Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi Jim,

You raised an interesting question, so I decided to investigate it
more fully. Your analysis was too full of all kinds of assumptions to
be taken seriously, so I decided to look for contextual clues that
were a bit more concrete.

The first concrete clue we get is Shem's territory as outlined in
Genesis 10:30. We are told that his territory stretched from Mesha to
Sephar. Of course we could get into a debate about identifying these
places but we are provided a strong clue with the phrase 'mountains to
the East'.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=33.568861,42.319336&spn=8.078843,16.918945&t=p&z=7

Now looking on the map and using the mountains to the East as the far
confine that  seems to be an area which contains Mesopotamia (as you
like to call it).

The next clue is Genesis 28. You postulate, by reference to secondary  
sources, that this is not a reference to a birth place and that the  
reference to a birth place can only be understood by applying modern  
usage of Hebrew. So, I went to the primary sources and had a look at  
what the Greek translations of long ago have to say:

??? ???????? A???? ??????? *???? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ?? ?? ? ???????  
?? ?? ???? ??? *????????

Whoever made this Greek translation seemed to think that translating  
as 'his land of birth' was an accurate reflection of the meaning. So,  
unless you are classing the Hebrew of 2,300 years ago as modern Hebrew  
usage then I think your argument has lost any possible weight it could  
have had.

In the next clue we are told that they set out to go to Canaan and  
stopped to live in Haran (Genesis 11:31). Many traditions link Haran  
to the Harran in Turkey south east of Sanliurfa:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.297418,39.287109&spn=7.461473,9.887695&t=p&z=7

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). The context  
places Abram in Haran, showing that Haran is or is a part of 'his  
land'. After travelling around Canaan he goes down into Egypt. So, the  
only logical conclusion is that we are presented with a geography of  
Canaan with Egypt on one side and Haran on the other side and that Ur  
is further away from Canaan than Haran is.

So, there are two possibilities:

a) This is the Ur at the end of the river on the fertile crescent
b) There was another Ur not too far away from Haran also on the  
fertile crescent some place but the other side of Haran than Canaan

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. Presumably, Haran and  
Terah were buried in Haran. We don't know. The account doesn't say.

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'. It is quite clear that  
there is land which is considered to belong to the sons of Canaan and  
there is another separate land dominated by the sons of Shem, the  
outer confines of which are the mountains to the East.

So, where does his servant go? Genesis 24:10 tells us that he went to  
'Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor'.

The recurrent theme in all of this is cities named after sons of  
Arpachshad. Jubilees gives us more detail and tells us that Arpachshad  
had a son unnamed in Genesis. His name was Ur Ka$dim and that was who  
the city was named after. Jubilees further tells us that Nahor married  
a daughter of Ur Ka$dim. That makes Abram's grandma native to Ur Ka$dim.

The traditional site of Abram's birth is ancient Edessa. Modern day  
Sanliurfa. This is not too far away from Harran and is indeed the  
other side of Harran with respect to Canaan.

This would make more sense as Ur at the end of the river is on the  
other side of Asshur's kingdom. Why would Arpachshad's kingdom by  
split by Asshur's kingdom down the middle?

There are more clues if you wish to go into them. But I think there is  
enough here to already see that the land of Canaan and the land of  
Abram's origin were two completely different kingdoms.

James Christian





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