The
MYSTERY of HARRAN
The Clan of Terah - A Source for Abraham
After the Great Flood we find Noah and his wife with three sons - Shem,
Ham and Japheth - and their wives: eight people deposited on the Mountains of Ararat.
We have already traced the line of antichrist to Ham.
The first book of Chronicles, chapters one and two, traces the
offspring of Shem to King David of Israel, and the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter one, completes the path from Shem to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
We can identify Abraham as originally of the clan of Terah - son of
Nahor I, son of Serug - and father of Abraham, as well as Nahor II and
Haran. We use the term clan of Terah
because it is Terah and presumably all of his offspring that left Ur of the Chaldees
[Genesis 11:31] and came to the city of Harran [Charran] on the way to
Canaan - to establish a lasting legacy. We are told that Ur of the Chaldees is the land of
their [?] nativity [Genesis
11:28 {see inserted note below}].
Ur
(of the Chaldees) to Harran to
Jerusalem; above Harran is Urartu; from Atlas of the Bible Lands, p. 17,
Hammond's, 1977 (underline added by this
author)
From the time that Terah left Ur of the Chaldees to the time that his
great grandson Jacob worked for Laban for his wife's hand, the family
centered its interests on the city of Harran [Charran] in the north
central Mesopotamian region. When Esau eschewed Harran to select a wife
for himself, selecting instead from among the pagan women of Canaan, he
sealed his fate to lose the birthright. What mysterious attraction
rested in Harran that proved irresistable to Terah's clan?
When Moses - the accepted author of Genesis in the middle of the second
millennium BCE - wrote what we read as Ur of the Chaldees,
the place did not exist where shown in the map. The city, located at
the sandy delta in
southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow into
the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been founded early in the first
millennium BCE. This is just one of the confusing ambiguities that
arise in the Genesis account.
Genesis 11:28 says that Terah's son, Haran, died in Ur of the Chaldees.
Most interpreters define the personal name Haran as
meaning 'mountaineer'. Certainly
the city of Harran [Charran] is in the foothills of the mountainous
region of southern Armenia [Urartu]. Since Haran died in Ur of the
Chaldees, a sandy desert and marshy area, prior to the departure of the
Terah clan, why would he be named 'mountaineer'? For that matter, why
was the name of the city Terah migrated to virtually the same as his
deceased son? It is said to be a major way station on the caravan route
from the Mediterranean ports eastwards to Ninevah, an Assyrian city in
the north central Tigris River region.
In fact, the Muslim geographer, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229 CE), says
that some believe that Harran was the first city built after the flood.
["Mu'jam al-Buldan" (Dictionary of
Countries); see the
Jewish Encyclopedia].
Yaqut was not very forthcoming in footnoting sources, however. Still,
there is no reason to not consider the possibility. The Mountains of Ararat [Urartu] lie
just north of the Haran region, Padan Aram or Aram Naharaim.
Of passing interest is a city a little west of Harran on the same
caravan route, Carchemish,
which seemingly contains the name of Ham [Cham in the Bible]. It is
considered to have first been settled about 7000 BCE. Harran lies just
southeast of a newly discovered archaeological site, Göbekli Tepe,
considered to have been first established as early as 9000 BCE. We can
be certain that we are examining a region of ancient organized human
development.
Returning to the term Ur of the
Chaldees, the Biblical Hebrew plural word for 'Chaldees' is Kasdim.
Some interpret the name to derive from Kesed [Chesed], son of Nahor,
Abraham's brother; the idea is that he is the father of the Chaldeans.
However, could Abraham and Terah have migrated from a town named after
someone younger than both of them? The pseudepigraphic book, Jubilees, probably written in the
second century BCE, seems to attribute the name Kesed to a son of Arphaxad, a son
of Shem. Jubilees assigns a
son to Kesed named 'Ur [Jubilees 11:3]. Muslims identify Ur Kasdim or Ur of the Chaldees with the present
Sanliurfa in southern Turkey, near the ancient site of the city of
Harran.
Obviously the ancient editor of Genesis chapter 11 wrote 'Ur of the
Chaldees' [Kasdim]
with an understanding of what was intended; such assurance is no
longer possible. Since the city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia is
hundreds of miles from the caravan route city of Harran, there is an
attractive alternative in considering a
location closer to Harran such as Sanliurfa, the ancient city of Edessa
[see map below.]
