Section Two: The Journeys of Abraham

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

From Ur to Haran

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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

Abram Leaves Haran and Begins His Journeys

• Salem after a battle, Abram met Melchizidek the King/Priest of 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)

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• 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

• EgyptFamine 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

• 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

• Bethel/Ai Abram encamped at a place “east of Bethel and west of Ai”. Abram again built an altar there to the Lord.

.Salem

More History of Abram/Abraham

• 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

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• 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

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

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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

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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 slides2.6

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?

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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 ?

Cities or People or Both?

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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 semi-nomadic 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

The origin of the word that is most accepted for ‘Hebrew’ is the word עברי (Ib-ri). It was used most often to distinguish a Hebrew from a foreigner. The word often means “descendant of Eber (בר a child of Shem ,(ע (Gen. 10:21-25). The name Eber is related to the Hebrew verb a-bar (עבר) , to pass over or travel across. The name could imply that the people of Eber originally came from across the Euphrates River

“A survivor came and brought the news to Abram the Hebrew” Gen.14:13

Who were “the Hebrews”?

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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

Who Were the Philistines?• Though the Bible says that, at the time of 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

• 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.

Gath ?

Ekron

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Just Who Was Melchizidek?• Melchizidek was the king/priest of Salem, the future capital of David’s Israel• His name in Hebrew is מלכי־צדק (Mal-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 עלין El Elyon. It is not surprising that Melchizidek, who rules a city in Canaan uses a generic Canaanite name for God על (El). 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 PatriarchAs 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

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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

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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

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