Abraham’s Birthplace and Siblings

Abrám/Abraham is one of the most renowned characters in our Bible.  Much has been written about the faith of Abraham.  The apostle Paul wrote of Abraham as the prototype of faithful believers (Ro.4:16).  Also, Abraham’s obedience to the Lord was exemplary.  Ge.26:5 “Abraham obeyed Me, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”  (All that, without having a codified Law of Moses, so-called!  see the topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

However, this topic isn’t about Abraham’s faith or obedience.  Rather, it’s about the disputed place of his birth and his siblings.  We’ll look at the pertinent Old Testament (OT) verses, with the traditional (supposed) Book of Jasher.  For Abram’s first 75 years, ref Jash.7 – 13.  He lived circa (c) 2117–1942 BC.  Moses wrote or compiled the book of Genesis 500 years after Abraham lived.  (also see the topics “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus” and Chronology: Septuagint versus Masoretic Text”.)

Abraham’s ancestor Noah & family survived the Flood (Ge.7:11-13, 8:13).  Ge.9:18-19 “The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Jápheth; and Ham was the father of Canáan.”  Then Ge.10:22 “The sons of Shem were Elám, Ásshur [Assyria], Arphaxad, Lud and Arám [Syria].”

Ge.10:24 “Arphaxad begot Shélah [Septúagint/LXX, ISV, NHEB “Kaínan”]; Shelah begot Éber.”  The Hebrew people were named after Eber.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:4 “Eber, from whom they originally called the Jews, Hebrews.”  Eber/Heber was the great-grandson (or grandson) of Arphaxad.

Eber was Abram’s great-great-great-great-grandfather.  Josephus Antiquities 1:6:5 “Abraham was born in the 292^nd year after the Deluge. Térah begat Abram in his 70^th year [Ge.11:26]. Abram had two [older] brothers, Nahór [2] and Harán [Hawráwn Strongs h2039, Hebrew]. Haran left a son, Lot; also Sarai and Milcáh his daughters, and died. These married their nieces. Nahor married Milcah and Abram married Sarai.”  1:7:1 “Abram adopted Lot, his brother Haran’s son & his wife Sarai’s brother.”

Jash.7:51 “Terah was 70 years old when he begat him, and Terah called the name of the son that was born to him Abram.”  Jash.9:4 “Haran was 42 years old when he begat Sarai, in the 10^th year [Ge.17:17] of the life of Abram.”  So Haran was 32 years older than Abram, according to Jasher.  Haran & Nahor 2 were twins?  Jash.7:22, 12:16, 9, 27, 24:27 Nahor 2 died at age 172 when Isaac was 40, Abraham 140.  Both Nahor 2 & Haran were born when Terah was age 38, 32 years before Abram’s birth.

Jash.12:44-45 “Nahor and Abram [age 50] took wives, the daughters of their brother Haran. The wife of Nahor was Milcah and Abram’s wife was Sarai [Sarah].”  Targum Jonathán Ge.22:20 “Sarah arose and cried out….And it was told Abraham, ‘Behold, Milcah also has borne; she has enlargement through the righteousness of her sister [Sarah], to bring forth sons unto Nahor your brother.”

Ge.11:29 “Abram’s wife was Sarai; Nahor’s wife was Milcah the daughter of Haran; the father of Milcah and Iscáh.”  Was Iscah, Sarah?  Wikipedia: Iscah “Rabbinical scholars [Talmudic]… claim that Iscah was an alternate name for Sarah.”  JFB Commentary Ge.11:31 “Sarai…the same as Iscah.”  Targum Jonathan, Jasher, Josephus, Talmudists indicate that Abraham’s niece Sarah (Lot’s sister) became his wife.  If Terah adopted Sarai when his son Haran died, then Abram married his legal sister.  Decades later in Ge.20:2, Abraham said of Sarah his wife to king Abimélech, “She is my sister”.

Núzi in N. Iraq ‘tablets of sistership’ were contracts written in Akkadian cúneiform (1400 BC); a man’s wife could legally be his sister.  Dr. Scott Stripling The Nuzi Tablets “The city of Nuzi, E of ancient Asshur and [9 miles] W of Árrapha in S Kurdistan. ‘Sister’ and ‘wife’ could be used interchangeably in documents. Thus, Abraham and Isaac [Ge.26:9] were being deceptive in calling their wives their sisters, but not strictly dishonest. In ancient Egyptian love poetry, brides are frequently referred to as ‘my sister.”  Ge.12:17-19 Pharaoh asked Abram regarding Sarai, “Why did you say, ‘She is my sister”?

BAS: The Patriarchs’ Wives As Sisters “Harran and Nuzi were of the same ethnic and cultural milieu, both centers of Hurrian society.”  Leon Mauldin Nuzi Tablets and the Patriarchs “In the society of the Hurrians, a wife enjoyed greater protection and a superior position when she also had the legal status of a sister [2 separate documents].”  Earlier, Abram moved to Harrán [Kawráwn h2771] in far S Turkey.

Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: 4Q252, col.2 “Terah was 140 years old when he left Ur of the Cháldees and came to Harran. Abram was 70.”  (Terah was age 70 when he’d fathered Abram.)

“Ur of the Chaldees” was Abram’s birthplace or area of residence during his early decades.  Ge.11:28 it was also the place of brother Haran’s ‘nativity’ (moléhdeth h4138, or ‘kindred’).  Ne.9:7 “You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name Abraham.”  Where was Ur of the Chaldees located…in northern Mesopotamia, or in southern?

In the OT, the term Ur (h218) occurs in Ge.11:28, 31, 15:7, Ne.9:7.  Ur meant ‘flame’, according to the BDB Hebrew-English Lexicon.  Flame or fire.  Could “Ur” and “fire” be switchable?

Douay-Rheims 2Esdras 9:7/Ne.9:7 “You chose Abram and brought him forth out of the fire of the Chaldeans.”  Jash.12:1-43 traditionally, king Nimrod cast Abram into a flaming furnace in Casdim, v.21-23.  God saved Abram (age 50) from the furnace, but his brother Haran died at age 82 in that “fire of Casdim”, 12:37.  Jash.13:1-6 “The Lord appeared to Abram, ‘I am the Lord who delivered you from Ur Casdim.”  Abraham et al left Ur/fire Casdim for Harran; later he settled in the land Canaan (13:26).

‘Ur’ doesn’t occur in the Greek OT (today our Septuagint/LXX) or New Testament (NT).  In the 4 OT verses above, the LXX reads “land of the Chaldéans” (not ‘Ur’).  The term rendered “land” is chórah g5561.  Ac.7:4 Luke used the Greek term “ge” g1093 for “land of the Chaldeans”; NHEB has “land of the Kasdím”.  Ne.9:7 LXX “You did choose Abram and brought him out of the land of the Chaldeans.”

Chaldeans/Chaldees (Kasdíy h3778, Kasdim plural, ‘clod-breakers’) occurs 80 times in the OT; 3 times in Genesis (11:28, 31, 15:7).  Ge.11:28 “Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, Ur of the Chaldees [Kasdim].”  (Da.2:5 “Chaldeans” in Aramaic is Kasdáy h3779.  For ancient linguistic background relative to Abraham’s time, see “Patriarchs’ Bronze Age Languages”.)

Cambridge Bible Ac.7:4 “The extent of the country signified by the ‘land of the Chaldeans’ must have varied at different periods.”  Southern Mesopotamia would become known as Cháldea in the future.

Mic.5:6 Assyria is called the “land of Nimrod”.  Pulpit Commentary Mi.5:6 “The term [‘land of Nimrod’] is better explained as a synonym for Assyria.”  Ge.10:6-11 Nimrod’s kingdom included Assyria, where “Asshur” (LXX, KJV, Josephus; others read “Nimrod”) had built Nineveh.  Descendants of Shem’s son Asshur lived in Assyria, but that land became ruled by Ham’s descendant Nimrod.

Wikipedia: Chaldea “The ancient Chaldeans were…West Semitic Levant [Syria] semi-nomadic tribes who seem to have migrated between 940–860 BC into the SE corner of Mesopotamia, at the head of the Persian Gulf. The first written attestation of Chaldeans occurs in 852 BC, in the annals of the Assyrian king Shalmeneser III, who mentions…the SE extremes of Babylonia, and subjugating the overall leader of the Kaldu [Akkadian language] tribes.”  Over the centuries, the Chaldean peoples migrated into various land areas.

Gen.11:27-31 Did Moses have in mind the area Chaldeans occupied 500 years earlier at Abram’s birth, or the area Chaldeans occupied at the time Moses wrote, or does our Genesis reflect the Babylonian area Chaldeans occupied when scribes (Ezra?) centuries later updated Gen. with current place names?

Britannica: Ur “Important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer) situated about 140 miles SE of Babylon and 10 miles west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. Modern Tell Muqayyar, Iraq.”

Some Bible historians think Abram’s nativity was in southern Mesopotamia, at that famous Sumerian Ur.  Abram’s time corresponds to that of the Ur III Dynasty (c 2112–2004 BC) Neo-Sumerian empire of SW Mesopotamia.  But is southern Mesopotamia the most likely place of his birth?

Wikipedia: Ur of the Chaldees “In 1862, Henry Rawlinson [Assyriologist] identified Ur Kasdim with Tell Muqayyar. In 1927 Leonard Woolley [archaeologist] identified Ur Kasdim with the Sumerian city of Ur (founded c 3800 BC), in south Mesopotamia, where the Chaldeans settled much later (around the 9th century BC); Ur lay on the boundary of the region later called Kaldu (Chaldea, corresponding to Hebrew Kasdim [?]) in the first millennium BCE. Woolley’s identification was challenged with the discovery of the city of Harran in north Mesopotamia, near the present-day Altmbasak in Turkey (archaeological excavations at Harran began in the 1950s). The Chaldean dynasty didn’t rule Babylonia (and thus become the rulers of Ur) until the late 7^th century BC.”  Not in Abraham’s time.

Josh.24:2-3 LXX “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Your fathers at first dwelled beyond the River [Euphrates], Terah the father of Abram and Nahor, and they served other gods. And I took your father Abram from beyond the River and guided him in all the land [of Canaan].”  Initially they lived east of the Euphrates.  Ge.24:10 the city of Nahor was in Arám Naharáyim, Syria in northern Mesopotamia.

But the southern Ur of Sumer was located on the west bank of the Euphrates, not “beyond the River”!