Map showing Harran, Edessa,
Ninevah and the eastern mediterranean coast. This author added the city
of Carchemish and the underlines; source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edessa
It is also attractive to attach the Chaldee to Arphaxad, since his name
transliterated from Hebrew would be Arphaksad
which contains the name Kesed.
We could then propose another line from
Shem to Abraham besides the hereditary genetic line. Since Harran is in
Padan Aram, or Aram Nairaim, it is often associated with Aram, another
son of Shem but not in the line of Arphaxad to Abraham [to Messiah.]
While it is odd that Terah, while residing in the sandy marshy southern
Mesopotamian region, should name a son 'mountaineer', it is perhaps
even stranger that the name Terah is interpreted to mean 'wild goat' or
'mountain goat'. Could not Terah observe that he lived in the flatlands
near the Persian Gulf... that there were no mountains for many leagues
hence?
Easton's Bible Dictionary states about Terah: [Terah] for some unknown reason emigrated with his
family from his
native mountains in the north to
the plains of Mesopotamia.
No source is given for this bit of information. However, some
linguistic support
for that idea might be found in the Assyrian and Akkadian lexicons.
In Assyrian târu means
'turn, return' [Assyrian-English Glossary, Ernest
A. Budge, 1880.] In Akkadian tūra
means 'again; come back'
[A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian,
p. 410; Black, George, Postgate; Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2000.]
Did Terah's name relate to these sources? Perhaps Terah was a 'wild [wandering] goat', and perhaps he
DID come back to Harran.
Why, then, did Terah return
to
Harran? Why did Abram [Abraham] perhaps get a message from G*d in Ur of
the
Chaldees to return to Harran and thus to Canaan? Why did he send
Eliezar to Harran to find a wife for Isaac a generation later? Why did
Jacob flee to Harran to escape the wrath of Esau? Why is the city of
the north named similarly to Terah's deceased son?
The Euphrates River winds from its delta northwest and then west, then
back northward again, forming a loop around the city of Harran; it
continues north, northeast deep into the
mountains of Ararat.
If the Ark of Noah came to rest in this remote northern region, then
perhaps his sons
wandered down this long, circuitous system of valleys into the flatter
lands around Harran and Carchemish. We proposed a possible connection
of Carchemish with Ham
above. Did
Shem settle in Harran?
There can be little doubt that Shem was destined to be the progenitor
of Messiah. Genesis 8:20 says that upon the Ark grounding Noah built an
altar and
offered burnt offerings, and verse 21 states, And the LORD smelled a
sweet savour... and was mercifully disposed to humankind. One
word for 'sweet aroma' is çam sam,
pronounced very similar to shem
'name'. To be fair, it is not the word used in the Hebrew text here in
Genesis; it is used in similar context in 2 Chronicles 2:4 and 13:11
[English text]. The reader might find that a clue to the selection of
Shem for the birthright.
There is a Jewish tradition that when Abram [Abraham] met Melchizedek,
king of Salem, in Genesis chapter 8, after defeating Chedorlaomer, it
was Shem to whom he paid the tithe - that Shem had become the King of
Salem [Jerusalem]. The writer of the New Testament Hebrews, especially
chapter 7 verse 3 [Without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor
end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest
continually], would seem to contradict such a possibility.
Jewish scholars say that the writer of Hebrews
did not understand the Levitical priesthood. Perhaps the interpretation
is to be seen more in the spiritual realm; many say the intent is that
Melchizedek was both priest and king - beyond the office of the
Levitical priesthood.
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Abarim Publications
has outlined the chronology of Shem's life; for one who has never
worked through the Biblical period of years it can be an eye-opener.
Shem was 100 years old when
he begat Arpachshad, two years after the flood ended;
when Arpachshad begat Shelah, Shem still had 465 years
remaining;
when Shelah begat Eber, Shem had 435 years remaining;
Eber begat Peleg and Shem had 391 years of life remaining;
Peleg begat Reu and Shem had 361 more years remaining;
Reu begat Serug and Shem still had 329 years to go;
Serug begat Nahor I and Shem had 299 years remaining;
Nahor begat Terah and Shem had 270 years left;
Terah begat Abraham, Nahor and Haran and Shem still had 200
years to go;
when Abraham died at the age of 175 Shem still had 25 more
years ahead;
Isaac was born to Abraham when he was 100 and Shem still had
100 years ahead;
when Jacob and Esau were born to 60 year old Isaac Shem
entered his last 40 years;
that means that according to Moses, Shem died exactly when
Esau started taking Hittite women
for wives at the age of 40, hence grieving his
parents who consequently sent Jacob to the
House of Nahor for a wife.
