The Cave of the Patriarchs: Where Two Brothers Buried Their Father

Genesis 23 records a purchase. Abraham, a stranger in the land, buys the cave of Machpelah at Hebron from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver, to bury his wife Sarah. It is the first piece of land the Bible says he owned.

Two chapters later Abraham dies, and the text adds a quiet line that the whole tradition has leaned on since: "his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah" (Genesis 25:9). The two brothers, sent apart in childhood, stood together at their father's grave.

Before there were three religions, there were two brothers at one grave.

One roof, two prayers

Over the cave rises a great stone enclosure built in the Herodian period, more than two thousand years ago. Jews revere it as the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs; Muslims pray there in the Ibrahimi Mosque. Since 1994 the building has been divided into separate Jewish and Muslim prayer halls, and it remains one of the most contested places on earth.

We do not pretend that the division is not there. We tell the older story too, because it is the one both peoples share: the day the sons of Sarah and Hagar laid their father to rest together.