Christopher Eames Has Abraham’s Father, Terah, Been Discovered? “Which of the northern, ‘beyond the River’ Ur options is the best fit? Urartu wasn’t established until a millennium after Abraham. Urfa is a possibility. But Urkesh is also a good fit—and even more so in name. ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ isn’t a transliteration of the original Hebrew. The Hebrew title is Ur Kasdim (‘im’ is a Hebrew plural ending). Thus, a parallel between Urkesh – more properly titled in inscriptions Urkeš.Ki, and the biblical Ur Kasd[im].”  Urfa and Urkesh are both in north Mesopotamia, “beyond the River”, east of Euphrates.

Perhaps the epicenter of the Flood was within the broad area of the Mediterranean toward the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, Lake Van in Turkey, including the upper Euphrates & Balikh Rivers.  Ge.8:4, 9:18-20 Noah’s Ark rested in the Ararat mountains of old Armenia, and he planted vineyards in the valleys.

Descendants of Noah’s son Shem migrated south, to what would become known as Urartu (cognate with Ararat) in the region of: Lake Van, Lake Urmia in NW Iran, Urkesh in far NE Syria, Urfa (today Sanliurfa) 10 miles N of the Turkey-Syria border and 70 miles east of the Euphrates.  Wikitravel.org: Urfa “Urfa (also Sanliurfa, formerly Edessa).”  Abraham migrated from an Ur, likely heading south, to Harran (where he intermittently spent a total of 8 years [?], Jash.13:1-26); then SW to Canaan land.

Josephus Antiquities 1:6:4 (93 AD) “Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, now called Chaldeans.”  Gill Exposition Ge.10:22 “Arphaxad, from him part of Assyria, which lay northward next to Armenia, was called Arphaxitis. Josephus says, he gave name to the Arphaxadaeans, whom he ruled over, now called Chaldeans. Indeed the name of the Chaldeans may well be derived from the latter part of Arphaxad’s name, ‘Chashad’…the Chaldeans were called Chasdim before Chesed [Abraham’s nephew, Ge.22:20-22] was born, and were a nation when Abraham came out of Ur, before Chesed could be old enough to build towns and found a nation; see Ge.11:31.”  So its likely Kasdim didn’t relate to Chesed the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor 2, since Chesed was younger than Abraham.  Instead, Ur-Ka/esh?

Pulpit Commentary Ge.10:22 “Arphaxad. A region in the north of Assyria; the Arrhapacitis of Ptolemy (Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch).”  Barnes Notes Ge.10:22 “Gesenius renders it [Arphaxad’s country] border or stronghold of the Kasdim [?].”  Wikipedia: Arrapha “(Akkadian) An ancient city in NE Iraq, at [today’s] Kirkuk. A part of Sargon’s Akkadian empire [2300 BC].”

In the Jewish traditional (150 BC) Book of Jubilees 8:1-6, an earlier Kesed was Shelah’s uncle; Kesed & Kainan (Shelah’s father, LXX) were brothers, Arphaxad’s sons.  Jub.11:3 “Ur, the son of Kesed, built the city of ‘Ara of the Chaldees’, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father.”  Ur Kesed = Ur Kasdim?  Wikipedia: Arpachshad “Some ancient Jewish sources point to Arpachshad as the immediate progenitor of Ura and Kesed, who allegedly founded the city of Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees).”  Wikipedia: Ora, Daughter of Ur “The Book of Jubilees implies that Arphaxad is the grandfather of Ur, son of Kesed.”  Jub.9:4 “For Arpachshad came forth the third portion, all the land from the region of the Chaldees to the east of the Euphrates…all the land of Lebanon and Sanir [De.3:9 LXX, Mt Hermon] and Amana [SSol.4:8 LXX, a river by Damascus] to the border of the Euphrates.”

Job.1:17 CEV “Three gangs of Chaldeans [LXX “horsemen”] attacked and stole your camels.”  It is thought that Job (c 1800–1600 BC) lived in Bashan NE toward Syria.  (see “Job and the Land of Uz”.)  Barnes Notes Job.1:17 “The Chaldees or Casdim were a warlike people who originally inhabited the Carduchian mountains, north of Assyria, and the northern part of Mesopotamia.”  Keil and Delitzsch Ge.11:28 “Ur of the Chaldees is either in the Ur between Hatra and Nisibis [N Iraq and far S Turkey], near Arrapachitis, or in Armenian Urrhai, the old name for Edessa, modern Urfa [Sanliurfa].”  Urfa (Urha in Armenian) was 7 miles SW of the ancient Gobékli Tepe site of the oldest known temple.

TimesofIsrael.com Urkesh: Abraham’s Ur of the Chaldees? “The Hurrians came to be the dominant group in S Anatolia, N Mesopotamia, and NE Syria. Their capital and largest city was Urkesh at the base of the Taurus mountains. Nearby, in the heart of Hurrian territory was Harran. Could Urkesh be Ur of the Chaldees? In Hebrew it is called Ur Kasdim, with Hebrew consonants U-R-K-E-S. Josephus, Maimonides, and other early Jewish sages claim that Abraham’s birthplace was in north Mesopotamia.”

It is said that the general area of Abraham’s ancestors is witnessed by the names of ancient sites below Armenia in south Turkey.  ref the names in Gen.11:21-32.  Bet Yeshurun: Who Was Abraham? “Dr. Douglas L. Esse, Assoc. Director of the Harran Expedition of the Oriental Institute in Chicago wrote, ‘The biblical account clearly made a strong association between the patriarchs, the city, and the surroundings of Harran in N Syria (today SE Turkey). Abraham’s father, Terah, was named after the town of Til Turahi; Abraham’s grandfather Nahor [1], was named after Nahuru or Til Nahiri; Abraham’s great grandfather Serug, was named after Sarugi (modern Suruc); Abraham’s brother Nahor [2], was named after Nahuru or Til Nahiri; Abraham’s brother Haran, received the name of the Haran (also spelled Harran [?]) district, but was born and died in Ur of Chaldees. These were all place-names in the ancient Balikh Valley area of Aram. Harran, in SE Turkey…is east of the great northern bend of the Euphrates (just north of Syria). It is known by three names in the Bible (Gen 25:20, 28:2-7, 48:7; Hos 12:12-13): Harran, Paddán-Arám, Aram-Naharaim. This area was a crossroads of trade & civilization.”

There was more than one ancient ‘Ur’ (‘fire’ ?)!  readyforeternity.com Which Ur is Abraham’s Ur? “There were several ancient cities called Ur or a variation of Ur. The Mari tablets (dating to the time of Abraham) and later Assyrian sources mention cities such as Nahor and Serug in the vicinity of Harran. Modern Suruc is 35 miles east. Harran wasn’t on the route between Sumerian Ur and Canaan. A caravan traveling from southern Mesopotamia heading for Canaan would have followed the Euphrates in a northerly direction and then turned west at Mari [200 miles SSE of Haran!]…before turning south toward Canaan. Going directly west from Sumerian Ur to Canaan wasn’t a viable route because the Arabian desert would have proven an impractical, or perhaps impossible, challenge.”

TheTorah.com Ur Kasdim “A more attractive suggestion is that Abraham’s hometown is the city of Ur in northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Urfa [Sanliurfa] in SE Turkey, 44 km north of Ḥarran.  Most likely, this city is the one mentioned as Ura in cuneiform tablets from Úgarit (14th–13^th centuries BCE), where it is associated with the Hittite realm. A journey from Urfa to Canaan would indeed pass directly through Ḥarran. Local (Turkish) Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tradition identifies this city as biblical Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.”  ‘Abraham’s Cave’ is a pilgrimage site in Sanliurfa.

OT Professor Tony Cartledge Have We Erred On Ur? “Cyrus Gordon, who dug at the Sumerian Ur with Leonard Wooley, never accepted Wooley’s identification of the southern Ur as Abraham’s ‘Ur of the Chaldees’. He consistently argued for a northern location. I’ll point to the more likely possibility that Abraham grew up in Anatolia [Turkey], not Sumer.”  Not in southern Mesopotamia.

Ge.11:31 Amplified Bible Harran was 550 miles NNW of the Sumerian Ur!  JFB Commentary Ge.11:31 “They came unto Harran, two days’ journey SSE from Ur [Sanliurfa].”  It is understood, a caravan couldn’t travel 550 miles north from the southern Sumerian Ur to Harran in only two days!

Jub.12:31 Nahor [2] too was in Harran.  Antiquities 1:6:5 “Nahor…Abram…Terah …they all moved to Harran.  Jash.22:15 “Abraham’s brother Nahor, his father, and all belonging to them dwelt in Harran.”  Keil and Delitzsch Ge.11:31 “Nahor must also have gone to Harran.”  Ge.24:10 Abraham’s servant “went into Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.”  Jash.24:27 “Nahor…died and was buried in Harran”.  Ge.24:4 LXX, CEV, GN Abraham said, “Go to my country where I was born, find a wife for my son [Isaac].”  Cambridge Bible Note Ge.24:7 “Land of my nativity’; the land of Harran is clearly intended.”  Jash.24:32 “The servant [Eliezer] answered his master Abraham, ‘I go to your birthplace and to your father’s house to take a wife for your son from there.”  Abram “was born” in that northern region.

Professor Cyrus Gordon Where Is Abraham’s Ur? “Sumerian Ur is never called ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ in  the countless cuneiform tablets that mention Ur. The biblical evidence is conclusive in placing Ur of the Chaldees in the Urfa-Harran region…rather than in southern Mesopotamia. The designation ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ distinguishes it from other cities called Ur, including Sumerian Ur. Gen.24:7, 10, 29 tells us that Abraham’s birthplace was in Aram-Naharayim where Laban lived.”  Laban, grandson of Nahor 2.  Ge.31:21 leaving Laban in the east, Jacob crossed over Euphrates heading west on his way into Gilead.

The Ebla Tablets, dated c 2350 BC, were discovered in NW Syria in 1974.  Jonas Manske The Ebla Tablets (2005) “The Ebla tablets also speak of the city of Ur…as being in the territory of Harran.”

Ac.7:2 “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Harran.”  Meyer NT Commentary Ac.7:2 “The land of Ur (Gen.11:28) was situated in northern Mesopotamia.”  Cambridge Bible Ac.7:2 “…the site of Ur, the most probable opinion seems to be that which places it at Edessa [Sanliurfa], called Orfah…Orrha in early times.”  Smith’s Bible Dictionary:Ur “It has been identified by the most ancient traditions with Orfa in the highlands of Mesopotamia.”

Israel-a-history-of.com Ur of the Chaldees: The Forefather of the Hebrew Race “The traditional site of Abraham’s birth according to Islamic tradition is a cave in the vicinity of Edessa. Edessa is now named Sanliurfa and…is the site of a mosque called the ‘Mosque of Abraham’.”

Derek Gilbert Second Coming of Saturn, p.64 “For most of the last 4,000 years most people assumed that Abraham came from northern Mesopotamia. Until Wooley, Bible scholars generally believed the patriarch had come from southern Turkey.”  (Urkesh, now Tell Mozan, was 100 miles east of Harran.)

