Section Two: The Journeys of Abraham
From Ur to Haran
Abram was born @1800 BCE in Ur. Genesis 11:31 tells us that Abram was born in Ur of
the Chaldeans. At that time, the city was ruled by the Amorite kingdom of Babylon. Ur
would not be ruled by Chaldeans for more than a thousand years after Abram’s time
After Abram’s brother, Haran died, Abram’s father (Terah), his wife Sarai, his surviving
brother (Nahor) and Haran’s son Lot, Abraham’s nephew, moved north along the Fertile
Crescent and settled in a town seemingly named after Abram’s brother, Haran. Haran
remained a key town for a thousand years since it was located on trade routes from
Persia to the Middle East. Haran fell under the rule of the ancient Assyrian Empire
2.1
Abram Leaves Haran and Begins His Journeys
• Shechem
God appeared to Abram
at Schechem and promised the land to
him and to his seed (an important ref.
by Paul in Galatians). Abram built an
altar in Shechem in honor of God’s
promise
.
Salem
The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your
land, your relatives, and from your father’s
house to a land that I will show you. I will
make of you a great nation, and I will bless
you; I will make your name great, so that you
will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you and curse those who curse you. All the
families of the earth will find blessing in you.
Abram went as the LORD directed him, and
Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five
years old when he left Haran (Gen 12:1-4)
• Bethel/Ai
Abram encamped at a
place “east of Bethel and west of Ai”.
Abram again built an altar there to the
Lord.
• Egypt
Famine drove Abram and
his family into Egypt (the first story of
Sarai as Abram’s sister). Abram fared
well in Egypt but finally returned to his
campsite at the shrine between Bethel
and Ai
• Hebron
Abram next moved to
“the terebinths of Mamre” in Hebron
where he built yet another altar. It was
here that Abram was first referred to as
a Hebrew
• Salem
after a battle, Abram met
Melchizidek the King/Priest of Salem
2.2
More History of Abram/Abraham
•
Ten years after Abram’s return from Egypt, his wife Sarai was well beyond
the years of conception. Sarai encouraged Abram to sleep with her
Egyptian slave, Hagar. Hagar gave birth to a son, Ishmael
•
Thirteen years later, God made a covenant with Abram and promised him
the entire land of Canaan
- God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah
- God required circumcision as a sign of the covenant
- Abraham had all the males in his household circumcised including
Ishmael
- God promised Abraham a son through his wife Sarah, despite her age
- The next year, Sarah gave birth to Isaac
- Sarah found it difficult having Hagar and Ishmael around so Abraham
banished them from his household but God promised Hagar that
Ishmael would beget a great nation of his own (Gen. 17:20). Islam
claims Arab descent from Abraham through Ishmael
•
Abraham wandered to the Negeb and encamped at Gerar.
- There Abraham made a treaty with Abimelech, a Philistine and the King
of Gerar. The two made this covenant of peace at Beer-shebah.
Abraham remained in the land of the Philistines for a significant period
of time
2.3
The Promise of God to Abraham
“On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I
give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates, the land of the
Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites’.” Gen. 15:18-21
Interestingly, the Kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon expanded to almost
exactly fit the dimensions of this promise
2.4
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
• God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Abraham was willing to obey
• While one of Abraham’s brothers, Nahor, was still living in the city of Haran. Nahor
had a family of his own including a granddaughter named Rebekah
• Abraham sent Eliezer, his chief servant, to his relatives to seek a wife for Isaac
• Eliezer met Rebekah at a well (where Jacob would meet his wife and where Moses
his wife. We seem to have another pattern) and then met her brother Laban
• Laban agreed to allow Rebekah to return with Eliezer to become Isaac’s wife
• Isaac had since moved his own encampment to Beer-Lahai-Roi where he met
Rebekah for the first time. He later made her his wife. Isaac and Rebekah had twin
sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau came out of the womb of Rebekah first but Jacob, with
Rebekah’s help, gained the patrimony by trickery. Jacob fled back to Haran to
escape Esau’s wrath.
