Abraham: Where Did He Come From?

Abram and Abraham are the same guy in the Bible. It was a practice of God to rename people after he established a covenant with them. For example...

• God changes Abram's name from Abram (high father) to Abraham (Father of a Great Multitude) in Genesis 17:15-16
• God changes Sarai's name from Sarai (my princess) to Sarah (mother of nations) in Genesis 17:15
• God changes Jacobs name from Jacob (heel, supplant, weasel) in Genesis 25:26 to Israel (one that struggled with the divine, rules) in Genesis 32:28

As you can see above, the name change indicated a transformation that God wanted to teach regarding the given person.

In any event, Abram was a normal type of guy who heard the voice of God one day in his hometown of Ur.

TEACHING POINT: Don't become obsessed with actual dates and timelines. In the culture of the Bible time was not something as important to them as it is to us. There are an endless number of Bible Chronologies and even more fights to go with them. The study of Biblical Chronologies is an argument in futility for a lot of technical reasons. What is important regarding Abraham was he lived somewhere around 2000 BCE or about 4000 years ago from the present day. Please note we often default to extra-biblical literature, such as Rabbinical commentary to fill in the timeline gaps of the Bible.

In any event, we are rarely certain of the exact dates. However, some of the Jewish websites (ie. chabod.org) suggest this possible this timeline...

• Abram is born someplace (probably near Ur) in 1813 BCE. Other sites may say as early as 2048 BCE so you get the idea!
• Abram married Sarai (later called Sarah) around 1788 BCE
• God stopped the building of the Tower of Babel in 1765 BCE when Abram was about 48
• Abram heard the voice of God calling Him away from UR to Haran
• God heard the voice of God calling Him away from Haran to Canaan (Promised Land) in 1738 at the age of 75
• God established His Covenant with Abram to be the Father who will 'bless many nations' when Abram was 99 years old around 1714 BCE
• The following year, 1713 BCE, Isaac was born to a 90 year old Sarai and a 100 year old Abraham.

There are several thoughts as to where Ur was located but most feel it was at this location in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq)...

The map above shows the story of Abram's life journey. Wow! Abram gets around for an old guy! The following is some interesting if not bizarre thoughts...

Iraqi's and Jews are Related? If Abram was born in and around Ur, then the Father of Isaac, Grandfather of Jacob (Israel) has similar genetic makeup to the Akkadians, Sumerians of that day. In other words, today's Iraqi's share an almost identical genetic makeup.  I have contacted a Stanford University Genetics professor who has done considerable research in this area. I will update this blog as soon I hear back and/or read through his research. See my Blog... "What is a Jew?"

Abraham is Well-Rounded: The point is this... in God pulling Abraham out from his comfort zone of Ur (modern day southern Iraq) to Haran... and then once again calling Abraham from Haran (modern day Turkey) to the Promised Land (Canaan-modern day Israel)... then from the Promised Land to Egypt due to famine and then back to the Promised Land... there seems to be a preparation. God uprooting Abraham, and Abraham's obedience seems to add understanding that God wanted him to be the Father of Many Nations. Abraham would have been highly educated and spoken many languages. Abraham may have even worked on the Tower of Babel under the mighty King Nimrod. The latter is conjecture... but it is education conjecture. We also know that Abraham had a great deal of tactical military tactical understanding. We see this in Genesis 13-14 when Abraham organizes an army to rescue his nephew Lot from the Mesopotamian Kings. This is no small point. In other words, Abraham was a highly sophisticated and well-rounded person. You don't take on an advanced army, unless you have a highly trained set of special forces.

UR: Ur was an advanced engineering/science oriented civilization. Ur is known for it's Tower of Babel like ziggurats. Some of which are standing today near Nasiriya in the present day Dhi Qar Province of Iraq... 

We must remember that Abraham's 3x Great-grandfather was Noah, his 2x Great-Grandfather was Seth, his Great-Grandfather was Serug, his Grandfather was Nahor and his Dad was Terah!

The Size of the Promised Land: Here is something very interesting. God had several parts to his covenant with Abraham...
Promised the Promise Land (Genesis 15:18-21)
Promise of a male heir (Genesis 15:4-6)
Promised Abraham he would be the Father of Many Nations (Genesis 17:5)

In Genesis 15:18-21, we discover that Abraham is promised a land. Indeed, Abraham is promised the Promised Land. In this passage take a look at it's original dimensions...

 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Notice, if Israel claimed all of this land today... their would be some even bigger fights. The western most border in this picture is wrong. The Scripture says from the Euphrates (top right) to the river of Egypt. This IS NOT THE NILE.

CONCLUSION
In all of Abraham's trials and journeys in life, God was preparing him to receive a special covenant described in Genesis