But since the 1920s, many have thought Abraham’s birthplace was the Ur in southern Mesopotamia (west of the Euphrates).  Yet the OT LXX and most other evidence to date indicates his birth was east of the Euphrates in northern Mesopotamia, near Urfa/Sanliurfa or Urkesh.  Perhaps future archaeological findings will more conclusively identify an exact location, be it northern or southern Mesopotamia.

 

Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)

This is a subject related to Biblical morality that most Christians and Western churches haven’t examined in-depth.  Before proceeding with it, please be advised…the subject is very controversial!  

This topic examines Christ’s Old Testament (OT) regulations concerning plural wives & concubines.  You may be shocked to read lesser-known marriage laws of Christ from the OT!  The topic may be hard to hear for those living in modern Western culture.

Our English term polygamy (from ca 1600 AD) includes polygyny (1780 AD), one man cohabiting with plural wives; polyandry (1780), one woman cohabiting with plural husbands.  Are these lawful options in God’s eyes?  The terms are derived from the Greek poly/many, gamos/marriage, gyne/wife.  Some today don’t differentiate between polygamy and polygyny, as if they’re interchangeable terms.

Our modern society is decadent.  Illicit sex, licentiousness, abortion, divorce are rampant.  Divorce & remarriage is a form of serial monogamy, called consecutive polygyny and consecutive polyandry.  

Greco-Roman society was monogamous on the surface.  Yet it had widespread prostitution, pederasty, sexual perversion, divorce, as we today.  A. Isaksson wrote, “In Rome divorces were so numerous, they constituted a serious social problem.”  The divorce problem wasn’t quite as bad in 1^st century Palestine.

Anciently, concubinage was a recognized arrangement; it loosely compares to a ‘mistress staying in the house’.  Concubinage was also present in the Mediterranean world, especially within the military.  S.M. Baugh Marriage and Family in Ancient Greek Society “Concubinage was widespread and commonly accepted among the Greeks and Romans.”  But it wasn’t legally fully marriage in Roman society.  Wikipedia: Concubinage “Concubinage was an institution of quási-marriage between Roman citizens who for various reasons did not want to enter into a full marriage.”

Roman Empire law didn’t include all the OT guidelines for marriage that Christ had revealed to His people ancient Israel.  However, 1^st century Jews (and Persians?) were allowed by Rome to continue practicing the OT laws & principles of their traditional marriages.  The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) wrote, Wars of the Jews 1:24:2, “It being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many wives”.

But regardless of cultural influences, God defines true morality.  He defines what is and isn’t sexual sin.  Laws of human governments and customs of nations may or may not reflect God’s morality! 

First, a blanket statement…scripture indicates that irresponsible casual sex isn’t God’s way.

Christ commanded in Ex.20:14 and Mt.5:27, “You shall not commit adultery”.  It’s a form of sexual sin.  Adultery is committed when a man has sex with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man.  Betrothal was a legal commitment, prior to consummation.  The adulterous man can be married or single; his marital status isn’t a factor.  Her marital status is the key!  The scriptures reveal that adultery always involves a wife or betrothed woman who broke wedlock; another man stole her, in a sense.  Moody Bible Institute Professor of Theology William F. Luck The Morality of Biblical Polygyny, p.14 “Adultery was always defined by the woman’s marital status, never the man’s.”  Thus it was impossible for an OT widow, divorcee, or otherwise single woman to commit adultery!

We’ll see that a man lawfully could live with plural wives.  It is authorized in scripture (if practiced responsibly).  That is, if he didn’t steal a wife from her husband.  Ex.20:15 “You shall not steal.”

Ex.20:17 LXX “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his field, his servant, his maid, his cattle…nor whatever belongs to your neighbor.”  Wrong coveting can occur regarding another’s wife, his male and female servants, etc.  But nothing is said about singles coveting another’s husband!  A man was allowed simultaneous wives in Christ’s theocracy.  So a single woman could rightly desire a married man.  (This indulgence is strange to our Western minds.)

Going back even prior to ancient Israel…Ge.20 King Abimélech of Gerár had a (free) wife and maid concubine wives (v.17).  v.2-3 then he took Sarah from Abraham her husband, thinking she was only his “sister”.  But God quickly revealed to him in a dream that she’s married.  v.4-ff Abimelech said, “Lord…in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this thing.’ God said, ‘I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Restore the man’s wife.”  Abimelech had acted with integrity.  His sin wasn’t him having plural wives.  His sin was…the woman he took, Sarah, was another man’s wife.  Abraham and Abimelech both were gentiles/non-Jews.  (Note: Later, 1450 BC Núzi tablets found in northern Iraq evidence a man’s wife legally could be considered his sister.  Ge.13:8 also Abrám had called his nephew Lot his “brother”.)

Ge.12:10-20 the gentile/non-Jew Pharaoh of Egypt too mistakenly took Sarah for ritual purification, so she could become his wife.  After the Lord caused him to realize his mistake, Pharaoh even blessed Abram (Sarah’s husband) with livestock and male & female servants/maids!

Ge.16:1-9 the Egyptian maid Hagár became wife to Abram (v.3).  Their tie constituted marriage.  She was his concubine or secondary wife.  That isn’t immoral.  But strife arose…Sarah treated Hagar harshly, v.6; Ishmaél (son of Abraham-Hagar) lacked proper respect for Isaac (son of Abraham-Sarah), Ge.21:9-10.  Lack of respect resulted in…divorce (garásh Strongs h1644, Hebrew) the bondwoman wife!  (ref divorce/drive out h1644 in: Pr.22:10, Nu.30:9, Le.21:7, 22:13, Ezk.44:22, Ga.4:30.)

Ge.25:1-2 Abraham also took a concubine wife named Keturáh (1Ch.1:32), who bore him six sons.  Ge.25:6 “To the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living.”  Concubinage isn’t sin.  And according to the apostle Paul, Abraham is the father of the faithful (Ro.4:16; cf. He.11:8, 13).  Also Abraham’s brother Nahór had a concubine named Reumáh (Ge.22:23-24).

The OT Hebrew loan word translated concubine is peléhgesh h6370, occurring 37 times.  The Aramaic is h3904 (Da.5:2, 3, 23).  The corresponding term in the OT Greek LXX, g3825.1, occurs 41 times.

Jb.1:8 God said His servant Job (a gentile) was a blameless, upright man.  Yet in his trials, Job’s wife and surviving offspring didn’t console him.  Jb.19:17-18 LXX Job lamented, “I besought my wife, and earnestly entreated the sons of my concubines. But they rejected me.”  Righteous Job had concubines.

The earlier (gentile) Lámech, the first man in scripture with two wives, killed a man (Ge.4:19-24).  Therefore, some presume that all polygyny is wrong.  Tom Shipley Man and Woman in Biblical Law “The fact that Lamech was evil does not, and cannot, prove that his polygamy was evil, as well. The above syllogism [premise] is ‘reductio ad absurdum.”  (Good men too, in scripture, were polygynous.)

Ge.30:1-24 Israel’s 12 tribes descended from the patriarch Jacob and his four wives.  Leah & Rachel were his free wives, Bilháh & Zilpah his ‘secondary’ bond wives.  v.4 “Rachel gave Jacob her maid Bilhah as a wife.”  Jacob, whose name God changed (Ge.32:28) to “Israel”, wasn’t an adulterer! (cf. De.23:2)  Cohabiting with four wives, he was ‘one flesh’ with each.  The OT people Christ loved above all others, the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, weren’t illegitimately fathered by an adulterer!  (Note: A wife’s maid being given to the wife’s husband is also evident in the ancient Code of Hammurabi #146.)

So far, we see that having plural wives was morally acceptable to gentiles/non-Jews and Jacob/Israel!  Godly and ungodly men of the Bible had plural wives.  Later, during Moses’ time, Christ gave codified laws/regulations to His theocratic nation Israel.  (see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)  His laws define marriage in God’s sight, adultery, and prescribe consequences for violations.

De.22:22-27 shows the joint penalty for adultery, consensual sex with a woman married or betrothed to another man.  If the offender raped her, only he is guilty.  Le.19:20 the penalty for having sex with a bondmaid acquired for another man was less than that for a free woman.  (Less station & limited loyalty effected less penalty/fine for the bondmaid, not yet fully espoused.)  If a man, single or married, had sex with a virgin residing with her father, he’s to marry her, De.22:28-29 & Ex.22:16-17…not ignore her.

De.21:15-17 “If a man has two wives…”  Polygyny wasn’t unlawful.  This passage shows that (among free wives) the double-portion inheritance right of the eldest son was protected.  Pulpit Commentary De.21:15 “He mustn’t allow his love for the other [wife] to prejudice the right of the son.”  De.17:15-17 though plural wives & horses wasn’t sin, the king wasn’t to multiply to himself horses or pagan wives.  (Horses were used mostly for war.)  No large pagan harems!  Solomon later violated this, 1Ki.11:1-4.

But Christ/God forbad incestual polygyny.  Le.18:7-8 a man mustn’t have sex with his mother, nor with any other of his father’s wives (Ge.35:22, 49:4; 1Co.5:1).  Nor with his own daughter (Le.18:17, 20:14).

Jesus the Man didn’t repeat all these His commands.  Yet they still define His morality.  He said, “It is written!” Mt.4:4, 7, 10.  Polygyny is authorized, but polyandry is adultery.  Married prostitutes too are adulteresses.  (The topic “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape” examines sexual immorality more in-depth.)

Ex.21:7-11 describes God’s law of concubines.  “If a man takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing or conjugal dues of his first wife.”  Ellicott Commentary Ex.21:10 “Polygamy is viewed as lawful in this passage.”  That is, polygyny; it isn’t immoral in Christ’s theocracy.  Cambridge Bible Ex.21:10 “The case contemplated is that of a well-to-do Israelite who could have several concubines.”

Is.4:1 this prophecy too shows that polygyny isn’t adultery. “Seven women will take hold of one man in that day, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”  Many men had died in warfare, Is.3:25 (cf. Je.15:8).  Is.4:1 women were even willing to relinquish two of the supports the Lord designated in Ex.21:10, so long as her husband gives her conjugal dues!  JFB Commentary Is.4:1 “Foregoing the privileges, which the law (Ex.21:10) gives to wives, when a man has more than one. ‘Reproach’ – being unmarried and childless.”  An unmarried and childless woman later might lack sustenance in her old age.    

