[b-hebrew] Abraham's origin

JimStinehart at aol.com JimStinehart at aol.com
Fri May 22 11:04:20 EDT 2009


James Christian:
 
1.  You wrote:  “The first concrete clue we get [regarding Abraham’s 
native land] is Shem's territory as outlined in Genesis 10:30.”
 
The Table of Nations is not historically reliable, and it long postdates 
the Patriarchal narratives.
 
2.  You wrote:  “Whoever made this Greek translation [of Genesis 11: 28] 
seemed to think that translating as 'his land of birth' was an accurate 
reflection of the meaning.”
 
That Greek translation was done after Ezra’s day.  Ezra radically 
reinterpreted the geography of the Patriarchal narratives (without changing a single 
letter in the text of the Patriarchal narratives itself).
 
When we get to chapter 24 of Genesis, which you yourself cite below, we 
will see that in the Patriarchal narratives, MWLDT means “kindred”/“
descendants of a common ancestor”, and does not mean “birth” or “birth place”.
 
3.  “The next, and possible most important, clue we are given is in Genesis 
12:1 where Abram is told to 'go out of his land'. Subsequently, Abram goes 
out of 'his land' and to Canaan (not his land).”
 
Abraham owns no land in Harran.  Rather, the facts are clear:  (i) Terakh’s 
family has very recently been in Ur, (ii) then Terakh’s family headed out 
for Canaan (not for Harran), and (iii) then Terakh’s family stopped at Harran 
unexpectedly, due to Terakh being too weak to continue on to Canaan as 
planned.  Given those clear facts, Harran cannot possibly be Abraham’s native 
homeland, nor did Abraham ever own any land at Harran.
 
The word )RC in Biblical Hebrew has a very broad meaning.  )RC means “earth”
 or “the earth” or “ground” or “country” or “region” or “the place on 
the earth where a person is at a particular time” or simply “place”.  )RC 
can mean, but usually does not mean, a piece of real estate owned by a person. 
 At Genesis 12: 1, YHWH is telling Abraham to leave the place where most of 
his father’s family have unexpectedly decided to stay, and to go to a place 
that YHWH will show Abraham (that is, to a part of Canaan with which 
Abraham is not familiar).  YHWH does not say that Harran is Abraham’s native land 
(it isn’t), nor does YHWH say that Abraham owned land in Harran (he didn’
t).  Terakh and Nahor may well have commenced to buy land in Harran.  They 
probably did.  But Harran was a brand new place for Terakh’s family, never 
being Abraham’s homeland, and not being Terakh’s original homeland.
 
4.  You wrote:  “Then, take a look at Genesis 23. The whole point of the 
chapter is that he has no place to burry his dead wife, Sarah. The whole 
chapter is about how Abraham bought the field in front of witnesses and became 
its rightful owner witnessed by many. There is no mention and not even a hint 
of his relatives being burried there.”
 
You are missing the main point of chapter 23 of Genesis.  Tent-dwellers 
like Abraham almost always buried their dead in the open pastureland, near 
where they pastured their flocks.  A tent-dweller virtually never paid actual 
money to take legal title to an individual gravesite.  Chapter 23 of Genesis 
is emphasizing that instead of operating like a run-of-the-mill tent-dweller, 
Abraham paid an arm and a leg to buy an expensive, privately-owed 
gravesite, to which Abraham took legal title by virtue of the transaction being 
witnessed by all the sons of the Hittites (historical Hurrians).
 
Abraham refused to live in the part of Canaan where his father’s relatives 
had lived.  YHWH showed Abraham a different part of Canaan, and that is 
where Abraham usually sojourned.  You are right that none of Abraham’s ancestors 
are buried near Sarah’s expensive, private gravesite.  But all of Abraham’
s ancestors except Terakh were (like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) buried in 
Canaan.  Each of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is “gathered to his 
(M/people/ancestors” in being buried in Canaan.  Genesis 25: 8 makes no sense if all of 
Abraham’s ancestors were buried in Mesopotamia.
 