It is clear from this genealogy that Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob and
Esau each could have known Shem and heard a first hand account of the
pre-flood / flood generations.
Joshua chapter 24 verse 2 says that Terah had served 'other gods'.
There is not universal agreement who in Terah's clan decided to leave
Ur of the Chaldees, but it is generally agreed that Terah saw the error
of his ways and gave up his worship of idols. The influence of Shem on
guidance over the line to Messiah could have played a strong role in
Terah's conversion and his return
to Harran.
It is obvious from the above chronology that when Jacob fled to Harran
and was taken advantage of by Laban, Shem had recently died. Laban was
descended from Nahor II, Abraham's brother. His father was Bethuel,
meaning 'House of G*d' - presumably a righteous man. Since Laban played
such a major role in the betrothal of Rebekah to Isaac, some believe
that Bethuel passed away during the negotiations. Perhaps these factors
contributed to Laban's conniving nature - not completely unlike
Jacob's. At any rate, if Shem had earlier passed the messianic
birthright to
his satisfaction on to Abraham, perhaps he attempted to exert less
influence on the clan in his dotage.
Laban is taken to mean 'white'; he appears to have been an owner of
flocks. The King James translation calls him 'Laban the Syrian'
[Genesis 31:20] while others translate the phrase 'Laban the Aramean'.
Since Laban is clearly descended from Arphaxad and not Aram, it is
difficult to account for the term 'Laban the Aramean', even though by
the language it appears correct. Perhaps the reason is that Laban lived
in Padan-Aram; or perhaps it
is related to his grandfather, Nahor II, having another grandson named
Aram. The Greek Septuagint translates the Hebrew term as Syrian.
Some rabbinical writers take the word Arammi
('the Aramean') and turn it into an anagram: ramma'ah 'impostor' [see the Jewish Encyclopedia]. The Assyrian labânu means 'throw down,
prostrate'; in the Akkadian the term has more to do with (laying)
bricks [as being white.] The
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says of Laban: the
picture we get of him is too personal and complex to be denominated
merely a "type." It is impossible to resolve this man Laban into a
mythological personage--he is altogether human--or into a tribal
representative (e.g. of
"Syria" over against "Israel" = Jacob)
with any degree of satisfaction to the world of scholarship. Whether a
character of reliable family tradition, or of popular story-telling,
Laban is "a character"; and his intimate connection with the chief
personage in Israel's national recollections makes it highly probable
that he is no more and no less historical than Jacob himself.
The figure of Lot is also subject to mixed appraisal. The book of 2
Peter, chapter 2, refers to Lot as a
righteous man 'vexed with
the filthy conversation of the wicked.'
King David claims descendancy from Lot through Ruth the Moabitess.
After the death of his father, Haran, Lot migrated from Ur of the
Chaldees to Harran with Terah and the rest of the clan.
{NOTE: As mentioned at
the top of this page, Genesis 11:28 says: Haran died before his father Terah in
the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. It is not clear
if the text means the land of his
nativity referring to Terah or Haran. Nativity
is taken to mean 'birth', but the Hebrew word does not necessarily mean
that; it can mean 'offspring' or just 'family'. It does not mean to
conclude that Terah was born in Ur of the Chaldees.}
When Lot later separated himself, his flocks and his servants from
Abraham in Canaan it is apparent that he possessed much wealth, perhaps
as much as Abraham; the Book of Jubilees affirms this fact [13:14-15.]
When Lot is rescued by his uncle Abraham from the captivity of
Chedorlaomer we hear nothing one way or the other in Scripture about
Lot's wealth or position. Jubilees chapter 16 (translated
by R. H. Charles) says that Lot was delivered
from the destruction of Sodom: for
G*d 8 remembered
Abraham, and sent him out from the midst of the overthrow. And he and
his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the
earth since the days of Adam till his 9 time;
for the man lay with his daughters. And, behold, it was commanded and
engraven concerning all his seed, on the heavenly tablets, to remove
them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them like the
judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the day
10 of condemnation...
