68 CHAPTER III
YHWH AND ABRAHAM
69 regard for you. 14 When Abram arrived in Egypt the Egyptians did indeed see that the woman was very beautiful” (Gen.12:12-14).
And so we delve into the person that is Abraham and his relation to God.
How did Abraham view his God and how is it different from both its neighbours and our knowledge of God today.
First we begin with his ancestry that is in the text of Genesis 11.
“10 These are Shem's descendants: When Shem was a hundred years old he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood. 11 After the birth of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and fathered sons and daughters. 12 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old he fathered Shelah.
13 After the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and fathered sons and daughters. 14 When Shelah was thirty years old he fathered Eber. 15 After the birth of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years and fathered sons and daughters. 16 When Eber was thirty-four years old he fathered Peleg. 17 After the birth of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and fathered sons and daughters. 18 When Peleg was thirty years old he fathered Reu. 19 After the birth of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and fathered sons and daughters. 20 When Reu was thirty-two years old he fathered Serug. 21 After the birth of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and fathered sons and daughters. 22 When Serug was thirty years old he fathered Nahor. 23 After the birth of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and fathered sons and daughters. 24 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old he fathered Terah. 25 After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years and fathered sons and daughters.
26 When Terah was seventy years old he fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 These are Terah's descendants: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in his native land, Ur of the Chaldaeans. 29 Abram and Nahor both married:
Abram's wife was called Sarai, Nahor's wife was called Milcah daughter of Haran, father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was barren, having no child. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law the wife of Abram, and made them leave Ur of the Chaldaeans to go to the land of Canaan. But on arrival in Haran they settled there. 32 Terah's life lasted two hundred and five years; then he died at Haran” (Gen.11:10-32).
70 Some traditions state Terah lived in Haran for some time before setting out to Ur Chaldea51s. This would make his final resting place very apt if he should return to the place of his birth. The father of Abraham is relevant to this discussion because in Islam and in Hebrew he is seen as worshiping idols and even wicked. There is a reason why Abraham became the father of nations instead of his father. Ur Chaldeas is the location Abraham is from. We may only make educated guesses as to its precise location in the region of Mesopotamia. The city of Ur is one such possibility. Though this warrants further research, during this time around 2nd millennium BC if Abram already did believe in a monotheistic religion where YHWH was the sole deity as the Bible text gives little context to his younger years. Then YHWH would have to compete with an entire pantheon of the deities mentioned in the previous chapters as well as the city Ur is of Sumerian culture adding to this52. The name Ur itself is derived from a lunar deity, and so it is not difficult to believe that Terah did profess faith in other deities. In the B53ible we have the text of Joshua 24:2 to explain it.
“2 Joshua then said to all the people: ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, From time immemorial, your ancestors, Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River, and served other gods’” (Josh.24:2).
Which supports this theory however the Midrash in Hebrew and Quran Islam goes further with both having a narration including King Nimrod. Terah has high position in King Nimrods court. However one night before the birth of
51 R. de Vaux OP, The Early History of Israel, 163-287.
52 Agustinus Setiawidi, “Allah yang kami sembah dan para leluhur yang kami hormati.
Monoteisme dalam Kitab Suci Ibrani,” Monoteisme Dalam Alkitab, ISBI, Simposium Nasional VII, Manado, 1-4 Juli 2014.
71 Abraham they were watching the stars and saw one star larger than the others swallowing the rest. They took it as an omen that Abraham would be a great man and vanquish enemies. King Nimrod fearful of this promised riches if Terah killed his son. Terah first attempts to persuade the mad king: a friend of mine wanted the horse you gave to me o king, shall I sell it to him? King Nimrod yelled ‘what?
That is the best horse in the land no money can replace it!’ to which Terah assured the king the same thing could be said of his son. The king however threatened to kill his entire family, for the first few years Abram, his mother and wet nurse lived in a cave to hide from Nimrods fury.
The tale continues as Abram grows much more rational. He becomes very critical of his fathers idolatry. This story has Terah become an idol maker with a shop. In one instance he smashes all of his fathers idols claiming one wanted to have all the other offerings to itself and so they fought and broke. Terah said it was ridiculous as they cannot speak and Abram quickly replied then why worship.
These man made objects that are silent instead of the true God? In another Terah asks the boy to guard the shop while he goes away. A man comes willing to purchase. Abram asks ‘how old are you sir?’ The man answering around 60-ish.
Then Abram wittingly remarks hello to the 60-ish gentleman who worships day old wrought statues. The man at this walks away embarrassed. When his father learned of these. However he bought the boy to King Nimrod. The king wanted him burnt just as Daniel was in a furnace but God made him unscathed and finally repenting but whether or not he worships. YHWH is left ambiguous if not implausible. Some sources say Terah followed Abraham but at the age of 205 in Haran he died. Others outright reject this notion as Terah and his sons faith were
72 irreconcilable and he did not journey with Abraham. As following a voice at the age of 75 to wander the dangerous region seemed ridiculous and so he stayed in Ur Chaldeas.
If Abram and Terah did live in Ur then they would have atleast known of the moon god Sin or Nanna. In 1927 Leonard Woolley identified Ur Kaśdim with the Sumerian city of Ur (founded c. 3800 BC), in southern Mesopotamia, where the Chaldeans settled much later (around the 9th century BC); [12] Ur lay on the boundary of the region later called Kaldu (Chaldea, corresponding to Hebrew Kaśdim) in the first millennium BCE. It was the sacred city of the moon god and the name ‘Camarina’ is thought to be related to the much later appearing Arabic word for ‘moon’ (qamar). The identification of Sumerian Ur with Ur Kaśdim accords with the view that Abraham’s ancestors may have been moon-worshippers. An idea based on the possibility that the name of Abraham’s father Terah is related to the Hebrew root for moon (y-r-h). We also see similarities such as this deity being worship in the form of a bull which recalls the episode of the golden calf in exodus.