5.  You wrote:  “Presumably, Haran and Terah were buried in Haran.”
 
Haran was buried in Ur, where he died.  Terakh was buried in Harran, where 
he died.  Abraham was buried in Canaan, where he died.
 
6.  You wrote:  “Then, one of the most important clues is Genesis 24. 
Abraham gives  
 specific instructions for his servant to go 'his country' to 'his 
relatives' to choose a wife for Isaac so that Isaac didn't end up marrying one of 
'the daughters of Canaan'.”
 
Finally, at long last, you cite a key passage.  Note what Genesis 24: 3-4 
says (per the JPS1917 translation):  “…thou shalt not take a wife for my son 
of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell.  But thou shalt go 
unto my country, and to my kindred [MWLDTY], and take a wife for my son, 
even for Isaac.'”
 
Does MWLDT mean “birth” or “birth place” at Genesis 24: 4?  No.  Abraham 
certainly had not been born in Harran.  But Harran is where Abraham’s 
trusted servant properly goes to find kinswoman Rebekah to be Isaac’s ideal wife.  
Rather, MWLDTY means “my kindred”, that is, “my father’s descendants”.  
Many of Terakh’s descendants were now living at Harran, including in 
particular Laban and his sister Rebekah.  The reference to )RCY, translated above as 
“my country”, means “the place where I had stayed with my father’s family 
for some time when my father could not make it all the way back to Canaan”. 
 The only place, outside of Canaan, where any female descendants of Terakh 
were living at this time was Harran.  Given those key facts, and the fact 
that the preceding verse explicitly says that Isaac shall not marry someone 
from Canaan, Genesis 24: 4 is an unambiguous reference to Harran.
 
Most importantly for us, at Genesis 24: 4 MWLDT clearly means “kindred”/ “
descendants of a common ancestor”/“my father’s descendants”, and does not 
mean “birth” or “birth place”.
 
The Greek language Septuagint, which you cited above, mistranslates Genesis 
24: 4 as follows:  “…you shall go to my country where I was born”.  But 
the trusted servant goes straight to Harran!  Abraham clearly was not born in 
Harran.  Terakh’s family was only in Harran because of the accident that 
Terakh had become too weak to make it all the way to Canaan.  Genesis 11: 31-32 
 The Septuagint’s Greek translation of the Biblical Hebrew word MWLDTY (or 
at least the English translation thereof) in the Patriarchal narratives is 
clearly erroneous.  By contrast, the JPS1917 translation of MWLDTY as “my 
kindred” is clearly correct.
 
7.  You wrote:  “Jubilees gives us more detail….”
 
Jubilees is not historically reliable, and it long postdates the 
Patriarchal narratives.
 
*       *       *
 
Modern historians tell us that the Hebrews were not indigenous to Ur, but 
rather were indigenous to Canaan.  The Patriarchal narratives say the same 
thing.  Genesis 25: 8 flat out tells us that the Hebrews were indigenous to 
Canaan.  In the Patriarchal narratives, MWLDT always means “kindred”/“
descendants of a common ancestor”/“my father’s descendants”, and never means “
birth” or “birth place”.  On that basis, Genesis 11: 28 is telling us that 
Haran died in Ur, in the place where Haran’s MWLDT/“kindred”/“descendants of 
a common ancestor”/“his father’s descendants” were at the time.  Genesis 
24: 4 tells us that Abraham’s servant is to get Isaac’s ideal bride from the 
place where many of Abraham’s MWLDT/ “kindred”/ “descendants of a common 
ancestor”/“my father’s descendants” were living at the time.
 
The Patriarchal narratives  n-e-v-e-r  use the word (M/people/ancestors in 
describing Abraham’s relatives in Mesopotamia.  That’s because none of 
Terakh’s ancestors had ever stepped foot in Mesopotamia, being indigenous to 
Canaan.  By contrast, the word (M/people/ancestors is often used in the 
Patriarchal narratives in describing Abraham’s relatives in Canaan, because the 
Hebrews are indigenous to Canaan.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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