De.21:10-15 describes God’s law of war brides, so-called. “When you go to war against your enemies and God delivers them into your hands, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and would take her as a wife for yourself….If a man has two wives….”  A war bride wasn’t to be raped.  The Israelite was to bring her to his house; she must renounce her heathen customs, and be allowed to mourn her mother & father for a month.  The month delay would reveal if she was already pregnant before her capture.  Only after the month would she become the Israelite’s concubine wife, and sexual relations then ensue.  Married into God’s theocracy, she could learn the ways of the true God.  If the man wasn’t pleased with her, she was to be given her complete freedom; he wasn’t to sell his concubine for money.     

Nu.31:18-ff virgins were among the spoils taken from the slaughter of God’s vengeance against Midián.  The Lord said in v.18, “All the girls who have never had sexual relations, keep for yourselves”.  v.27, 32-47 the total of virgins taken was divided into two halves, for the Israelite warriors and non-warriors.  A small % of the girls (0.2%) were for the priests, v.40.  (But the high priest could only marry a virgin Israelitess, not foreigners, Le.21:10-14.)  Gill Exposition Le.21:13 “Polygamy [polygyny] was practiced by the Israelites, even by the common priests.”  Christ’s OT Levitical priests weren’t celibate!

De.25:5-10 was Christ’s levirate law, so-called.  A brother-in-law or near relative, even if he’s already married, was to marry a deceased Israelite’s widow who had no son.  The Latin word levir meant ‘husband’s brother’.  Without children, a man’s family name was “blotted out of Israel”.  Widowhood could result in poverty for an aging woman with no son to help provide for her!  Maurice Nelson The Monogamy Lie! “Levirate marriage could be seen as a type of Life Insurance for a widow.”

Ruth’s Jewish husband had died.  Ru.4:1-10 Bóaz and the closer relative possibly were both married.  William Luck op. cit., p.21 “Polygyny was not immoral, per se; widow-neglect based on commitment to monogamy was.”  A widow was even authorized to spit in the face of a brother-in-law, single or married, who refused to marry her (De.25:9)!  Boaz married Ruth, and fathered a son for her (Ru.4:13).

Several godly men of faith had plural wives/concubines.  Joshua & Caleb were the two faithful spies, and survived into the Promised Land.  They were guided by the Holy Spirit (Nu.14:24, 30, 27:18; Jsh.14:13).  1Ch.2:46-49 Caleb had two concubines.  (Caleb’s daughter was Áchsah, cf. Jsh.15:16.)

Manásseh was the firstborn son of Joseph, and grandson of Jacob.  Of the 12 tribes, God allotted his tribe the largest area in the Land! (cf. Jsh.17.)  1Ch.7:14 Manasseh had an Aramean/Syrian concubine.

Wikipedia: Concubinage “Among the Israelites, men commonly acknowledged their concubines, and such women enjoyed the same rights in the house as legitimate wives.  2Sm.3:7 NASB footnote “A concubine was much more than a mistress. In a sense, she was a ‘secondary wife’ (Ex.21:8-10, De.21:11-13). She was considered a member of the household, by an official ceremony of appointment, and she had the rights of a married woman. Concubines were usually acquired by purchase or were captives taken in war. She could be ‘divorced’ summarily, but never as a slave.”  2Sm.3:7 King Saul had a concubine named Rízpah (and other wives – 1Sm.14:50, 2Sm.12:7-8).  A concubine lead-servant was to courteously submit to the first (free) wife, so she wouldn’t be jealous.

Most men were monogamous, having one wife in marriage (at a time).  Yet concubinage was a respected marital option in the OT and ancient world.  It resembles heterosexual civil union, as done in some nations today.  Our English word concubine comes from the Latin word concubina, meaning ‘to lie together’.  But our word concubine means more than that.  The meanings and customary practice of concubinage in various nations may differ from what God authorized millennia ago in scripture.

Jg.8:30-32 “Gideon had 70 sons, for he had many wives. His concubine in Shechém also bore him a son, Abimélech. Gideon died at a good old age.”  (The concubine is called his “maidservant” in Jg.9:18.)  Gill Exposition Jg.8:31 “His concubine, a secondary or half wife; generally taken from handmaids.”  Concubinage & plural wives isn’t adultery…Gideon wasn’t living in sin!  The warrior-judge Gideon was chosen and empowered by God to save Israel out of Midianite oppression (Jg.6:14, 34).  Gideon, who had “many wives”, is listed in He.11:32-33 among the faithful.  The Christian association Gideon’s International, which freely distributes Bibles, is named after this polygynist.

1Sm.1:1-3 Samuel’s father Elkanáh cohabited with two wives, Peninnáh and Hannáh.  Every year he took his family to sacrifice at the Lord’s tabernacle, at Shilóh.  Elkanah was a devout man; he wasn’t living in sin!  Samuel was the eldest son of Elkanah’s second wife Hannah.  Samuel was then fostered by Eli the high priest (1Sm.1:28, 2:11), and became a renowned prophet-judge.  Samuel was born in lawful wedlock, he wasn’t illegitimate!  De.23:2 none illegitimate shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

King Joásh of Judah had two wives.  2Ch.24:1-3 “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiadá the priest. And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.”  The chief priest selected two wives for Joash!  Joash’s cohabitation with two wives didn’t contradict his doing “right in the eyes of the Lord”.  v.15-16 and Jehoiada the priest did well to Israel and to God; he was buried with honor.  Jehoiada hadn’t sinned by giving two wives to the king.

The scriptures reveal that monogamy and polygyny are both lawful marital options, according to Christ’s morality, in His theocracy.  Where He set the rules & regulations.  And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! (He.13:8)  He’s not fickle and His moral principles don’t flip-flop!

Lauren Heiligenthal writes in her book Evaluating Western Christianity’s Interpretation of Biblical Polygamy, p.17 “While scholars and missiologists [studiers of missions] may suggest that monogamy is God’s ideal, Scripture is neither forthcoming with this claim nor does it prohibit polygamy.”

Later, polygamy was legal throughout the Persian Empire (559–331 BC) of the Intertestamental Period.

But when Jesus the man incarnated, He didn’t set the rules in Roman Empire provinces of the 1^st century AD.  His followers too were and are subject to the (marital) laws of our various nations.  So normally God’s moral option of polygyny isn’t advised in nations where it’s disallowed legally.

Other polygynists are seen in the Bible.  But little is in view in the pagan Greco-Roman culture of the New Testament epistles, where most gentiles legally were to be monogamous.

This topic is continued and concluded in “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (2)”.

 

Job and the Land Of Uz (2)

This topic was begun in “Job and the Land of Uz (1)”.  This Part 2 is a continuation.  Most of the material that was presented in (1) to identify the land of Uz won’t be repeated here in (2).

Let’s now look to identify the ancestry of Job’s four visitors, and associate the time period when Job lived.  The lineages of the four visitors differ, although it seems their common ancestor is Térah, father of Abraham.  All four are gentiles, descending from: Nahór, Abraham/Keturáh, Ishmaél, probably Esau.

Jb.2:11 LXX “When Job’s three friends heard of all the evil that had befallen him, they came each one from his own country: Elipház king of the Temanítes, Bildád king of the Shuhítes, Sophár king of the Mináeans.”  The LXX refers to these three friends as kings of their respective peoples.

Yet Job was the “greatest of the men of the East” (Jb.1:3), greater than his kingly friends.  Job had more wealth, power, authority and influence.  He said in Jb.29:25, “I dwelt as a king among his troops”.

After the three kings had conversed or argued with Job, Job’s fourth friend speaks up.  He is Elihú, Job’s younger countryman.  We’ll identify Elihu first.

Jb.32:2 LXX “Elihu the son of Baráchiel, the Buzite [Strongs h940 Hebrew], of the kindred of Ram [Arám?], of the land of Ausítis [Uz].”  In the Greek LXX, Uz is called Ausitis.  Job too was from Ausitis/Uz.  Jb.1:1 LXX “There was a man in the land of Ausitis [Uz] whose name was Job.”  Job, in the land of Uz/Ausitis, was one of the “men of the East”.  His fellow Uzite Elihu was too.

The Buzites probably descended from Buz, the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor (Nahor was discussed in Part 1).  Ge.22:20-23 “Milcáh has born children to your [Abraham’s] brother Nahor, Uz [h5780] his firstborn and Buz [h938] his brother, and Kemuél the father of Aram…and Bethuél.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.22:21 “Buz – probably he was the ancestor of Elihu (Job 32:2).”  Benson Commentary Jb.32:2 “[Elihu] of the posterity of Buz, Nahor’s son.”  Book of Jasher 22:21 “The sons of Buz [Nahor’s son] were Barachiel….”  Elihu is descended from a Barachiel (Jb.32:2).  Pulpit Commentary Jb.32:2 “By ‘Ram’ we are probably to understand ‘Aram’, the son of Kemuel, a brother of Uz and Buz.”  In 2Chr.22:5, Araméans/Syrians are “Ram-mée (h7421 Ramites).  So Job and Elihu, dwelling in Uz/Ausitis, were probably Arameans geographically.  Both may descend from Abraham’s nephew Uz.  Nahor, the father of Uz, had dwelt in Arám-naharáim/Mesopotámia (Ge.24:10).

Job’s friend Bildad was king of the Shuhites (h7747, Jb.2:11).  Ellicott Commentary Jb.2:11 “Bildad the Shuhite probably derived his origin from Shúah, the son of Abraham by Keturáh.”  Shuah was one of the six sons had by Abraham and his concubine wife Keturah.  Ge.25:1-2 “Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. She bore to him Zimrán, Jokshán, Medán, Midián, Ishbák and Shuah [h7744].”  (Moses’ wife Zipporáh descended from Midian.)  JFB Commentary Ge.25:2 “From Shuah, Bildad seems to be descended, Job 2:11.”

So Bildad too descended from Terah and Terah’s son Abraham.  Jasher 25:5 “The sons of Shuach [son of Abraham] were Bildad….”  Barnes Notes Jb.2:11 “The country of the Shuhites,’ says Gesenius, ‘eastward of Batanea.”  Batanea was the ancient land of Bashán, which lay NE of the Jordan River.

Job’s friend Sophar/Zophar was king of the Minaeans or Naamathites (Jb.2:11).  The Minaean region was in Arabia; they did extensive spice trade.  TimeMaps: History of Arabia “There is evidence for Minaean trading activity as far north as Gaza (in Palestine), and indeed as far afield as Egypt, and even Greece.”  The boundaries of the territory ruled by Sophar are uncertain.

ISBE: Naamathite “A dweller in Naaman’; ho M(e)inaion basileus.”  The king of Naaman/Minaean.  Smith’s Bible Dictionary: Naamathite “Probably the Naamah where he lived was on the Arabian borders of Syria.”  (Also, a Naamah was a town in the land which later was allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh.15:41, “toward the coast of Edom southward”.)  Zophar’s territory & ancestry isn’t certain.