• Jacob also sought a wife while in Haran. En route, Jacob stopped at a place he
called Bethel where he had a vision of a ladder to heaven. God renewed the
covenant promise He made to Abraham there to Jacob
• Esau sought his own wife from the family of Ishmael. Red-haired Esau then lived in
the red clay land of Edom. In Roman times, Edom was called Idumea, the birthplace
of the family of Herod. In a sense, Esau reclaimed his birthright two millennia later
2.5
Genesis and History
• The stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob take place in historical times.
• They involve places that can be found even today
• They mention peoples about whom much is known
• While Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in historical times, the context of
those times as explained in Genesis has raised a number of questions
among scholars;
-
Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees. Who were these
Chaldeans?
The names of the members of Abraham’s family seem to have
popped up in another context. What is that all about?
Abraham was called a Hebrew. What does that name indicate?
Abraham traveled across the land of Canaan. Who were the
Canaanites?
Abraham encountered the Philistines. Who were they and where did
they live?
Abraham encountered Melchizedek. Who was he and where was
Salem, the city which he ruled?
We’ll examine these questions in the next slides
2.6
Ur of the Chaldeans: Who were the Chaldeans?
Genesis tells us that Abram comes was born in a city called Ur and tells us that
this city was ‫כשדים‬. This Hebrew word Kasdim, is most often translated as “of the
Chaldeans”. Ur is an ancient word seen in such place names as Ararat (Urartu)
and names of people such as Uriah, husband of Bathshebah. Ur existed as far back
as the Sumerian Empire (@3500 BCE). By Abraham’s time, the city was known to
be dominated by the Ancient Babylonian Empire. This is the original Babylonian
Empire that had, among its list of rulers, the king known as Hammurabi.
This Empire and these people were not the same Babylonians who captured the
Kingdom of Judah and led their people into exile. Those Babylonians were the
Chaldeans who came to dominate the region a thousand years after the time of
Abraham. The question that scholars raise is why does Genesis refer to
Abraham’s Ur as a city of the Chaldeans?
2.7
Cities or People or Both?
Abram’s father and brother decided to remain at Haran while Abraham and his family,
along with Nahor’s son, Lot, decided to journey on. This part of the story of Abraham
has raised a bit of a debate among scholars. The ruins of four cities in the region bear
names closely resembling members of Abram’s family.
- The ancient town of Sarugi (Modern Suruc) resembles the name of Abram’s
grandfather, Serug
- The ruins of Til Turakhi resembles the name of Abram’s father, Terah.
- The ruins of Til Nakhiri resembles the name of Abram’s deceased brother, Nahor
- The town of Haran clearly has the same name as Abram’s brother Haran
Were these towns named after their founders or were the names of Abram’s ancestors
merely reflections of places where the family stayed ?
2.8
Who were “the Hebrews”?
There has been some speculation that the
name ‘Hebrew’ is related to the word ‘ha-bi-ru’
or ‘a-pi-ru’ which can be found in a number of
ancient writings. This word seems to be
applied by the Egyptians and Akkadians to
various tribes of people who lived seminomadic lives.
Some have speculated that the Ha-bi-ru hired
themselves out to the rulers of the land were
they found themselves to perform either
military duties or to perform tasks of labor
“A survivor came and brought the news to
Abram the Hebrew”
Gen.14:13
The origin of the word that is most accepted
for ‘Hebrew’ is the word ‫( ﬠִ ְב ִרי‬Ib-ri). It was
used most often to distinguish a Hebrew from
a foreigner. The word often means
“descendant of Eber (‫)ﬠֵ֫ בֶ ר‬, a child of Shem
(Gen. 10:21-25). The name Eber is related to
the Hebrew verb a-bar (‫ )ﬠָ בַ ר‬, to pass over or
travel across. The name could imply that the
people of Eber originally came from across the
Euphrates River
2.9
Who Were
the Canaanites?
• The Canaanites were the original
inhabitants of the Promised Land when
Abram/Abraham first arrived in the region
• Though linguistically a Semitic people
(sons of Shem), the Canaanites are said to
be descendants of Noah’s son Ham (Gen.
9). Ham was cursed by Noah when he
failed to cover Noah’s nakedness. Noah
went on to say, “May God give Japheth
dwelling-space, and let him share the tents
of Shem, but let Chanaan be his slave.”
