Historical Background

Time Period

The Great Flood was a new beginning for the human race.  As population on the earth multiplied, mankind became more corrupt and immoral--to the point God decided to destroy them all except for Noah, his sons, and their wives.  Since God removed everyone else, every race now on earth derive it's origins from one of Noah's three sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  “Semitic” comes from the Latin form of Shem's name—Sem.  Sem (Shem) fathered all the Semitic peoples.  Abram was one of his Semitic descendants:  Shem begat Arphaxad, who begat Shelah, who begat Eber, who begat Peleg, who begat Reu, who begat Serug, who begat Nahor, who begat Terah, who begat, Nahor, Haran, and Abram.  Abram was also a descendant of Eber—whose name means “across” or “the opposite side”  (referring to the "other side" of the Euphrates); we get the word “Hebrew” from Eber.

Genesis 10:21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber

The construction of the genealogy in Genesis seems to indicate Abram was born about 300 years after the flood.  However, this can't be true because Noah would have still have been alive!  One might then wonder why God would have chosen Abram over Noah?  But comparing this passage with Luke’s genealogy of Jesus demonstrates that this genealogy is not all-inclusive.  We can see right away that at least one name is omitted—Cainan, son of Arphaxad.  Further investigation shows that exactly 10 generations are named before the flood (earlier in Genesis), and exactly 10 generations are named after the flood.  Bible scholars have speculated that these lists were deliberately limited to 10 names each—possibly for some symbolic purpose—just as Matthew omits names in his genealogy of Jesus to deliberately segment his list into groups of 14 names each.

Regardless, we are relatively confident that Abram was born around 2100 BC during the reign of Ur-Nammu (first king of the 3rd Dynasty), in what we would now classify as the beginning of the middle-bronze age [Hill, Andrew E. & John H. Walton, A survey of The Old Testament. Copyright © 1991 Zondervan].  Therefore, many Bible scholars and archeologists find it extremely difficult to accept the accuracy of this genealogy in Genesis, and the inescapable late dating of the flood: 

“The Hebrew Bible will place the Flood at 2501 B.C. if the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are used unwarrantedly for chronological purposes. The genealogies are obviously abbreviated and cannot be used to calculate either the age of the human race or the time of the Flood. The Deluge certainly took place long before 4000 B.C.”[ Jim A. Cornwell, The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Four, Copyright © 1995 www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFour/SargonDidHeExist.htm]

Geography and Culture

Mesopotamia literally means, “land between rivers” [Compton's Interactive Bible NIV. (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved].

As you can see from the map on the left, Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and is part of modern-day Iraq.  The southern part of Mesopotamia was Sumer, Akkad (later called Babylonia) comprised the middle part, and to the north was Assyria.

Sumer originally had fourteen city-states—Ur being one of the furthest south.  This city was located near the mouth of the Euphrates River about 200 miles southeast of what would be Babylon.  Situated on a major waterway near the Persian Gulf (which was a lot further inland in those days), it was a thriving maritime port, and an economic center in the Shinar (northern Chaldea) region.  Ur was the regional hub of both political and religious activity. 

Sumerians were descendants of Ham through Nimrod—who built the tower of Babel [Merrill Unger’s Bible Dictionary] but didn't disperse when everybody else scattered after God confused their languages.  Historians believe they conquered Mesopotamia around 4000 B.C.  Sumerians were responsible for the first giant temples and palaces, for the founding of the first city-states, and probably for the invention of writing [John Heise, Web Page].  Mathematicians used both a decimal system and a base-60 system for multiplication and division. The seven-day-week, 360-degree circle, and sixty-minute hour all probably originated with them [Charles Kimball xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist03a.html © Copyright 2000].

Akkad was to the immediate north of Sumer.  SARGON OF AKKAD (also called Sargon of Aggad and Sargon of Assyria--his image is below) came to power around 2334 BC and reigned 55 years.  One of the first world-conquerors, he conquered and unified all of southern Mesopotamia (Sumer) as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran). He established the first Semitic dynasty. 

Born in Azupira-nu, his mother supposedly put him in a pitch-covered basket and launched him down the Euphrates. A farmer drawing water to irrigate his field (known historically as “Akki the irrigator”—hence, the name of the city Akkad and the Akkadian culture) found the basket and raised the child as his own. Sargon somehow become the cupbearer to Ur-Zababa, king of Kish; he overthrew him and eventually conquered Ur and the rest of the city-states [Charles Kimball xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist03a.html © Copyright 2000]. 

Haran (Harran) was a city in Akkadian territory, and was about 800 miles northwest of Ur.  Haran took its name from the well-traveled road that passed through it east to west.  Growing up on a major trade route, Haran also was a regional economic hub.  Despite their seemingly great distance apart, Ur and Haran were linked by economy, family, and most of all—religion.

Religion

Every Sumerian and Akkadian city had at least one local god—a city patron-god.  When the Akkadian and Sumerian city-states were unified under Sargon, an elaborate mythology developed with a place for everyone’s god and a colorful explanation of how they got there. There was room for every city's local god in this combined mythology, and new gods were continually added until the pantheon reached well over 3,000 deities [Charles Kimball xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist03a.html © Copyright 2000].

Ur was the principal center of worship of the Sumerian moon god, Nanna  (named "Sin" by the Akkadians), but Ur shared this honor with it’s sister city to the North—Haran, or Harran.  Several temples were erected to Nanna, and it is believed that up to a quarter of the Ur’s total area was dedicated to his worship!  However, the temple at Haran was supposed to surpass even that of Ur.  There probably was close rivalry—as well as strong ties—between these two sister-cities.  Ur and Haran were bound by the worship of the same deity—the closest and most enduring bond existing in that ancient world. They were also both great cities of commerce and power.  So Terah migrating 800 miles from Ur to Harran ceases to be such an amazing feat [Easton’s Bible Dictionary]!  Actually, since Terah and his family were Semitic, and in light of the fact that he named his first-born son Haran, one wonders if Terah might not have originally been from this northern area.  The Biblical account doesn't mention his other son Nahor journeying with the family from Ur to Haran (later called “city of Nahor” to which Abraham sent his servant when seeking a bride for Isaac) so Nahor probably already lived in Haran when Terah, Abram, and families stopped there; they probably stayed there with Haran.

Joshua 24:2: "Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor (Nachor): and they served other gods."

Abram and his family were Akkadian.  His father, Terah, is believed to have been an idol maker in Ur, possibly from a priestly family, and probably rather affluent.  Born into that culture, Abram undoubtedly grew up worshiping the moon-god like everyone else in Ur.  He could have recited prayers similar to this: 

Originally written November 29, 2001 by George Lazzell III

Revised January 16, 2002

Revised November 9, 2003