Some sources tie Zophar to Esau’s grandson Zephó.  Ge.36:15-16 “The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, are chief Temán, chief Omár, chief Zepho (Sophar LXX)….chief Amalék. These are the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom.”  Wesley’s Notes Jb.2:11 “Zophar is thought to be the same with Zepho (Ge.36:11), a descendant of Esau.”  W.H. Bennett Genesis “Zepho is Zephí in Chronicles [1Ch.1:36], or according to the LXX, Zophar, which is probably the original form, cf. Zophar in Job.”

Ge.36:11-12 “The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho [LXX Sophar], Gatám, Kenáz…and Amalek”  An Eliphaz was a son of Esau (Jacob’s twin brother).  A Sophar/Zepho was Esau’s grandson.  Job’s friend Zophar was perhaps this individual, the grandson of Esau.

If King Zophar of Jb.2:11 was the Zepho of Ge.36:11, then most likely the King Eliphaz of Jb.2:11 wasn’t the Eliphaz of Ge.36:11.  It would be unusual for a father and his son Zophar (of Ge.36:11) to be ruling two different kingdoms simultaneously.

Jasher 64:6, 25 “Zepho reigned over all the children of Chíttim [Italy or Cyprus]….Zepho the son of Eliphaz [Ge.36:11] the son of Esau king of Chittim, and Hadád the son of Bedád king of Edom [Ge.36:35], encamped together.”  This traditional book says Zepho (Zophar Ge.36 LXX) was a king and son of Eliphaz.  But it doesn’t indicate that his father Eliphaz (Esau’s son) reigned over any peoples.

Was Job’s friend Eliphaz, king of the Temanites (Jb.2:11)…a descendant of Esau, or Ishmael?  There’s no Eliphaz in Genesis before Ge.36:4 (a son of Esau).  But Temá occurs earlier in Genesis:

Tema h8485 “desert”; of foreign derivation.  5 usages: Ge.25:15, 1Ch.1:30, Jb.6:19, Is.21:14, Je.25:23.  Strongs Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary “Tema, a son of Ishmael, and the region settled by him.”

Tema h8487 “south”.  11 usages: Ge.36:11, 15, 42, 1Ch.1:36, 53, Je.49:7, 20, Ezk.25:13, Am.1:12, Ob.1:9, Hab.3:3.  These verses relate to Esau/Edom.

Temanite h8489 “south to the right”.  8 usages: Ge.36:34, 1Ch.1:45, Jb.2:11, 4:1, 15:1, 22:1, 42:7-9.

“Tema” first appears in Ge.25:13-16, “The names of the sons of Ishmael are Nebaióth [the Nábateans], Kedár…Tema [h8485].”  Ishmael (son of Abraham & Hagar) had 12 sons, one of whom was Tema.  The tribe of the Temanites descended from this Tema, the son of Ishmael and grandson of Abraham.

Jb.6:19a “The caravans of Tema [h8485] looked for them [streams].”  Ishmael fathered Tema.  JFB Commentary Jb.6:19 “N of Arabia Déserta, near the Syrian desert, called from Tema son of Ishmael (Gen.25:15).”  Barnes Notes Jb.6:19 “This was the country of Eliphaz, and the image would be well understood by him. The caravans from Tema, journeying through the desert, looking for those streams.”

Is.21:11-17 is the oracles concerning Edom, Arabia, the caravans of Dedanítes (Ge.25:3), the land of Tema (Ge.25:15), and Kedar (Ge.25:13).  These were 5 different tribes of peoples, all descended from Abraham.  e.g. Edomites weren’t Temanites originally.  Je.25:23-24 “Dedán, Tema, Buz.”  These are 3 different tribes.  Eliphaz was a Temanite (Elihu was a Buzite, Jb.32:2).

Pulpit Commentary Jb.2:11 “There was an Eliphaz, the son of Esau, who had a son Teman (Ge.36:4; 1Ch.1:35-36); but it is not supposed that this can be the person here intended [Job’s friend Eliphaz].”  Fathers precede their sons.  In Ge.36:11, Eliphaz was the father, Teman his son (not vice versa).  To refer to King Eliphaz as a Temanite, carrying his son’s name, isn’t patrilogical.  That’s backwards.  Whereas, the son Teman might be called an ‘Eliphazite’ or ‘Eliphazian’, after his father.

Christopher Schwinger Origin of the Book of Job “Eliphaz the Temanite is obviously not Eliphaz the father of Teman in Gen 36’s Edomite genealogy [Ge.36:11], unless the father is living in the city of Teman which his son established.”  But in Jb.2:11 LXX, Eliphaz was king of his “own country”.

Nave’s Topical Bible: Tema “A people of Arabia, probably descendants from Tema, Ishmael’s son.”  Easton Bible Dictionary: Tema “South; desert, one of the sons of Ishmael and father of a tribe so-called (Ge.25:15), some 250 miles SE of Edom in the N part of the Arabian peninsula, toward the Syrian desert; the modern Teymá.”  Wikipedia: Tayma “Tayma or Tema, located in NW Saudi Arabia, about 400 miles N of Medina. The Biblical eponym is apparently Tema, one of the sons of Ishmael.”

Ge.36:34b circa 1767 BC, Hushám from the land of the Temanites became king of Edom (for 20 years, Jasher 58:29).  He was from the land of Tema, the son of Ishmael (Ge.25:15).  Wikipedia: Land of Tema “The place where descendants of Ishmael’s son Tema dwelt. The Land of Tema was most likely in N Saudi Arabia, and has been identified with the modern Teima, an oasis. Noted people associated: Husham, Eliphaz the Temanite.”  They were both from the land of Tema, the son of Ishmael.

So Job’s friend Eliphaz probably was a Temanite descended from Ishmael, not an Edomite descended from Esau.  Jash.57:9 whereas Eliphaz the son of Esau as military leader was killed ca 1810 BC at age 83 in Rameses, Egypt.  That Eliphaz, an Edomite from Esau, wasn’t a Temanite.

Another people in the book of Job are the Sabéans.  Jb.6:19b “Travelers from Shebá [Sabeans LXX] search for them [streams].”  Joseph Jacobs Sabeans “In Job 6:19 the Sabeans are mentioned in close association with the Temeans, an Ishmaelitish stock (Gen.25:15) that dwelt in Arabia (Isa.21:14, cf. Jer.25:23-24). Sheba must be carefully distinguished from the Cushite or African Seba (Gen.10:7).”

Sheba, from whom the Sabeans are thought to have descended, was a son of Jokshan and a grandson of Abraham by his concubine wife Keturah (Ge.25:1-6).  JFB Commentary Jb.1:15 “Sabeans, descending from Sheba, grandson of Abraham and Keturah.”  Sheba’s brother Dedan was a grandson.  Shuah, from whom the Shuhites (Bildad) seem to be descended, was a son of Abraham & Keturah.  So was Midian.

The Sabeans (from Sheba) and Minaeans were Arabian peoples.  Joseph Jacobs op. cit.  “Sabeans territory was situated between those of the Mineans and Cattabanes [of Arabia].”  Catholic Encyclopedia, Arabia, p.665 “The two most important kingdoms of ancient Arabia are that of the Minaens and that of the Sabeans, whence the Queen of Saba [Sheba] came to King Solomon.”

To recap…The above sources indicate that Job’s four visitors most likely descended from: Nahor (Elihu), Abraham/Keturah (Bildad), Esau (Zophar/Zepho), Ishmael (Eliphaz).  And all are from Terah.

Let’s now turn our attention to dating the time period in which Job lived.  Job lived for 140 years or so after his ordeal (Jb.42:16).  The Lord blessed Job double afterwards (cf. Jb.1:3 & 42:12).  So God extended Job’s lifespan to perhaps 200 years (indicative of a patriarch).  Also, Job’s wealth was measured in livestock…reflective of the patriarchal age (see Part 1).  Jb.42:11 the qeesetáw (Hebrew) piece/weight of money is ancient…the term occurs elsewhere in scripture only in Ge.33:19 & Jsh.24:32.

Job lived in the land of Uz long after the Noachian Flood.  Cambridge Bible Jb.22:16 “The reference is probably to the Deluge.”  Job fathered 20 children (Jb.1:2, 42:13), in two families.  He was a patriarch.

Uz & Buz, and Ishmael were all three of the same generation.  From Dr. Martin Anstey’s chart in The Romance of Bible Chronology, p.8, Ishmael lived from 2031–1894 BC.  (see the topic “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.)  Ishmael’s son Tema, progenitor of the Temanites, would’ve been alive in the 1900s BC.  So would Nahor’s son Buz, progenitor of the Buzites.  The Temanite (Jb.2:11) and Buzite (Jb.32:2) clans grew in the 1800s BC.  They had become peoples by the time Job lived.  So Job’s trials wouldn’t have been prior to the 1800s BC (before the Temanites & Buzites emerged as tribes).

Hyksos, Kings of Egypt and the Land of Edom: “Job speaks of ‘the troops of Tema’ (Jb.6:l9). Assuming that Tema is one of the tribes descended from Ishmael (Gen. 25:l5), we would then have positive proof that Job also lived after the time of Ishmael. At the same time Job speaks also of ‘the companies of Sheba’ [Jb.6:19] who would be descendants of Sheba, a half-brother to Ishmael. The orthodox view has been that the Book of Job belongs to the era before the Exodus.”  So Job lived sometime between the time of Ishmael (died 1894 BC) and Israel’s exodus from Egypt (ca 1612 BC).

In the Old Testament, the name “Job” (h347) appears only in the book of Job and in Ezk.14:14, 20.

Ge.10:23 the first Uz was a son of an earlier Aram.  Ge.10:26-29 & 1Ch.1:19-23: Jobáb (h3103) and a Sheba were 2 of the 13 sons of Joktan.  Jobab was a name similar to Job.  Joktan and Peleg were the two sons of Eber (the first “Hebrew”).  Joktan is considered the ancestor of many southern Arabian tribes.  This Jobab was the same generation as Peleg’s son Reu.  (Jobab and Reu were 1^st cousins.)  Reu was great-great-grandfather to Abrám.  That would place Reu and Jobab four generations before Abraham!

But since there were no Buzite, Ishmaelite, or Temanite tribes until at least a few generations after Abraham… it’s highly unlikely that the early Jobab (h3103) of Ge.10:29 is the man in the book of Job.

There may have been a Iob who was an Israelite, a grandson of Jacob.  Ge.46:13 lists the sons of Issachár (born ca 1870 BC) who went to Egypt with Jacob (ca 1827 BC), “Tolá, Puváh, Iob [h3102, Asum in LXX], Shimrón”.  Cambridge Bible Ge.46:13 “Observe that Iob is a different name than Job in Jb.1:1.”  And in Nu.26:24 & 1Ch.7:1, Issachar’s 3^rd son is named “Jashúb”, not Iob.  In Ge.46:13, “Iob” may be a transcription error (according to Strongs).  Whatever this man’s correct name, he could have been alive in the 1700s BC.

