Abraham’s Lineage

Genesis 11:18-31

“And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” (Genesis 11:18-26)

One thing that makes giving exact dates for many of these events is seen here, As we see shortly, Terah lived to be two hundred five. From the wording in the English translations it appears that Abraham was born about the time Terah was seventy years old, yet according to Acts 7:4, which was based on the traditional understanding of the Jews of the Hebrew wording, when Abraham left Haran at the age of seventy five, Terah had died, making Abram's, later known as Abraham's birth around the time Terah was a hundred and thirty. This would have been about three hundred fifty years after the flood. Peleg lived until about three hundred thirty nine years after the flood. Noah lived until three hundred fifty years after the flood, while Shem lived five hundred and two years after the flood.

People who knew Noah and had experienced the flood, the confounding of the languages, and the division of the earth were still alive in Abraham’s day, yet the majority had already turned away from God. I can only speculate as to whether Abraham knew Noah or Shem personally, but he was familiar with the stories of the flood and God’s action. We know this because they were recorded by the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and other groups. Job is believed to have been a contemporary of Abraham. Shem would not have died until Abraham was about a hundred and fifty years old.

“Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.” (Genesis 11:27-28)

Descended from the same line as the Chaldeans, who would later become leaders of Babylon, Terah remained in the area of Ur until after his sons were grown. His son Haran died fairly young, after having a son, Lot.

“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. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” (Genesis 11:29-30)

Nahor married a daughter of a different Haran, and later his descendants would be known as Syrians. Abram married Sarai. According to Genesis 20:12, she was his half sister. “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.”

“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. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.” (Genesis 11:31-32)

After the death of Haran, Terah, accompanied by Abram and Sarai, took his grandson lot and headed to Canaan. Lot may have been very close to Abraham's age. While Canaan is due west of Ur, they traveled northwest along the Euphrates River to Haran, near the edge of Syria, probablyu to find a place where their flocks and herds could cross safely. Coming to Haran, they stopped and Terah stayed until his death. Some time later, part of Nahor’s family also came down to Haran, where Jacob found Laban when fleeing from Esau’s anger.