Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

By "tourist" I didn't mean modern. I was thinking something along the line
of the local "Assyrian" church in late antiquity. But I don't know. What's
the earliest reference to this tradition? And more to the point, what's the
archaeological evidence. Was there any kind of settlement at Urfa in the
third or second millennia BCE? If not, that rules out it being Abraham's
home town.

Yigal Levin

-----Original Message-----
From: James Read [mailto:J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk] 
Hi Yigal,

I didn't mean to come across that way. I think there is more to this  
than just a tourist attraction, though. In the thread I linked I  
showed the different names of the city in different languages  
throughout history and how they get closer in form to Ur. Also, the  
tradition was quickly adopted by Mohammed's movement (6th century CE)  
so I don't think that tourism was the main drive of the tradition.

Logically speaking, it made sense for people to stick to the fertile  
crescent when travelling rather than crossing the desert. And so, if  
we go up the fertile crescent out of Isreal and over the river we  
conveniently end up at Sanliurfa with a Harran just down the road.  
Coincidence?

James Christian

Quoting Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>:

> Dear James,
>
> You cite "Tradition" as if there is only one, authoritive tradition, and
the
> burden of proof lies with anyone who disagrees. As far as I know, this is
a
> local tradition which the people of Urfa encouraged in order to attract
> tourists and pilgrims. Since, as I admitted before, there is some logic to
> it, some modern scholars have accepted it or parts of it. But really how
old
> is the tradition? When is it first attested? I have never really looked
into
> it, and would be glad to hear from someone who has.
>
> Yigal Levin
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> best thing would probably be to read the recent origin of Abram
> thread. It provides a good summary of the competing theories.
> Tradition places Abram's birthplace at modern day Sanliurfa in Turkey.
>
> Crossing over the river takes you there.
>
> James Christian