Out of UR

In a world of wealth, idols, and 5,000 gods, God quietly chose a barren woman and an ordinary family to change the course of history.

Genesis 10 records the descendants of the sons of Noah, including Shem. This is one of those discrete sections of Genesis, as introduced by the phrase “these are the generations.” After the story of the Tower of Babel, the text returns to the line of Seth (Genesis 11:10-26), but this time tracing the genealogy from Shem to Abram. These seventeen verses are also a complete literary passage in their own right.

In Genesis 10:22, Arphaxad is the third of five sons of Seth listed. The order in which the Bible lists descendants does not always reflect the order of their birth, but it seems unlikely that the son listed third in a list of five would have been the firstborn. Yet, in Genesis 11, he is the only one of these five sons mentioned. The genealogy in Genesis 11 gives us the line of Shem’s descendants through Arphaxad only, and only the direct line of descent through to Abram. This selection points to the fact that the outworking of God’s plan and purpose would be through Abram.

Consecutive Genealogies

The list of Seth’s descendants down to Abram is followed immediately in the text by the generations of Terah—the first time in Genesis that two genealogical lists are recorded consecutively. There are two additional places in Genesis where this situation occurs. The next one is in Genesis 25, and the third is in Genesis 36 and 37. In each case, these double genealogies mark significant milestones in the narrative.

Here in Genesis 11, the double genealogies mark the end of what might be regarded as the international phase of God’s plan. From Genesis 12 onward, God focuses on an individual, Abram, and on his seed as the means by which He works out His plan and purpose.

The genealogy of Shem’s family concludes in verse 26. The genealogy of Terah’s family from verse 27 to 32 sets the reader up for what follows in chapter 12. This is a significant milestone as indicated by the fact that the genealogy of Terah is the middle genealogy of the eleven genealogies recorded in Genesis.

The Heavens and the Earth

(Genesis 2:4–4:26)

Adam Genesis 5:1–6:8

Noah Genesis 6:9–9:29

The Sons of Noah Genesis 10:1–11:9

Shem Genesis 11:10–11:26

Terah Genesis 11:27–25:11

Ishmael Genesis 25:12–25:18

Isaac Genesis 25:19–35:29

Esau Genesis 36:1–36:8

The Sons of Esau Genesis 36:9–43

Jacob Genesis 37:1–50:26

After the judgment upon the men who started to build the Tower of Babel, God refocused the way in which He would redeem the descendants of Adam.

It is implicit from our first introduction to Terah and his family that they were long-term and comfortable residents of Ur of the Chaldees in the land of Shinar.

Two of Terah’s sons, Nahor and Abram, feature later in Genesis. All that we know about Haran, however, is that he was the father of Lot and Milcah. He may also have been the father of Sarai. We are also told that Haran died while the family still lived in Ur. This is the first case recorded in the Bible of a man predeceasing his father. Perhaps it is recorded to reinforce the increasing toll of the wages of sin and to anticipate the need for a solution as encompassed in the promise to Abraham in the next chapter.

At that time, Ur was a prosperous trading city, the most sophisticated city in the world. The size of Abram’s retinue when he migrated to Canaan suggests that Terah’s family was well off. In verses 29-30, it seems Abram was comfortably ensconced in Ur, and the family was close-knit:

Who is Iscah?

It is rare to name daughters and wives in these genealogies, so when they are mentioned, we may presume that there is a purpose for introducing them. The construction of the second half of verse 29 is curious. Milcah is described as “the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.” It seems redundant to write of Milcah as “the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah,” so what is the text trying to tell us?

But who is the Iscah, named as the sister of Milcah? From ancient times, Jewish scholars have believed that Iscah is another name for Sarah.

Milcah and Iscah are both nieces of Abram and Nahor. Nahor marries his niece, Milcah. We meet this couple again in Genesis 22, where we learn that they have eight children (Genesis 22:20-23). They are the grandparents of Laban.

We already know that Abram married a woman named Sarai. Sarai’s name means “princess,” whereas Milcah’s name means “queen.” Is this a hint that Milcah and Sarai are related and that Milcah might be the senior of the two women?

But who is the Iscah, named as the sister of Milcah? From ancient times, Jewish scholars have believed that Iscah is another name for Sarai.¹ Several Bible characters have more than one name, and that practice is still fairly common in the Middle East today.

It is impossible to prove that Sarai and Iscah are one and the same woman, but it would help to explain why Iscah is mentioned as another daughter of Haran. It might also suggest why Nahor’s son, Lot, attached himself to the household of his uncle Abram.²

The assumption that Sarai and Iscah are the same person³ might also explain why verse 30 is included in the text: “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” According to Genesis 22, Milcah had eight sons, and it is likely that she also had daughters. Sarai, in contrast, is childless. In fact, verse 30 highlights her childlessness. It says that she “was barren,” and then essentially repeats the statement by saying that she “had no child.” Why such emphasis if not to highlight how different her situation was compared with that of Milcah?

If Sarah was Abraham’s niece, then how do we explain how emphatic Abraham is in identifying Sarah as his sister in Genesis 20:12?

And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

The Hebrew word achot, translated “sister,” can also carry the broader relational meaning of adopted daughter or granddaughter.⁴ Because Haran died young, Terah could have taken his young granddaughter and raised her as his own “adopted daughter” alongside his two sons, Abram, and Nahor. This would explain why Abram refers to her as his sister when, in actuality, she would have been his niece. So, both Abraham and Nahor married their nieces, who were born to their brother Haran. And Abraham’s statement, “But not the daughter of my mother,” is equally true.

Life in Ur

What did it mean to lead a comfortable existence in Ur of the Chaldees? It may be tempting to think of Ur as a primitive and squalid place, but nothing could be further from the truth. In the twentieth century, Ur was extensively excavated under the direction of Sir Leonard Woolley. Sir Leonard’s work captured the public imagination at the time, and he authored several books about the remarkable discoveries made by the archaeologists. This archaeological work has provided us with a detailed picture of ancient Ur, shedding light on the Biblical record. Woolley calculated that the population of Ur must have exceeded a quarter of a million and may have even been twice that number, so this was no ordinary city.

Ur had a very strongly developed religion, centered on the worship of the moon god. We have to think of Ur in Abraham’s time as dominated by a cult the essence of which was its material magnificence, a cult absolutely inseparable from the city.⁵

While the city and the cult of the moon god were inseparable, it was a grossly polytheistic society; it had over 5,000 gods.⁶ The religion in Ur included belief in the immortality of the soul and also a reliance upon household idols or teraphim.⁷ These small idols had the same significance that statues of patron saints have in the Roman Catholic system. More disturbing is the evidence found of the practice of human sacrifice in Ur.⁸ One wonders how Abraham’s memories of this practice may have added to his stress when God asked him in Genesis 22 to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Woolley describes Ur as a very sophisticated city:

Next Month, Lord willing, we will consider the call to leave everything that was familiar to Terah’s family.

Geoff Henstock,
Happy Valley Ecclesia, SA

 

1. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1.6.5.
2. Alternatively, it has been suggested that Iscah is the otherwise unnamed wife of Lot. See The Christadelphian, Volume 138 (October 2001), p. 375.
3. Bereshit Rabbah. Trans. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon. Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Vol. 1. London: Soncino Press, 1939.
4. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon
5. Sir Leonard Woolley, Abraham Recent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins, p. 95.
6. Sir Leonard Woolley, Abraham Recent Discoveries and Hebrew Origins, p. 192.
7. Sir Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees, pp. 40 and 118-119.
8. Sir Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees, pp. 43-44.
9. Sir Leonard Woolley, Excavations at Ur. p. 90.