Gen. 11:27-12:9, starting Abram

Helen · Jun 11, 2002

If the Tablet Hypothesis is correct, Terah closes his account having simply given the geneology from Shem to his own three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was Lot's father and thus Lot was Abram's nephew. When Haran died, Abram took Lot into his own household. As we will find out later, Abram's wife, Sarai, is his half-sister. Keep in mind that incest was not defined or forbidden until the time of Moses, but, as you will see, it was actually preferred to marry within the family group. It was still safe because the mutation load had not built up enough in the human race to make such close marriages dangerous to the children.

After Haran died, we read that Terah took his son Abram and Sarai and Lot and the household connected with them and they moved to Haran. The town of Haran is spelled differently than the name of Lot's father. There is no relation between them.

We know that Abram and Sarai had been married for at least a few years by this point because it is written that Sarai was barren. Terah died in Haran.

During this study centering on Abram/Abraham now, I would like to offer exerpts from an article Barry and I co-authored upon request several years ago. It was privately printed at the time by someone but has been requested again and should be publicly printed in Chuck Missler's newsletter sometime in the coming months. So here is the section regarding the beginning where we are in the Bible now.

Abraham -- The man God chose to begin a race of people through whom God would not only demonstrate His person, character, and plan to the world, but also the man who would be the "father" of the people through whom the promised Messiah would come. Genesis spends more time on Abraham than any other person, so there is a good deal we can learn about this remarkable human being. His story begins at the close of Genesis 11 and continues on to Genesis 25.

His genealogy: Abraham's lineage is given in the Bible and traces back, person by person, to Adam, the first man.

Historical notes: This lineage indicates that he was born 3488 years after Adam was created. Abraham’s death, 175 years later (3663 years after creation) was 2126 years before the birth of Messiah. This chronology places the birth of Abraham in the 3rd millennium BC. The major events in his life occurred primarily in the 23rd century BC. Some of these events make it possibly to verify that dating. The first of these events in Genesis 14 was a significant war in which the kings from the cities of the Jordan plain fought against a north-eastern confederacy. The second event is reported in Genesis 18-19. This passage describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and other cities of the Jordan rift by a violent volcanic episode during which the land at the southern end of the Dead Sea dropped significantly on a fault system.

In 1978, well-known archaeologist Professor D. N. Freedman of the University of Michigan made some comments pertinent to these events in a lecture entitled ‘Archaeology and Biblical Religion’. As a result of the discovery of the Ebla Tablets (written during the 23rd century BC) he stated that: “It is now my belief that the story in Genesis 14 not only corresponds in content to the Ebla Tablet, but that the Genesis account derives from the same period. … Briefly put, the account in Genesis 14, and also in chapters 18-19, does not belong to the second millennium BC, still less to the first millennium BC, but rather to the third millennium BC.” Such a testimony from archaeological discovery is worthy of serious consideration.

Abram (as his name was at first) was born to Terah in the city of Ur of the Chaldees. While still in Ur, Abram married his very beautiful half-sister Sarai. We seldom stop to think what that great city Ur was like. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, the famed archaeologist, led a joint Anglo-American expedition that finally started to uncover Ur of the Chaldees in the spring of 1929. Throughout the city, open squares broke the line of streets. The huge ziggurat or staged tower, with its black, red, and blue blocks, and fringe of trees, was built by king Ur-Nammu for the worship of the Moon-god, Nannar. It was the focus of a semi-circle of five enormous temples. The largest temple, dedicated to the Moon-goddess, Ningal, the wife of Nannar, was a rectangle 100 yards by 60 yards, with walls whose thickness was appropriate for a fortress. Since the daughter of the moon-god and goddess was Ishtar (Asherah), the fertility goddess, it is hardly surprising that clay tablets indicate that prostitution, and perversion were intimately linked with the temple complex.