When the angels came to Sodom in the evening they found Lot seated in
the gate of the city. Some say he had been named a chief judge of the
city; others say he practiced usury, loaning money at punitive rates.
Had he sold his possessions in order to move his family into Sodom?
When he fled with his wife and two daughters he took nothing else with
him; no mention is made of any possessions aside from his residence in
the city. His faith in the LORD did not serve to save
his wife from casting her gaze back towards the destruction - some say
to see if her other daughters
might be following. Nor did his faith fill his daughters with optimism
following the death of their mother.
Lot could have met Shem if the patriarch was in Harran, but the
blessing of the 'birthright' passed to Abraham, and Lot is assigned a
footnote in Scripture: a very ambiguous footnote.
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S A R A H
Many volumes could be filled with all that has been
written of Abraham, some of it intriguing and some of it fantastic.
However, about Sarai / Sarah some enigmas remain to be addressed in
relation to the Terah clan.
Genesis 11:31 says: And Terah
took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law,
his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the
Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and
dwelt there.
The term daughter in law can
be misleading today; the Hebrew word means 'bride' (as perfected), and often referring to
a father's son's wife. The root word is presumed to refer to the idea
of perfect as 'reserved' or
'closed in'. However, in Isaiah 49:18 the term is simply translated as
'bride'.
Many persist in naming Terah as the father of Sarai; others look at
Genesis 11:29 [Haran, the father
of Milcah, and the father of Iscah]
and say that Iscah and Sarai are the same: a sister of Lot and a
grand-daughter of Terah. Bible commentator John Gill (1697 - 1771)
focuses the issue: Many words are
made use of in describing Lot and Sarai, and yet still we are left
pretty much in the dark who Sarai was; for, as Aben Ezra observes, if
she was the sister of Abram and daughter of Terah, the Scripture would
have said, Terah took Abram his son and Sarai his daughter, and wife of
Abram; and if she was the sister of Lot, it would have said, and Sarai
the daughter of his son, as it does of Lot.
The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Sarai as the niece of Abraham, being the daughter
of his brother Haran.
Yet Abraham identifies Sarai / Sarah as 'his sister' - presumably a
half-sister - in Genesis 20:12, where he says to Abimelech: indeed she is my sister; she is the
daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother.
The Talmud, tractate Baba Batra, 91a, names a wife of Terah as
Amethelo, or Amathlai, and the mother of Abraham. The Book of Jasher,
chapter 22, lines 31-32, identifies a wife for Terah named Pelilah and
she bore him a son named Zoba. But Jasher is a very late source,
perhaps no earlier than 1552.
Another perplexing bit of data about Abraham's wife is the meaning and
the changing of her name. The Semitic root of Sarai / Sarah is ŠRR rulership, king, prince; Sarai is a bit uncommon feminine
possessive meaning 'my princess'; Sarah
is simply the feminine for 'king, prince' - queen, princess. This has led many
observers to ask why the name was changed at all. Abram - 'high, exalted father' - became
Abraham - 'father of multitudes': the promise of G*d. His wife's name
does not seem to change.
Some suggest that the name change denotes the forming of a covenant:
that the barren womb would soon become fruitful. Others relate the
change to be from the personal [Abram's wife] to the global [many
kings.] They claim that the root is the same as for Israel 'G*d rules'.
For all this may mean, one must also ask, 'Of what was she a princess?'
Genesis 24:10 seems to imply that Harran was called 'the city of
Nahor', and some have speculated perhaps Nahor was a king in that city.
Some have also suggested that Abraham was a king, thus he was able to
field an army to overthrow Chedorlaomer and
rescue his nephew Lot.
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If one builds a chart of the generations of Adam up to the
life of Jacob, it is demonstrable that the life of Shem extended past
the death of Abraham; it is also quite likely that the life of Noah
ended just a bit prior to the birth of Isaac. Certainly Noah could have
known Terah and his children in Harran, as, of course, could Shem. The
ancient city of Harran might have been a hub in preparing the line of
Messiah through a royal lineage.
Eber, with 464 years, appears to be the last post-diluvian patriarch
with extended length of years; he would appear to have died
approximately at the time of the birth of Joseph. It is believed that
the HEBRew people are
named after him; the name means 'the other side, crossed over'.