He was an immensely popular god, one of the original Sumerian pantheon.
His cult center was the great temple at Ur. Although he also had an important temple at Harran, and he is frequently mentioned in hymns and inscriptions from the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) as the chief god of the pantheon with the epithet Enzu, lord of wisdom. This might explain the theme of associating God and wisdom throughout the bible. Uncommon for the time was the function given to Nanna as the judge of the dead, whether hero or pauper for the longest time
73 they all drank from puddles and ate mud. However Nanna then gained this power during the Ur III period, He could mediate between Enlil the Highest god.
The moon god Nanna decreed the fate of the dead. In the nether world were to be found ‘bread-eating heroes’ and ‘(beer) drinkers’ who satisfy the thirst of the dead with fresh water. We learn, too, that the gods of the nether world can be called upon to utter prayers for the dead, that the personal god of the deceased and his city’s god were invoked in his behalf, and that the welfare of the family of the deceased was by no means overlooked in the funerary prayers54.
A Practice which may have passed on in praying for the deceased in Macabees and our Catholic belief in purgatory.
Presumably Abraham (Abram) lived somewhere near the 20th century BCE.
He married is half sister Sarah (Sarai). He appears in the book of Genesis chapters 12-25 and chapter 25:8-11 records his death.
“8 When Abraham had breathed his last, dying at a happy ripe age, old and full of years, he was gathered to his people. 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah facing Mamre, in the field of Ephron the Hittite son of Zohar. 10 This was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites, and Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there. 11 After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac settled near the well of Lahai Roi” (Gen.25:8-11).
At the age of 75 he recived a revelation, they traveled from Ur Chaldeas (whether or not this was his place of birth is debated)55 to Haran, Canaan and Egypt. He Meets a man which is relevant to the topic of his faith. The man is Melchisedek (Malḵi-ṣedeq – Genesis 14:18-20). He bears the honour of the first priest (kohen) in the Torah just preceded by Adam. A mythical figure who is
54 Nanna, world history encyclopedia, accessed March 22, 2021, https://www.worldhistory.org/Nanna/
55 R. de Vaux OP, The Early History of Israel, 187.
74 possibly even more abstract than Abraham himself, Melchisedek a servant of ‘the most high’.
“18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. 19 He pronounced this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High for putting your enemies into your clutches. 20 And Abram gave him a tenth of everything” (Gen.14:18-20).
He is so obscure as to his origins. Some people claim the abrupt insertion into the Abraham narrative and considering the time of the compilation of these oral traditions in written form Melchisedek is a suspicious figure possibly existing only to strengthen the stance of the second temple. Abraham giving tithes also strengthens the tithes of the second temple and the position of zadokite priests over the Levites.
However for the purpose of this research we will assume he was a more than a mythical invention but an actual person. There are very few remains from the Canaanite era of Jerusalem when it was allegedly occupied by the tribe of Jebusites (1500-1000 BCE). The Jebusites are often confused between the Hitites and the Amorites. There is mention of ‘Yabusi’um’ in a cuneiform letter found in the archive of Mari, Syria. A possible epithet of Yahweh, however the normal worship of the time and place as mentioned is of El the high God, El is not YHWH although they became indistinguishable.
Melchisedek himself possesses curious naming scheme. In Hebrew his name means ‘king of righteousness’. However there is also deity by the name of Ṣidqu. Another Ugaritic reference to a god named Ṣaduq has also been found, a possible forerunner of Sydyk. Nonetheless there does exist the possibility of
75 Melchisedek as a priest of El and when El later became one with YHWH as the name of the Israelites and such titles as El shaddai would later suggest. It would not be too dificult to reimagine a priest of El into a priest of ‘Elohim’ by the writers and inhabitants standpoint the two deities56 have merged and thus indistinguishable.
There is a strong case for YHWH’s Canaanite origin, El, Israel, and Elohim.
All share a root word El, this is both the name of a Canaanite god but also the term for gods in general, the same confusion is seen in the book of Deuteronomy 32:8-9.
“8 When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, he assigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God, 9 but Yahweh’s portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance” (Deut.32:8-9).
However we also have the Masoretic text.
When the Most High [El] gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. For Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Which may have had traces of this pantheon as El is the Higher deity of a lesser yahweh. El divides the lesser gods as patrons to different tribes and nations.
It just so happens Yahweh was given Jacobs people while the other peoples had their own patrons. In time they would make Yahweh their supreme God, then Supreme and only god. A great father god represented as a bull or old man with a
56 R. de Vaux OP, The Early History of Israel, 268.
76 beard, who births Baal a storm deity, Mot the god of the underworld and Yam god of the sea. We see Yams servant Lotan or Leviathan throughout the Bible as an enemy of YHWH, just as Yam and Lotan fought against Baal a weather deity. The figure of Baal a God enthroned, throwing lightning bolts and commanding rain and weather is also similar to YHWH who controls the weather in Noah’s flood and guides them in exodus with a cloud and fire. This image of a weather and fertility god is also very common for the near east.
Ugaritic El is ‘beneficent El, the kindly one’ (‘ḷtpn il dpid’). While Yahweh is ‘a compassionate and gracious god’ (‘ēl raḥûm wĕḥannûn’ – Exodus 34:6).
“Although the Bible, and specifically the Book of Exodus, presents Yahweh as the god of the Israelites, there are many passages which make clear that this deity was also worshipped by other peoples in Canaan. Amzallag notes that the Edomites, Kenites, Moabites, and Midianites all worshipped Yahweh to one degree or another and that there is evidence the Edomites who operated the mines at Timnah converted an earlier Egyptian temple of Hathor to the worship of Yahweh.”