Clay tablets also indicate that the temple site was the main focal-point for trade. Other tablets in the immense library at Ur reveal that the principle enunciated by Pythagoras about triangles some 1500 years later was already well-known and used in the construction industry. Many mathematical tables, including formulae for the extraction of square and cube roots, historical data, genealogical information, temple hymns, and trade and diplomatic documents abounded in the library. These tablets reveal a very well-educated, literate, musical, and mathematically competent society. Indeed, in the social life of ancient Ur, boys were expected to go to school. A large building was actually set aside for this specific purpose.

The houses revealed comfort, and even luxury. Many were two-storied with up to 14 rooms, and some even had a system of large clay pipes for the removal of water and drainage. The lower floor was solidly built of burnt brick, the upper floor of mud-brick. The walls were neatly coated with plaster and periodically white-washed. The front door and entrance hall led into an attractively paved inner court, around which could be found the reception room, the living rooms, private rooms and a domestic chapel. Up a stone staircase, which concealed the toilet, was a gallery from which branched off rooms for various members of the family and the guest rooms. A wooden balustrade running round the upper story protected those rooms from the courtyard. A wide variety of ornaments with precious stones, and beautiful gold, and silver jewellery were fairly common, while the more wealthy inhabitants of the city possessed 11-stringed lyres for music.

His background: It was in this city that Abram was born, grew up and was educated. “We must radically alter,” the archaeologist Woolley wrote enthusiastically, “our view of the Hebrew patriarch when we see that his earlier years were passed in such sophisticated surroundings. He was the citizen of a great city and inherited the traditions of an old and highly organised civilisation.” In Hebrews 11, the Bible states that Abram turned his back on this idolatrous city and set out, not knowing where he was going, because he trusted in God. He also knew that God had built an eternal city which was the home of righteousness. This contrasted sharply with the licentiousness, idolatry, and iniquity of bustling Ur. In that same passage, the Bible states that, if Abraham had wanted it, he might have been given opportunity to return to Ur, but he spurned the notion, having chosen the Celestial City instead. This gives us a good idea of Abram’s early character and sense of values.

His obedience as a young man: When we combine other information in the Bible about Abram with the Genesis account, we find that the God of Glory appeared to Abram in Ur, the original family home (Acts 7:2). There in Ur, even before the family had moved to Haran, Abram was told by God that he would have to leave his family and his people and go to a place God would show him. Some further information comes from Joshua 24:2 which states that Abram’s father Terah was an idolater, perhaps a moon-god worshipper. Despite this, Genesis 11:31 reveals that it was none other than Terah himself who "took" Abram and the other members of his family as far as Haran, where they stayed until Terah's death. The indication here is that even though it was Abram who received the visitation and instructions from God, he was still under the authority of his father Terah, who evidently believed Abram's message from God and undertook to obey it. By implication, then, we see that Abram was not only obedient to God, but remained subject to his father, honouring and respecting him. This is possibly a foreshadowing of Jesus Himself, who, although he was without fault, unlike His parents, nevertheless remained subject to them as a child.

His care of his family: Even the trek to Haran was a major undertaking as they had to travel with their valuables some 900 kilometres to the north-west. Terah was aging. When they stopped in Haran, Abram stayed there until his father died, and did not leave with Sarai or other members of the family. It was only after Terah’s death (Acts 7:4) that Abram took over the leadership role in the family and moved the family and all their belongings south to Canaan.
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[ June 11, 2002, 01:09 AM: Message edited by: Helen ]

Scarlett O. · Jun 11, 2002

Isn't it interesting to note how many times God took the child that was not the first born and nevertheless used him or his lineage in that annointed capacity.

Here's some I can think of off the top of my head.

Seth
Abram
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Judah
Levi
David
Solomon

I think there is a lesson there somewhere. I just have to ponder on it a while.

Peace, Helen and keep up the great work!

YSIC
Scarlett O.
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Clint Kritzer · Jul 29, 2002

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