Hamites are usually associated with Egypt
and Africa. Some speculate that, since
Egypt dominated the region from time to
time, the Canaanites became associated
with them
• The Canaanites worshipped Baal, the son
of El, their supreme creator god. The
name Baal was most likely not the name of
the god but a reverent substitution that
meant something like ‘Lord’. The name
of the god himself was probably Hadad
(akin to the Akkadian god Adad)
• The Canaanites remained in conflict with
the descendants of Abraham both
politically and religiously for many
centuries
2.10
• Though the Bible says that, at the time of
Who Were the Philistines?
Abraham, the Hebrews were at peace with the
Philistines, they would later battle them over
the course of many years. Since Palestine is
the modern name for the land of the Philistines,
one could say that the battles continue
• The Philistines are first mentioned in
Genesis (10:14) as coming from the Caphtorim
• Scholars today believe that the Philistines
were not native to the region of the Promised
Land but were “people of the sea” (Peleset)
who invaded both Egypt and Ugarit shortly
after the time of Moses. Pottery found at the
remains of some of their cities suggest that
they may have come from Crete or Greece
Ekron
Gath ?
• The Philistines were defeated by the Egyptians
but sacked Ugarit and then settled the coastal
plains along the Great (Mediterranean) Sea and
established five major cities; Ashdod,
Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and Gath.
• The problem with the mention of the meeting
between Abraham and Philistines in Genesis is
that they did not arrive in the region until seven
centuries after the time of Abraham.
2.11
Just Who Was Melchizidek?
• Melchizidek was the king/priest of Salem, the future capital of David’s Israel
• His name in Hebrew is ‫( מַ לְ כִּ י־צֶ דֶ ק‬Mal-chi-tze-deq) translated as “My King is
Righteous” but also seems to have the possible meaning of simply King-Priest. It is
not clear if Melchizedek was actually a name or a title. Hundreds of years after
Abram/Abraham, during the time of Joshua, the King of Salem (then Jeru-Salem) was
named Adonizedek (My Lord is Just or Lord-Priest). Interestingly, the name of the
High Priest when David ruled from Jerusalem was Zadok
• Some scholars claim that Zedek/Zadok was the name of a local Jebusite deity and
that Melchizidek really means “Zedeq is my king”.
• Melchizidek brought bread and wine and blessed Abram and the “God Most High”
‫ על עלין‬El Elyon. It is not surprising that Melchizidek, who rules a city in Canaan
uses a generic Canaanite name for God ‫( על‬El). But El was more than simply a
generic name for God among the Cannanites. El was the chief God of the Canaanite
people, the father of Baal. It is also said that El was the head of a council of Gods
(Elohim ??)
• Bible scholars ask the why this seemingly trivial encounter required a mention in
Genesis. Bible scholars suggest that, while other regions that became important to
the Israel of David’s time were mentioned in Genesis, Jerusalem, David’s capital, was
not, This mention solved that problem. Talmudic scholars (the Babylonian Talmud,
Nedarim 32b) associate Melchizedek with Noah’s son Shem. The significance is that,
upon Noah’s death, the priesthood that had been transferred to his son Shem was
being transferred in turn from Shem to Abraham. Note that Noah had three sons
when the priesthood was passed to Shem. Terah had three sons and the priesthood
was passed to Abraham
2.12
Isaac: A Very Passive Patriarch
As we have seen in Genesis, Abraham, the first of the three Jewish patriarchs,
was a very active character. The same cannot be said, however, about Abraham’s
son, Isaac. Isaac seems to be almost a transitional character between Abraham
and his grandson Jacob (next slide). Isaac does not seem to act very much. In
fact, Isaac is almost always acted upon.
• In the story that Christians see as a prefigurement of Jesus, Isaac is acted upon
by his father Abraham as God tests Abraham’s faith by telling him that he must
be willing to sacrifice his only son by his wife Sarah. Some bible scholars see
this story as a condemnation of the human sacrifice practiced by many peoples
that were encountered by the early Jewish people
• Isaac does not find his own wife. Abraham’s servant is sent back to Haran to
acquire a wife (Rebekah) from his family back in Haran. This contrasts with
Isaac’s son Jacob who acts on his own behalf in Haran and winds up with two
wives
• Isaac is tricked by Rebekah to ensure that Jacob, not Esau, receives the
birthright that by custom belonged to Esau
Looking at how the character of Isaac is portrayed in Genesis has led some bible
scholars to see Isaac more as a literary device than a real person
2.13
Jacob and Israel
• Thanks to his mother’s help, Jacob succeeded Isaac as the leader of his people.
