Was Ishmael Holy?

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In Catholicism, do we regard Ishmael as being Holy? He was a direct son of Abraham, was he not?
 
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He was a direct son of Abraham, but that is not what makes him holy. If he was holy, it was because of the grace of God which set him apart for a good purpose and led him to faithfulness.

From what I can tell, he is not included in the Roman Martyrology, which means he is not an official saint of the Catholic Church. But I could be wrong about that – I merely did a word-search for Ishmael in the online version, and didn’t see him there.
 
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i believe the bible calls him an a** of a man but that may not reflect his holyness. i’d say more unlikely than likely
 
It’s pretty shocking that he isn’t often considered holy. I would vouch that there is holiness in him. But then again, how do we determine that anyway?
 
how do we determine that anyway?
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In the case of biblical figures we tend to look at whether or not they are one of the good guys. The evidence about that for Ishmael seems ambiguous. The Bible has nothing super bad to say about him, and it does say a couple decent things, but none very remarkable. The most remarkable positive comment I can find about Ishmael in the Bible is that he was blessed by God and made a great nation. You could use this passage to construct an argument that God had special favor for Ishmael and therefore Ishmael must have been holy – but then again there were bad guys in the Bible who became great nations and were seemingly blessed by God. (Jeroboam, as one example.)

In the case of modern saints there is a canonization process involving something called a “cause for canonization,” where one or more person tries to show that someone should be considered a saint. This process also involves a committee that studies the person’s life, an approval process involving the bishop of the person’s diocese, and some Vatican personnel. There also have to be two miraculous events which provide evidence of the person’s intercession in heaven. But I don’t expect anyone to open up a cause for Ishmael’s canonization. If he’s not counted as a saint by now it’s probably not going to happen.
 
You know I think it’s interesting that Ishmael is viewed in such negative terms because the verses in scripture actually accord Ishmael a high station…

How many personages in the Bible were named by the Angel of the Lord?

See Genesis 16:11

"You shall call him Ishmael… " Ishmael means “God has heard”.

The part of the verse that talks about Ishmael as a “wildass of a man” could also be translated that he was a swift runner… and that he was a helper to his fellows and not as translated his hand is against others…

Follow the possible meanings of the Hebrew words in common lexicons such as Strongs and you will see variations in the meaning of the actual words used…“Yad” for hand can mean “against him” but can also mean “My hand is with someone”…so the text doesn’t really support a negative connotation.

Also how many persons did God Himself promise to prosper…note that when Abraham asked God to remember Ishmael, God promised He would make Him a mighty nation… Genesis 17:21

Yes I think it’s true that the descent of prophets came through Isaac for Israel…but God also made a Covenant with Abraham and His descendents. See Genesis 17:11 and that would include His sons from Keturah His third wife.

The Ishmaelites were related to the Midianites that Moses united with… after His exile from Egypt. So Jethro his father-in-law was more a helper to Moses than any kind of hindrance.
 
Awesome response, that thing happened in my brain when so much good and solid information was presented that I have to read it again. 🙂

Ok so, Ishmael was named by an Angel? Why doesn’t anybody ever talk about that?
 
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Well, there’s Ismael and then there’s Ismael. part of God’s promise to Abraham was to be fulfilled through Ismael, and the nations and kings that were in his lineage. I suppose the problem comes in, especially in the NT era, where those descendants went off the rails headlong into the religion of Islam.

Ishmael is “there” in Genesis, but the generations of Abraham of the promise followed the lineage of Jacob and his descendants. The Messiah was to arise from that lineage and not from that of Ishmael. The Torah was supposed to be the unifying factor and there was much division and apostasy from the mandates of the Torah.
 
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Sir2v4 said:
I suppose the problem comes in, especially in the NT era, where those descendants went off the rails headlong into the religion of Islam.
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I think in some ways there could be a fulfillment of the Covenant God made with Abraham as a “great nation”:

“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.”

Genesis 17:20

The great nation could be Islam…the Ummah the unity of Arabia and the descendants of Ishmael.
 
Didn’t God hear his cries when he was left abandoned in the desert by Hagar? And a miraculous spring of water happen?
 
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Is there any documented reference that the Muhammad was a descendant of Ishmael? Did Muhammad himself affirmed this?
 
of course, and God saved him in the desert. and promised a great nation from Ishmael
 
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arthra said:
For those interested I came across an article that deals with Ishmael and his descendants from a Biblical perspective:

What does the Bible say about Muslims / Islam? | Bibleinfo.com
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These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. (These are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.) They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people.” The areas noted here in verse 18 are located in Central and Northern Arabia.

Looking at this map, it seemed the area covered by the Ishmaelites was too far north from Muhammad’s homeland.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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