разбојник у рају, живопис у светој обитељи Грачаница, Србија.jpg|thumb|Abraham in paradise, [[Gračanica Monastery]], [[Serbia]]]]
Abraham can sometimes be identified by the context of the image{{snd}} the meeting with [[Melchizedek]], [[:commons:Category:Abraham and three angels|the three visitors]], or [[:commons:Category:Sacrifice of Isaac|the sacrifice of Isaac]]. In solo portraits a sword or knife may be used as his accessory, as in [[:commons:File:AbrahamMorlaiterJRS.JPG|this statue]] by [[Giovanni Maria Morlaiter]] or [[:commons:File:AbrahamMonacoJRS.jpg|this painting]] by [[Lorenzo Monaco]].

As early as the beginning of the 3rd century, Christian art followed Christian [[Typology (theology)#Offering of Isaac|typology]] in making the sacrifice of Isaac a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and its memorial in the sacrifice of the Mass. See for example [[:commons:File:AltarFuldaClunyJRS.jpg|this 11th-century Christian altar]] engraved with Abraham's and other sacrifices taken to prefigure that of Christ in the Eucharist.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christianiconography.info/abraham.html |title=Abraham the Patriarch in Art – Iconography and Literature |publisher=Christian Iconography – a project of [[Georgia Regents University]]. |access-date=2014-04-18 |archive-date=19 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419020651/http://www.christianiconography.info/abraham.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Icoană a Raiului din Ploieşti.jpg|thumb|[[Mural]] of Abraham in [[Heaven in Christianity|Heaven]] from the Holy Mother Church, [[Ploieşti]], Romania]]
Some early Christian writers interpreted the three visitors as the [[triune God]]. Thus in [[Santa Maria Maggiore]], Rome, [[:commons:File:HospitalityAbrahamSMMaggioreJRS.jpg|a 5th-century mosaic]] portrays only the visitors against a [[gold ground]] and puts semitransparent copies of them in the "heavenly" space above the scene. In Eastern Orthodox art, the visit is the chief means by which the Trinity is pictured ([[:commons:File:Russian - Hospitality of Abraham - Walters 371185.jpg|example]]). Some images do not include Abraham and Sarah, like Andrei Rublev's ''Trinity'', which shows only the three visitors as beardless youths at a table.<ref name=Boguslawski>{{cite web|last=Boguslawski|first=Alexander|title=The Holy Trinity|url=http://myweb.rollins.edu/aboguslawski/Ruspaint/trinity.html|publisher=Rollins.edu|access-date=3 April 2014}}</ref>