When and where the Lord spoke

When and where the Lord first spoke is read in two ways, and both are set out here. One reading takes 12:1 as a new word in Haran, the sequel of 11:31. Driver holds that “the country which Abram is commanded to leave being not Ur, but Haran.” Jubilees has Abram resolve, in Haran, “that he would leave Haran to go into the land of Canaan” The other takes 12:1 as the same call first given in Ur, as Acts 7:2–3 has the God of glory appear in Mesopotamia, and as Gen 15:7, Neh 9:7, and Josh 24:2–3 speak of being brought from Ur. Calvin, citing Stephen, says that “God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran” Augustine says that “God had spoken to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran”, and that “the whole took place in the same year” Josephus has Abram leave Chaldea “at the command, and by the assistance of God” Calvin also allows that, after Terah’s death, the Lord may have spoken again: “he confirmed his former call by a second oracle”. A different “second call” view is reported not by Calvin but by Calvin’s editor, citing Dr A. Clarke: some suppose this to have been “a second call from God”, “when he was at Charran” “Said” versus “had said” is English, not a Hebrew variant. No view is adopted here. See the historical note on the call, the language note on 12:1, and Gen 12:1–4 → Acts 7:2–4.