Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Biblical in origin: in Genesis 16:1-16; 17:18-25; 21:6-21; 25:9-17, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by the servant Hagar. In 16:11-12, the most significant verses for Melville's allegory, Hagar was cast off after the birth of Isaac, who inherited the covenant of the Lord instead of his older half-brother. Melville shapes his allegory to the Biblical Ishmael as follows: And so the name points to a Biblical analogy that marks Ishmael as the prototype of "wanderer and outcast," the man set at odds with his fellows. Wright says that all Melville's heroes—with the exception of Benito Cereno and Billy Budd—are
Ishmael ben Fabus Ishmael ben Fabus Ishmael ben Fabus also known as "Ishmael ben Phiabi" () was a High Priest of Israel in the 1st century. He was High Priest of Israel from 15 CE to 16 CE and then again from 58 CE to 62 CE. He was appointed as High Priest by the Roman governor, Valerius Gratus, to replace the biblical Annas, and latter for a second term by Herod Agrippa II. He appears to have been a very unpopular High Priest. It is said of him that he was "the handsomest man of his time, whose effeminate love of luxury