When and where Abram was called, in early reading
Says “Then the Lord said to Abram”, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household” (Gen 12:1; לֶךְ־לְךָ, lekh-lekha, “go for yourself”). “So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him”; he “was seventy-five years old when he left Haran” (12:4).
Josephus has Abram leave Chaldea when its people “raised a tumult against him”, going “at the command, and by the assistance of God”. In Jubilees the word comes in Haran, and Abram resolves “that he would leave Haran to go into the land of Canaan”. Augustine holds 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”. Calvin, citing Stephen, infers that “the Divine Hand was not for the first time stretched out to him after he had dwelt in Charran”, yet allows that God “confirmed his former call by a second oracle”. His editor reports that “Many learned commentators, Dr A. Clarke among the number, suppose this to have been a second call”. Keil holds that Stephen’s order (Acts 7:4) was an inference, “taking the order of the narrative as the order of events”. Pseudo-Jonathan: “Abram went, according as the Lord had spoken with him”. These are their readings.
Uncertain Whether 12:1 reports a word first given in Ur (Acts 7:2–3; Gen 15:7) or a new word in Haran is open. No lean is taken, and these readings do not fix the meaning of 12:1–4.
Claims
- SaysGen 12:1, 4: the Lord told Abram to go from his land, his kindred and his father’s house to the land he would show him, and Abram went as the Lord had spoken to him, seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
- UncertainWhether 12:1 reports the call first given in Ur (Acts 7:2–3; Gen 15:7) or a new word given in Haran is open; no lean is taken, and the early readings do not fix the meaning.
Citations
- BSB public domain Gen 12:1, 12:4
- OSHB CC BY 4.0 Gen 12:1
- Josephus (Whiston) public domain Ant. 1.7.1 = 1.154–157 (Whiston, 1817, vol. 1), p. 27 (leaf n36); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
- APOT public domain vol. 2 (1913): Jub 12:28, p. 32 (leaf n51); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
- Augustine, City of God (NPNF1 vol. 2) public domain Civ. 16.15–16 (trans. Dods, NPNF¹ 2; CCEL npnf102.iv.XVI.15, npnf102.iv.XVI.16), p. 320 (leaf n343), p. 321 (leaf n344); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
- Calvin, Genesis (King) 1 public domain Calvin, Genesis 1 (King, CTS 1847), on Gen 12:1, 4, with the editor’s note, p. 342 (leaf n351), p. 350 (leaf n359); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
- Keil–Delitzsch, Pentateuch 1 public domain Keil, Pentateuch vol. 1 (Clark, Martin trans., 1868), on Gen 11:32 and Acts 7:4, p. 181 (leaf n184); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
- Etheridge public domain Etheridge, vol. 1 (1862), Targum of Palestine (Pseudo-Jonathan) on Gen 12:4, p. 193 (leaf n205); checked against the printed page (scan); quoted, otherwise paraphrased
2026-11-12
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