But Iob/Jashub the son of Issachar, having gone to Egypt with Jacob ca 1827 BC, would’ve died in Egypt prior to the exodus of ca 1612 BC.  Even if he was an infant in 1827 BC, and lived for 200 years, he wouldn’t have lived much past 1627 BC.  That’s before the exodus.  Also, Job was the “greatest of the men of the East”.  Job probably lived many years in “the East” to attain such status.  The tribe of Issachar (later) was allotted territory west of the Jordan River in the land of Canáan (Israel/Palestine).  They weren’t “men of the East”.  The land of Canaan itself wasn’t “the East” from the land of Canaan.

Catholic Encyclopedia: The Characters of the Poem “Job evidently didn’t belong to the chosen people [Israel]. He lived, indeed, outside of Palestine. Job belonged to the ‘people of the East’. Job seems to have been an Aramean.”  (see Part 1 for Aramean detail.)

So it’s unlikely that the book of Job is about an Israelite, a descendant of Jacob/Israel.

Next, a postscript which was added to the Septúagint version of the book of Job will be considered, as well as names & chronologies from the (supposed) Book of Jasher.

This topic is concluded in “Job and the Land of Uz (3).

Job and the Land Of Uz (1)

The book of Job is said to contain more questions than any other book of the Bible.  The struggle and patient endurance (Ja.5:11 & Jb.7:16 LXX) of the man Job argues the question of justice.  After reading through the book, we see it is the pride of man which questions an act of God in judging that man.  We are to trust God’s wisdom, regardless of our circumstances (cf. Ec.7:12-14, Jb.28:12-28, 42:1-2).

However, the purpose of this topic isn’t to discuss the lesson or message of the book of Job.  My intention is to locate the ancient land of Uz, and place the patriarch Job in the Bible timeline.

Jb.1:1 “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and abstaining from evil.”  Job was a righteous man (Ezk.14:20), an ancient gentile/non-Jew Godfearer.  (see “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)  The Lord questioned the adversary in Jb.1:8, “Have you considered My servant Job? There is none like him.”  Job was God’s servant.  The book of Job shows that Job practiced the Golden Rule.  Jesus said in Mt.7:12, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them.”  Job cared for others (ref Jb.31:16-23).

{Sidelight: Jb.1-2 is one of the adversary’s three main appearances in the Bible canon.  The other two are Ge.3 and Mt.4/Lk.4.  He’s in Zec.3:1-2 (to a lesser extent), and in many New Testament references.}

There isn’t consensus among Bible historians as to who wrote/compiled the book of Job.  Rabbinic tradition ascribes the book of Job to Moses (though the writing style is said to be dissimilar).

Chuck Swindoll: Job “The author of the book of Job is unknown. Several suggestions have been put forth as plausible authors: Job himself, who could have best recalled his own words; Elihú, the fourth friend who spoke toward the end of the story; various biblical writers and leaders; or many editors who compiled the material over the years. It was most likely an eyewitness who recorded the detailed and lengthy conversations found in the book. In Old Testament times, authors sometimes referred to themselves in the 3^rd person, so Job’s authorship is a strong possibility….Though we cannot be certain, Job may have lived during the time of Jacob or shortly thereafter.”  The time of the patriarchs.

The Aramaic Peshítta is the Bible of the church in the East.  Stephen Vicchio Job in the Ancient World, p.202 “The Peshitta’s Job is to be found immediately after the Toráh and before the historical works; between Deuteronomy and Joshua.”  p.215 “This position in the canon must have seemed appropriate as a 6^th book about early patriarchs.”  That places Job sometime prior to Joshua’s conquest of Canáan.

Elon Gilad Who Really Wrote the Book of Job? “The language in Job is unlike any other found in the Bible, or outside it. True, the book is written in Hebrew, but it is very strange Hebrew indeed. It has more unique words than any other book of the Hebrew Bible. The language is archaic, which would indicate that it was very ancient.”  Bible scholars are unsure as to who completed the book of Job.

The Reese Chronological Bible, p.19, puts Job’s birth during “The Age of the Patriarchs, ca 1967 BC”.

Job lived in the “land of Uz”, and was “the greatest of the men of the East” (Jb.1:1-3).  Evidently Uz was located E of the ancient land of Canaan/Palestine.  Uz is called Ausítis in Jb.1:1 LXX/Septúagint.

There are places today which traditionally claim to be the city or region of Job.  Many Bible readers think the land of Uz where Job lived was located SE of Canaan, in Edom or Arabia.  Edom, Arabia and Midian were the land areas E of the Gulf of Áqaba and the Sinai Peninsula.  Midian was E of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the NW of the Arabian desert.  Edom lay N of Midian, and across the Sinai Peninsula E of Egypt.  (Moab was N of Edom, Ammon was N/NE of Moab.)  However, Edom and Midian weren’t part of Mesopotámia (located E of Canaan).  Rather, both Edom and Midian lay south of the land of Canaan.

Jb.1:3 Job was the greatest of the “men [Strongs h1121, or sons] of the East [h6924]”.  What land areas were in the East, where “men of the East” lived?  The expression “men of the East” occurs 10 other times in the Old Testament: Ge.29:1, Jdg.6:3, 33, 7:12, 8:10, 1Ki.4:30, Is.11:14, Je.49:28, Ezk.25:4, 10.

Ge.29:1 Jacob went to the land of the “men of the East”, to Labán the Araméan/Syrian (Ge.28:5).  Nu.23:7 Balák king of Moab brought Balaám “from Arám [Mesopotamia LXX], from the mountains of the East”.  Is.9:12 “Arameans [h758] from the east, Philistines from the west.”  Arameans or Syrians were “men of the East”.  Jdg.6:3 men of the East.  Cambridge Bible Jdg.6:3 “Bedouins from the desert E of Moab and Ammon.”  Ezk.25:4 the Lord would allow men of the East to settle on Ammonite land.  Ellicott Commentary Ezk.25:4 “The various nomadic tribes inhabiting the eastern deserts.”  The desert lay E of Ammon.  This desert of Syria/N Arabia was inhabited by “men of the East”.

In the Old Testament (OT), “men of the East” refers to Arameans/Syrians; also to nomads or Bedouins of the north Arabian & Syrian desert (east of Moab and Ammon); and to Chaldéans.

Pulpit Commentary Jb.1:3 “Men of the east’ seems to include the entire population between Palestine and the Euphrates”.  Fairbairn’s Bible Dictionary “The East [Jb.1:3] denotes not only the countries which lay directly E of Palestine, but those which stretched also toward the N and E – Armenia, Assyria, Babylonia, Parthia, as well as the territories of Moab, Ammon, and Arabia Déserta.”

“Men of the East” didn’t refer to peoples to the South, such as Edomites, Midianites, Amalekites.  Barnes Notes Is.11:14 “Edom – Idúmea; the country settled by the descendants of Esau, that was south of Judea.”  Ge.36:8 “Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom.”

Since Job was the greatest of the “men of the East”…the land of Uz/Ausitis was in the East.  Uz wasn’t in Edom (inhabited by descendants of Esau and Seir the Horite); Uz wasn’t in Midian (where Moses dwelt when he fled Egypt).  Descendants of Esau, and the Midianites, mostly lived to the south of Canaan.

In the OT, the word Uz (h5780, Hebrew) appears 6 or 8 times, depending on the Bible version.  Uz is a man’s name in Ge.10:23, 22:21, 36:28, 1Ch.1:17, 42.  Uz is a land in Jb.1:1.  Uz as a land also appears in the Masoretic text Je.25:20 and Lam.4:21; but Uz isn’t in the LXX Je.25:20/32:20 or Lam.4:21.  We understand that Jeremiah wrote ca 1,000 years after the time of the patriarchs; peoples migrate and boundaries change over the centuries.

In Ge.10:23 & 1Ch.1:17, the man Uz, the son of Aram, was a grandson of Shem (and a great-grandson of Noah).  Ge.22:21 another man Uz was the firstborn son of Abraham’s brother Nahór.  In Ge.36:28 & 1Ch.1:42, yet another Uz is a grandson of Seir the Horite.  However, in the LXX Ge.36:28 & 1Ch.1:42, the name of Seir’s grandson is Os/Hos (not Uz).  Whereas in the LXX Ge.10:23 & Ge.22:21, the name is Uz.  So the name is questionable in Ge.36:28 & 1Ch.1:42…Uz, or Hos?

Ge.22:20-23 “Milcáh has born children to your [Abraham’s] brother Nahor, Uz [h5780] his firstborn and Buz [h938] his brother, and Kemuél the father of Aram…and Bethuél.”  This Uz was Abraham’s nephew.  Térah, Abram, and Nahor (later?) moved from Ur to Harrán (Ge.11:31) in NW Mesopotamia.  Terah died.  Nahor stayed in Harran.  (God had told Abram to go on to Canaan, Ge.12:1-5.)  The city of Nahor (Ge.24:10) was in Padán-Arám in upper Mesopotamia (h763 Aram-naharáim).

{{Sidelight: Aram and Arphaxád were two of Shem’s sons after the Flood (Ge.10:22).  According to scripture, Terah and his sons descended from Arphaxad (Ge.11:10-26), not Aram.  They weren’t blood Arameans.  But they lived in Harran in the (Syria-Turkey) area originally settled by Aram, son of Shem.  (Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:4 “Aram had the Aramites, which the Greeks call Syrians.”)}}

Gill Exposition Ge.22:21 “Uz his [Nahor’s] firstborn…gave name to the land of Uz where Job dwelt, and who seems to be a descendant of this man, Job 1:1.”  Perhaps Job did descend from Abraham’s brother Nahor (in the lineage of Shem’s son Arphaxad)!  Cambridge Bible Ge.22:21 “Uz as a locality in the Syrian region. It may denote a branch of an Aramean tribe. It appears as the birthplace of Job.”  Uz, the firstborn son of Nahor, was the uncle of “Laban the Aramean [h761]” or Syrian (Ge.31:24).

The city of Nahor was Harran in Mesopotamia (Ge.24:10, 27:43).  bible–study.org “Nahor, whom he [Abraham] had left in Ur of the Chaldees, when he departed from thence. And who afterwards came and dwelt in Harran of Mesopotamia. Genesis 22:21 ‘Uz his [Nahor’s] firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram.’ The first of these gave name to the land of Uz, where Job dwelt, and who seems to be a descendant of this man (Job 1:1). The latter, was the father of the Buzites, of which family Elihu was, that interposed between Job and his friends (Job 32:2).”

