This is the first in a series of posts about children’s Sunday School songs! My daughter came home from church singing “Father Abraham” this week, so let’s talk a little about this song and its weird history. First, the lyrics I am familiar with:

Father Abraham had many sons,
and many sons had Father Abraham.
I am one of them and so are you
so let’s just praise the Lord! (right arm, etc.)

Until today, I had no idea these were not the original lyrics. I assumed it was written a hundred years ago at a Bible camp and was distributed anonymously from campfire to campfire until virtually every child in America knew it by heart. Not so!

In 1971, Pierre Kartner released a Dutch carnival song called “Vader Abraham Had Zeven Zonen.” He also started wearing a fake beard and performing under the stage persona of Vader Abraham. In his lyrics (found here), Father Abraham has seven sons rather than many. This is biblically accurate; he had Ishmael, Isaac, and the five sons and a daughter listen in Gen 25:2. Kartner’s original song has the sons singing, drinking, and having fun, and there are verses that describe each boy.

I’m not sure who translated the song into English or when, but in Lisa Loeb’s version, we still hear about seven sons, but rather than wild hedonists, the sons are awfully stoic, never laughing nor crying, only going like *this* (insert arm flapping and spinning).

A further step away from Kartner’s carnival song sees the seven sons grown to many, the laughing, crying, and drinking replaced with “I am one of them and so are you,” and the addition of praising the Lord. Some versions even change “sons” to “kids” to be more inclusive.

So will it worship? Certainly not the drinking song (sorry, Pierre). And while the English version about seven sons is accurate with regard to the number of Abraham’s progeny, the rest is just harmless, meaningless fluff (sorry, Lisa).

What about the more popular English rewrite (it’s hard to call it a translation) with the lyrics I included above? This version has a little more theology embedded in its lyrics, so let’s take it one line at a time!

Lyric Analysis

Father Abraham had many sons,
and many sons had Father Abraham.
The change from “seven” to “many” makes this song about the whole nation that came from Abraham, not just his immediate offspring. Now, the song is about God’s promise in Genesis 15:5, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them . . . So shall your descendants be.” We’re not just singing about a relatively important Bible character and his kids; we’re singing about the people God promises to bless, and who God promises will be a blessing to the whole world! (Gen 12:2-3)

Soapbox time! (does a little soapbox dance) A few recordings of this song change “many sons” to “many kids.” Don’t do that. Male language and pronouns are the default throughout Scripture. Part of the challenge of interpreting Scripture is discerning where in the Bible “men” or “sons” means “male humans” and where it means “all humans.” Some modern Bible translations attempt to make the Bible more inclusive by changing many of these instances to be gender neutral. This forces the translator to take an interpretive position in passages like 1 Timothy 3:2 where the ESV says an elder must be “the husband of one wife,” the NIV says “faithful to his wife,” and the NRSVue says, “married only once.” Rather than expecting our Bible translations to decide these questions for us, we should teach our kids from a young age that sometimes when the Bible says man, husband, or son, it means “man,” and sometimes it just means “person.” Singing the idea that boys and girls are counted among Abraham’s many sons helps to instill this important interpretive principle.

I am one of them and so are you,
This line explicitly includes all the singers among Abraham’s children. I remember singing it as a little kid and thinking, “Wait a minute, I’m not Jewish!” And this is a thought children should be having! It’s really important to understand that through Christ, everyone can be included in the faith family of Abraham, not just descendants of Israel. This simple line lays a foundation for the more complex concept of the Gentiles being grafted onto Abraham’s tree. (It’s also a powerful antidote to antisemitism!)

The simple words “and so are you” help children to develop an outgoing, expressive faith that welcomes others. This is an essential part of Gospel living.

So let’s just praise the Lord! (right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot, chin up, turn around, sit down!)
This provides an active, concrete response to the abstract truths presented in the previous lines. God has adopted us into his family, so we respond with gratitude and praise!

As a worship leader, I also love that it links praise to movement. While these motions are silly and not terribly profound, it is healthy for children to learn from a young age that it’s good for action to accompany praise. Maybe if we explain this to kids when we sing this song, we’ll have a few less frozen chosen in the coming decades. 😁

Conclusion

Will it worship? Yes! (But only the “many sons” version.) The simple words and actions of “Father Abraham” actually lay some really important groundwork for how children are going to understand the role of Israel, the use of gender-specific terms in the Bible, what praise looks like, and their place in God’s forever family. 10/10, no notes. Sing it!

Image by Elianna Gill on Unsplash

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.