He, too, returned to Haran to find a wife and there, as a result of Laban’s
trickery, married Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel
• Jacob then attempted to reconcile with Esau. En route, he struggled with an
angel and the angel told Jacob that he will be called by a new name, Israel
• Jacob/Israel did reconcile with Esau. They parted in peace. Jacob then traveled
back to Shechem where Abraham had set up an altar to God. Isaac later died in
Hebron. Both Jacob and Esau returned to Hebron for his funeral
• Jacob went on to father twelve sons; six by Leah (Reuben, Simeon, Levi ,Judah,
Issachar and Zebulon), two by Leah’s maidservant Zilpah (Gad and Asher), two
by Rachel (Joseph and Benjamin) and two by Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah (Dan
and Napthali). These twelve became the patriarchs of the Twelve Tribes of
Israel. Jacob also had a daughter, Dinah, by Leah
• Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. In a time of famine,
Joseph’s brothers sought food in Egypt and wound up reuniting with Joseph.
Joseph’s brothers and father were welcomed to settle with Joseph in Egypt in
the land of Goshen. Their descendants remained welcome in Egypt until a
pharaoh “who did not know Joseph” took the throne setting the scene for
Moses and the events of the Exodus
2.14
A Bit More About “the Pharaohs who knew Joseph”
• Not long after the birth of Abraham, the Lower Kingdom of Egypt (the Northern
section of Egypt) was overrun by a people known as the Hyksos. The word
Hyksos was first thought to mean Shepherd Kings. The current favored
translation is Foreign Rulers
• An Egyptian Stele calls the Hyksos King, Apophos, a “chieftain of the Retjenu” (a
tribe from Canaan) so many scholars believe that these Hyksos kings were likely
Semitic people from the land of Canaan. These Hyksos kings were probably the
kings who knew Joseph. The Jewish historian Josephus suggested that the
Hyksos were actually the Hebrew people themselves (Against Apion: Bk.1 Sect. 73).
In any case, the Hyksos probably looked on Joseph as a fellow Semite
• The Hyksos seemed to have ruled in Egypt from @1720 BCE until sometime
around 1570 BCE when they were driven from Lower Egypt during the 18th
Dynasty. This new dynasty of Pharaohs were probably the Pharaohs “who did
not know Joseph” and began to treat the Hebrew people harshly
• The Pharaoh at the time of Moses was believed to be Ramses II. He began his
rule @ 1290 BCE. Assuming the Hebrews entered Egypt during the reign of the
Hyksos around 1720 BCE and left Egypt during the reign of Ramses II around
1290 BCE, that places the Israelites in Egypt for about 430 years, some of those
years in prosperity and some in slavery but a total of 430 years. This is the exact
amount of time that Exodus (12:40) indicates that the Israelites were in Egypt
2.15
The Testament of Jacob
• Just before Jacob died, he issued a series of predictions for each of his
sons. This is called “The Testament of Jacob”. Jacob said the following
about Judah, “Judah is a lion’s cub, you have grown up on prey, my son. He
crouches, lies down like a lion, like a lioness—who would dare rouse him? The
scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his feet, until
tribute comes to him and he receives the people’s obedience. (Gen 49: 9-10)
• This passage is often taken to point to the future Kingdom of Judah and
the line of David that will come from that kingdom. Again, scholars debate
that this passage may have been added for political reasons
• Jacob died and his son Joseph asked the Hyksos Pharaoh to allow Joseph
to fulfill the promise that he made to his father and return Jacob’s
body to the land of Canaan so that it could be buried with Jacob’s
grandfather Abraham, his grandmother Sarah, his father Isaac and his
wives, Leah and Rebekah at Hebron, near the Vale of Mamre.
• This story of Jacob, coming at the end of the book of Genesis acts as a
transition point from the pre-history and patriarchal history of the first
book of the Torah to the next four books which tell the story of Moses and
the Exodus
2.16