Nahor (Ge.24:10), Balaam (De.23:4), also the Syrians with whom David fought (1Ch.19:6)…lived in Mesopotamia (h763 Aram-naharaim).  They lived NE of the land of Canaan towards the area of the Upper Euphrates.  (In the New Testament Greek, “Mesopotamia” g3318 occurs only in Ac.2:9, 7:2.)

Ge.31:53 “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor.”  Abraham’s brother Nahor was uncle to Ishmael & Isaac.  Ge.22:21 Nahor’s sons Uz & Buz & Bethuel were Abraham’s nephews, 1^st cousins of Ishmael & Isaac.  Bethuel was the father of Laban and of Isaac’s wife Rebekah (Nahor’s granddaughter); this Uz & Buz were uncles to Rebekah and Laban.

Laban had idols.  Perhaps his father Bethuel did too?  However, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came to Laban in a dream (Ge.31:24, 29).  Laban knew of the true God YHVH (Ge.24:31)!  Laban may have practiced polytheism.  Yet Abraham wanted a wife for Isaac taken from Nahor’s descendants, not from heathen Canaanites.

Job in the land of Uz had heard of YHVH and believed He was God (Jb.42:1, 5).  Elihu the Buzite (h940), from the family of Ram, may have descended from Buz and Aram the nephew of Buz (Jb.32:2, Ge.22:20-24).  More on Job’s four visitors is in Part 2 of this topic.

So the land of Uz most likely was the territory where one (or both?) of those ancients had lived…Uz the son of Shem, Uz the son of Nahor.  That land of Uz became known as Ausitis (Jb.1:1 LXX).

Josephus op. cit. “Of the four sons of Aram [Ge.10:23], Uz founded Trachonítis and Damascus; this country lies between Palestine and Cele-syria.”  (ref Lk.3:1 the Trachonitis province.)

R.N. Coleman The Poem of Job “Josephus identifies the land of Uz with the territory of Damascus and Trachonitis. The habitual residence of Job was in some portion of ancient Bashán. Ephráem Sýrus, who died AD 379, recorded that the patriarch Job resided in Bashan, having been the predecessor of Og [De.3:10]. He describes Job as a king, a priest, and a prophet of the Gentiles 140 years.”  Bashan was east of the Jordan River.

ISBE: Uz “A kingdom of some importance somewhere in Southern Syria and not far from Judea, having a number of kings.”  Trachonitis was NE of the Jordan (Smith’s Bible Dictionary).  Auranitis was in SW Syria, S of Batanea and Trachonitis.  Some think the Ausitis in the LXX book of Job was Auranitis or Hauran.  (Abraham’s brother Nahor, the father of an Uz, had dwelt in the Syria-Turkey Harran).

Wikipedia: Bashan “After the [Babylonian] Exile, Bashan was divided into four districts: Gaulonitis, the most western; Auranitis, the Hauran (Ezk.47:16); Trachonitis; Batanaea.”

Jsh.21:27 Golan (part of the modern day Golan Heights) of Bashan was part of the eastern half of Manasséh’s territory.  e.g. De.4:43 “Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.”

Wikipedia: Hauran “Auranitis (Hauran) is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area, and people located in SW Syria and extending into the NW corner of Jordan. It includes the Golan Heights to the west; also includes Jabál al-Drúze in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains.  The Yármouk River drains much of Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River.”

And the Jordan River is mentioned in the book of Job!  Jb.40:23 “The Jordan rushes to his mouth.”  Therefore, the land of Uz probably wasn’t all that far from the Jordan River.  Ancient Bashan was east of the Jordan.

Also, the LXX book of Job mentions Phoenícians.  Jb.40:25 LXX “The nations [or races] of the Phoenicians.”  (Jb.40:25-ff isn’t in the Masoretic text.)  There were Phoenicians living in coastal NW Canaan.  ATS Bible Dictionary “The Canaanites, whom the Greeks named Phoenicians.”  Chief cities of Phoenicia (Ac.15:3) were Tyre & Sidon (Ezk.28, Mt.11:21, Jg.10:12), and Byblos.

Ezk.27:23 “Harran [h2771], Canneh, Eden, the traders of Sheba, Asshur, Chilmad traded with you [Tyre of Phoenicia].”  Harran (h2771) in: Ge.11:31, 12:5, 27:43.  LXX Ge.27:43 Rebekah said to Jacob, “Depart quickly into Mesopotamia to Laban my brother in Charan.”  Harran in upper Mesopotamia.

Cambridge Bible Jb.1:1 “The land of Uz probably lay E of Palestine and N of Edom. An interesting tradition places the home of Job in the Nukra, the fertile depression of Bashan at the southeast foot of Hermon. Near the town of Nawa, about 40 miles almost due south of Damascus, and about the latitude of the north end of the sea of Tiberias, there still exist a Makâm; that is, place, or tomb, and monastery of Job. Wetzstein assigns the building to the end of the 3^rd century.”  Pulpit Commentary Jb.1:1 “Arabian tradition regards the region of the Hauran, northeast of Palestine, as Job’s country.”

Franz Delitzsch The Book of Job Commentary “Au’sos [Uz], in Josephus Ant. 1, 6, 4, is described as founder of Trachonitis and Damascus; that the Jakut Hamawi and Moslem tradition generally mention the East Harran fertile tract of country northwest of Têmâ and Bûzân, el-Bethenije, the district of Damascus in which Job dwelt. All these accounts agree that Uz is not to be sought in Idumea [Edom] proper. In later times the territory of Edom extended [e.g. Lam.4:21].”

Stephen Vicchio Job in the Modern World, p 202 “Mugir el-Hambeli says, ‘Job came from the Damascan province of Batanea.’ Moslem tradition suggests that after the death of his father, Job journeyed to Egypt to marry Rahme, the daughter of Ephráim [or Manasseh?], who had inherited from her grandfather Joseph his beautiful robe. Later, Job brought her back to his native Hauran.”  p.203 “The tradition of ‘Job’s well’ or ‘Job’s spring’ is to be identified entirely with the land north and east of the boundaries of Israel and Arabia.”  p.204 “The Hauran Valley of Bashan in the Transjordan. Job’s tomb has been venerated in that region for many years. Almost all Syro-Arabic sources identify the province of Bathania as Job’s ‘land of Uz.’ Bathania also contains a Monastery of Job.”

Again Gill Exposition Ge.22:21 “Uz his [Nahor’s] firstborn…gave name to the land of Uz where Job dwelt, and who seems to be a descendant of this man, Job 1:1.”  Uz is thought to be Job’s ancestor.

This topic is continued in “Job and the Land of Uz (2)”.  In it, we’ll look to identify the ancestry of Job’s four visitors and tribes of peoples in his book, as we associate the time period in which Job lived.

Chronology: Septuagint versus Masoretic Text

This topic shows approximate BC dates for the Old Testament (OT) Patriarchs.  It compares the Greek Septúagint/LXX timeline with the Hebrew Masorétic Text (MT) timeline.  Their timelines aren’t the same.  This topic, with the TABLE below, reflects the BCE period from Adam to Moses.

The MT is the Hebrew OT text in use today.  It was copied by Jewish scribes/Masorétes in Jerusalem and Tibérius between 500–1000 AD.  Masórah basically means ‘tradition’.  Wikipedia: Masoretes “The ben Ashér family was largely responsible for the production of the Masoretic Text, although there existed an alternative Masoretic Text of the ben Naphtalí Masoretes.”  The ben Asher version became authoritative, though some Jewish scholars (Saádia Gáon) preferred the ben Naphtali version.  Toráh scholar Rámbam (1135-1204 AD) approved the ben Asher codexes (bound handwritten manuscript volumes of scriptures).  The oldest complete MT manuscript (ms) is the Leningrad Codex of 1008 AD.

The OT in most of our English Bibles is the MT.  Such as: King James Version (KJV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), English Standard Version (ESV), Jewish Publication Society Tanákh (TNK), etc.

Wikipedia: Septuagint “It is the oldest and most important complete translation of the Hebrew Bible made by the Jews.”  The translation of the Hebrew OT into the Koiné old Greek version was done in stages by Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt.  It was begun circa (c) 270 BC and completed by 132 BC.  S. Douglas Woodward Rebooting the Bible, Part 1, p.28 “The Alexandrian Septuagint, also known as the ‘Old Greek’.”  It has morphed into the LXXs of today.  The Codex Alexándrinus (Alex) of 400 AD is the oldest complete LXX ms we have.  The near complete Codex Vaticánus (Vat) dates from the 300s AD.  However, missing from Vat are the pertinent patriarchal genealogies shown in Ge.5 & Ge.11.

The LXX Alex and LXX Vat codexes both date 600 years (yrs) before the oldest MT codex of 1008 AD.

LXX manuscripts (mss) have differences too (so did MT families).  Today’s Septuagint editions use various old mss.  Following are four English editions of the LXX and Bibles that today contain the LXX:

1 A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Nets), edited by Pietersma & Wright, 2007.  Nets uses the German Gottingen Septuagint and Rahlf’s Septuagínta (1935), whose lead ms is Vat.

2 The Septuagint With Apocrypha: Greek and English (Bre), translated by Sir Lancelot Brenton, 1851.  Bre mainly used Vat, secondarily Alex, and other old mss.

3 The Apostolic Bible Pólyglot (Abp), by Charles Vanderpool, 1996, is a Greek interlinear LXX & New Testament with Strongs numbers.  Abp uses Vat, along with the Compluténsian Polyglot Bible (Madrid), the 1709 Greek OT edited by Lambert Bos (Dutch), the Áldine (Venice) text and Síxtine (Roman) text.

4 The Orthodox Study Bible (Ort), by the St. Athanásius Academy, 2008.  This Bible’s OT is the LXX.  Ort uses Rahlf’s Septuaginta (whose lead ms was Vat) and Bre.

Examining the timeline of the OT patriarchs helps us see God’s word in its historical context.  But LXX versus MT discrepancies are evident in verses which relate to the dating of those ancient patriarchs!  Exact dates for the births & deaths of the patriarchs are unknown.  The LXX dates in the following TABLE are approximated from the ancient Alexándrine codex.  All dates in the TABLE are BC.

