The first mention of Abraham, or Abram, as he was first called, is found in Genesis 11:26.
Genesis 11:26-32 (KJV)
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 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.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Terah was Abram's father. He had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had already died by the time of this narrative. He died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees. He left a son by the name of Lot and daughters by the name of Milchah and Iscah. Nahor married Milcah. Abram married Sarai (later to be called Sarah) who was unable to bear children. (Some have believed that Iscah and Sarai might have been the same woman. Who knows?) Then in verse 31 we see that Terah took Abram, Lot, and Sarai away from Ur, traveled toward Canaan, and stopped in the city of Haran (spelled differently than Haran, Terah's son). Terah died there.
Genesis 12:1-5 (KJV)
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
The narrative continues into chapter 12. In the first verse the Lord called Abram and told him to leave: his country, his family, his father's house, and to go to the land that God would show him (Canaan). In return God would make of Abram a great nation, would bless him, would make his name great, would make him a blessing to those who blessed him, and make him a curse to those who cursed him. Finally, through Abram, God would bless all the families of the earth. So Abram left with Sarai and Lot and they went into the land of Canaan.
In the Book of Acts before Stephen is martyred, he gave an account of the Jew's history. He related some further details about the time spoken of in Genesis.
Acts 7:2-4 (KJV)
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Acts confirms that Abram lived in Mesopotamia before living in Charran (Haran). Then verse 3 gives the impression that God called Abram before he dwelt in Haran and that it was the leading of God on Abram, not Terah, that led to Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot to leave Ur. Then after Terah died, Abram, Sarai, and Lot left Haran for Canaan.
The first interesting item that we find in Abram's life is that he came from Ur of the Chaldees. Where is Ur? Most scholars have believed that Abram's Ur is the great city of Ur of the Sumerians. This is indicated in the map below.
However, this location proves to be difficult. In the first place, if Abram lived in the famous Ur and wanted to travel to Canaan, he would not have gone by Haran. Secondly, the Chaldeans were not in southern Mesopotamia at the time of Abram (See: http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/books/genesis/ur.htm). Thirdly, when Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac, he sent the servant to his homeland which is different from the southern Ur.
Genesis 24:4 (KJV)
4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
The servant traveled to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. This was in northern Mesopotamia, close to Haran. Gen. 25:20 refers to the area as Padan-aram, where Jacob (Isaac's son) lived for a time with his uncle Laban. Rebekah, Jacob's mother and sister to Laban, was Bethuel's daughter. Bethuel was the son of Milchah and Nahor (Gen. 24:24). Yet, according to Gen. 11:31 above, Terah had not taken his son Nahor with him to Haran. This necessitates that Nahor would have had to have followed Terah later, or Abram's Ur was not in southern Mesopotamia. Fourthly, there were other towns or areas in the region that seem to be taken from Abram's family line, like Peleg, Serug, Terah, and Aram (See: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nation03.htm).
On this map you can see Haran, Serug, and the possible site of Ur up in the yellow portion of the map.
While no one can, as of yet, prove where the location of Ur was, I believe that the evidence of Ur being north of Haran makes a lot of sense. Let me know what you think. Stay tuned for next time when we deal with another interesting quirky fact.
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