TABLE:
	LXX	LXX Age	LXX		MT	MT Age	MT
Patriarch	Born	Begetting	Died	Lifespan	Born	Begetting	Died
Adam	5451	230	4521	930	4065	130	3135
Seth	5221	205	4309	912	3935	105	3023
Enosh	5016	190	4111	905	3830	90	2925
Cainan 1	4826	170	3916	910	3740	70	2830
Mahalalel	4656	165	3761	895	3670	65	2775
Jared	4491	162	3529	962	3605	162	2643
Enoch	4329	165	3964	365	3443	65	3078
Methuselah	4164	187	3195	969	3378	187	2409
Lamech 2	3977	188	3224	753/777	3191	182	2414
Noah	3789	500	2839	950	3009	500	2059
Japheth	3289		?	?	2509		?
Shem	3287	100	2687	600	2507	100	1907
Ham	3285		?	?	2505		?
Flood	3189		3189		2409		2409
Arphaxad	3187	135	2622	565/438	2407	35	1969
Cainan 2	3052	130	2592	460	absent	absent	absent
Shelah	2922	130	2462	460/433	2372	30	1939
Eber	2792	134	2288	504/464	2342	34	1878
Peleg	2658	130	2319	339/239	2308	30	2069
Reu	2528	132	2189	339/239	2278	32	2039
Serug	2396	130	2066	330/230	2246	30	2016
Nahor 1	2266	79	2058	208/148	2216	29	2068
Terah	2187	70	1982	205	2187	70	1982
Abraham	2117	100	1942	175	2117	100	1942
Sarah	2107		1980	127	2107		1980
Ishmael	2031		1894	137	2031		1894
Isaac	2017	60	1837	180	2017	60	1837
Esau	1957		?	?	1957		?
Jacob	1957		1810	147	1957		1810
Reuben	1878		1753	125	1878		1753
Simeon	1877		1757	120	1877		1757
Levi	1875		1738	137	1875		1738
Judah	1873		1754	119	1873		1754
Dan	1872		1747	125	1872		1747
Naphtali	1871		1739	132	1871		1739
Gad	1870		1745	125	1870		1745
Asher	1869		1744	125	1869		1744
Issachar	1870		1748	122	1870		1748
Zebulun	1869		1755	114	1869		1755
Dinah	1869		?	?	1869		?
Joseph	1867		1757	110	1867		1757
Benjamin	1857		1732	125	1857		1732
Kohath	1830		1697	133	1830		1697
Amram	1811		1675	136/137	1811		1674
Manasseh	1833		?	?	1833		?
Ephraim	1833		?	?	1833		?
Moses	1692		1572	120	1692		1572

As seen in the TABLE, the LXX Alex timeline shows that Adám was created c 5451 BC; whereas the MT shows Adam was created c 4065 BC.  That’s a difference of 1,386 yrs!  The difference is due to the patriarchs’ Begetting Ages and (post-Food) Lifespans…in the LXX versus the MT.

According to the LXX, Adam was age 230 when he begat Seth, c 5221 BC.  But according to the MT, Adam was age 130 when he begat Seth, c 3935 BC.  The difference in Adam’s begetting age is 100 yrs!

A 100-year discrepancy in Begetting age in the LXX versus the MT continues with each patriarch until Methusélah, the 8^th patriarch.  Both the LXX and MT show that he begat Lámech 2 at age 187.

However, the Lifespans of the pre-Flood patriarchs (all but Lamech 2) are the same in the LXX and MT.

Methuselah lived 969 yrs; he died before the Flood.  LXX mss differ in regards to the number of yrs Methuselah lived before and after he begat Lamech 2.  (Lamech 1 was a descendant of Cain, Ge.4:18-24.)  Alex, Abp, Ort say Methuselah begat Lamech 2 at age 187 and then lived 782 yrs afterwards (as does the MT).  Nets & Bre say Methuselah begat Lamech 2 at age 167 and lived 802 yrs afterwards.  A 20-yr difference.  But 167 yrs plus 802 yrs would have Methuselah living 14 yrs past a 3209 BC Flood!

Henry B. Smith Methuselah’s Begetting Age in Gen.5:25 and the Primeval Chronology of the Septuagint “We can firmly claim that the 167 reading for Methuselah’s begetting age in some LXX MSS of Gen.5:25 is an early scribal error, and was not part of the original [Alex] LXX translation.”

St. Augústine (354–430 AD) City of God 15:13 “There are three Greek manuscripts, one Latin and one Syriac…in all of these [five mss] Methuselah is said to have died 6 years before the Deluge.”

My TABLE reflects 187 yrs & 782 yrs (total = 969); its date of 3195 BC for Methuselah’s death is 6 yrs before the Flood of c 3189 BC.  But if Lamech 2 had begat Noah 20 yrs earlier…the Flood is 3209 BC.

Also the Lifespan of the pre-Flood Lamech 2, son of Methuselah, differs in the LXX versus the MT.  The LXX says his lifespan is 753 yrs, whereas the MT says his lifespan is 777 yrs.

Concerning the Begetting ages of patriarchs born after the Flood, there is a 100-yr discrepancy in the LXX versus the MT for all patriarchs from Arphaxad/Arpachshad down through Serúg.  John van Tuyl A New Chronology for Old Testament Times, p.117 “The LXX numbers (Alex and Sistine) for fatherhood of the patriarchs after the Flood are always the same as the MT numbers, plus exactly 100 years…until Nahór is reached.”  Nahor 1, that is, Ge.11:22.  (Nahor 2 was one of Abraham’s brothers, Ge.11:26.)

The LXX says Nahor 1 was age 79 when he begat Térah; the MT says Nahor 1 was age 29 when he begat Terah…that’s only a 50-yr discrepancy, not a 100-yr.  (Among the LXXs referenced, Bre alone says the begetting age of Nahor 1 was 179 and his lifespan was 304 yrs, not 79 and 208 yrs.)

Another discrepancy is in Ge.11:12-13.  The LXX shows Arphaxad begat Cainán 2 his firstborn at age 135, and Cainan 2 then begat Sheláh.  Luke too says Cainan 2 was the son of Arphaxad (Lk.3:35-36).  But the Ge.11:12 MT says Arphaxad (not Cainan 2) fathered Shelah.  Cainan 2 is absent in the MT.

Ge.11:26, 31-32 Terah begat Abraham (his younger son) at age 70, and Terah’s lifespan was 205 yrs.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:5 “Terah begat Abrám in his 70^th year. Terah died when he had lived to be 205 years old.”  Ac.7:2-4 after Terah died, God removed Abraham into the land of Canáan.  Andrew Sibley Was Terah Dead When Abraham Left Harran?: “There is a chronological difficulty regarding the date of Abraham’s birth in relation to the age of Terah. If the period recorded in the Old Testament from Terah’s birth to Abram’s birth (70 years) is integrated with the time Abram left Harrán [at age 75, ref Ge.12:4], a period of only 145 years for the life of Terah would be established. But Terah died at age 205, leaving a gap of 60 years.”  How may this ‘60-yr gap’ (205 – 145 = 60) be resolved?

Abraham legally obtained land in Canaan “when his father was dead” (Ac.7:4).  Ge.23:1 Abraham’s wife Sarah died at age 127.  Ge.23:17-20 for her burial, Abraham purchased land in Canaan.  He’d lived nearly 30 yrs in the land of the Philistines, prior to Beershéba (Ge.21:34, 22:19).  ISBE: Abraham “The death of Sarah became the occasion for Abraham’s first acquisition of the first permanent holding of Palestine soil, the nucleus of his promised inheritance.”  He purchased the land from Hittites.  Diana Edelman TheTorah.com “The field and cave are Abraham’s first acquired land rights in Canaan.”  In the year Sarah died and Abraham acquired the field, he was age 137.  cf. Ge.17:17.  Terah had died two yrs before, at age 205, when Abraham was 135.  (Terah preceded his son by 70 yrs.)  Augustine op. cit. 31, 35 “His [Abraham’s] settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going from Harran, took place after his father’s death….He was settled in that land, entering then on actual possession of it; that is, after the death of his father, who died two years before.”  That rationale resolves the seeming ‘60-yr gap’.

{Sidelight: The individual saints who wrote the books of the Bible didn’t always order their writings chronologically.  (Had they always wrote chronologically, it sometimes would’ve interrupted the story flow.)  For example, Ge.25:7-8 notes that Abraham died at age 175.  v.26 says his son Isaac begat the twins Jacob & Esau at age 60.  But when Isaac was 60, Abraham was still alive at age 160!  Yet several verses previous it noted that Abraham died at age 175.  Similarly, Ge.11:32 notes that Terah died at age 205, yet he was still alive while the story of events in Abraham’s life unfolded in Ge.12–Ge.21.}

The timeline for the patriarchs Abraham down through Moses is addressed with detail in the topic “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.  See that topic; I won’t address its particulars here in this topic.

Source material for this topic is taken primarily from the book of Genesis, especially chapters 5, 10-11 (also Ge.25, 29-30).  Besides Genesis, a source for the lifespans of Jacob’s sons is Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (T12P).  It was written in Aramaic and finalized between 140 BC and 150 AD.  Ref in T12P: Reuben 1:1; Simeon 1:1; Judah 12:12, 26:2; Dan 1:1; Naphtali 1:1; Gad 1:1; Asher 1:1; Issachár 7:1; Zebulún 1:1; Benjamin 12:2.  Another Jewish extra-Biblical source is the Book of Jubilees (or ‘Little Genesis’), written in Hebrew c 150 BC.  Jub.28:23, 30:2 refers to Jacob’s daughter Dinah, and Zebulun as her twin brother.  The Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q543-5 tells of Moses’ father Amrám.

Again, exact dates for the OT patriarchs are uncertain/unknown.  Some historians think it’s conceivable that the pre-Flood patriarch years may represent (old earth) unknown extended periods of time.

Jeremy Sexton Primeval Chronology Restored “According to the MT, God created Adam c 4000 BC; according to the LXX c 5500 BC. Jewish scribes in Egypt translated the Torah into Greek (c 280 BC).”

Demétrius (Jewish chronologer c 220 BC) calculated the creation of Adam at 5500, 5484, or 5451 BC.

Jewish Library: Eupólemus – This Jewish historian said 158 BC is “5,149 yrs from Adam” (5307 BC).

Wikipedia: Dating Creation “Early Christians calculated Creation…Clément of Alexandria [200 AD] 5592 BC, Theóphilus [180 AD] 5529 BC, Sextus Julius Africánus [230 AD] 5501 BC, Hippólytus [230 AD] 5500 BC, Pánodorus [412 AD] 5493 BC, Sevérus [403 AD] 5469 BC, Býzantine calendar [600s AD] 5509 BC.”

Irish Archbishop James Ussher (in 1654 AD) dated Adam at 4004 BC.  Jewish rabbis say 3761 BC.

Another relevant book sourced for the TABLE timeline was Dr. Martin Anstey’s The Romance of Bible Chronology, v.2.

My other topics on OT chronology: “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”, “Chronology: the Exodus to Samuel”, “Chronology: Samuel to Rehoboam”, “Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?”.