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.

 

Patriarchs’ Bronze Age Languages

This topic discusses languages of the Bronze Age (approximately 3300–1200 BC) in the Ancient Near East (ANE), relative to the time of the Biblical patriarchs.

We don’t know what the language of Adam was (cf. Ge.2:19-20).  Many historians think Sumérian is the oldest written language.  Sumerian is called an isolated language, with no ancestor tongue.  But loan words have been identified in Sumerian writings.  So Sumerian as the first language is questioned.  Encyclopaedia Brittanica “The Sumerian language…first attested about 3100 BC in S. Mesopotamia.”

Wikipedia: Writing System “The Sumerian archaic cúneiform script closely followed by the Egyptian híeroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BC.”

Dating from pre-3000 BC Súmer, pictograph was pictures that represent a word or idea.  Cuneiform script was wedge-shaped marks or symbols, on clay tablets.  Cuneiform was adapted from pictograph.

The sons of the patriarch Noah were Shem, Ham and Jápheth (Ge.9:18).  The family survived the Flood.  The Septúagint/LXX dates Noah’s Flood circa (c) 3200 BC.  After the Flood, his descendants migrated from old Armenia (Ge.8:4), to Shinár (Ge.10:10), and so on.  The Ge.10–11 account, with the tower of Babél zíggurat, coincides with the development of language families from a primitive root language.

Post-Flood, Ge.11:1-9 “The whole earth was of one language [lip, shore, Strongs h8193 Hebrew]. They found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said, ‘Let us build a city & tower whose top is in heaven.’ Its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language [lip/shore], and scattered them over the whole earth.”  Wikipedia: Tower of Babel “The Akkadian name of the city was Babilim, meaning ‘gate of God.”  Shinar (Sumer, or Sínjar?) was an area in Mesopotamia (Ac.2:9, 7:2; it included ancient Babylonia).  Shinar means ‘two rivers’.  Mesopotamia (Greek) means ‘land between the rivers’, the Tigris and Euphrates.  Mankind spread out over the land; other languages emerged.

Language families developed through Noah’s descendants (ref Ge.10:1, 5, 20, 31).  Carlos Quiles From Adamic or the Language of the Garden of Eden Until the Tower of Babel “The language spoken by Noah and his descendants, whether the original Adamic language or the derived Chaldáic [?], split into 70 or 72 languages, according to the different traditions.”  People dispersed upon the earth through extended family lines, clans, languages.  It is said that 14 major language families exist today (e.g. Indo-European, Áfro-Asiátic the oldest).  Dialects developed within the major language groups/tree models as humanity spread geographically; numerous dialects of descent are within each.

Ge.10:6 “The sons of Ham were Cush, Mízraim [Egypt], Phut and Canáan.”  The Egyptian people descended from Ham.  Ge.10:22 “The sons of Shem were Elám, Asshúr, Arpachshad, Lud and Arám.  These were grandsons of Noah.  Semític languages are named from Shem.  (The Aramaic language would be named from Aram.)  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1:6:4 “Elam…the Elamites, ancestors of the Persians [Iranians]. Asshur lived at the city Nineveh, and named his subjects Assyrians. Arpachshad named…the Chaldéans. Aram…called Syrians. Lud…Lydians [W Turkey].”  (see the topics “Aramaic in the Bible” and “Chronology: Septuagint versus Masoretic Text”.)  Aram & Arpachshad were brothers.

Wikipedia: Arpachshad “Arpachshad was understood by many Jewish and Muslim scholars [pre-1920] to be an area in northern Mesopotamia. This led to the identification of Arpachshad with Urfa-Kasid, a land associated with the Khaldis.”  Wikipedia: Chalybes “The Chalybes and Chaldoi were…peoples living in N. Anatolia [Turkey]. Their territory was known as Chaldia.”  (Later they’d move south.)

Ge.10:24 LXX “Arphaxad begot Kaínan (not Canaan), Kainan begot Shélah, Shelah begot Éber.”  (The Hebrew people would be named after Eber, Josephus ibid.)  Eber was the great-grandson (or grandson) of Arphaxad.

Sumerian of Iraq is an extinct linguistic isolate.  At Ur in S Mesopotamia, the writings on the mud-brick walls of the Great Ziggurat (2000–2100 BC) are Sumerian cuneiform.  The ancient Elamite language of SW Iran, dating from c 2600 BC and now extinct, is also considered a language isolate.  Although Elamite was named from Shem’s son Elam (Ge.10:22), it isn’t considered a Semitic language.

There were multilinguals in Mesopotamia, speaking Sumerian, Akkádian…then other dialects.  Akkadian is an extinct E Semitic Afro-Asiatic language.  Ge.10:10 Akkád was in or near the land of Shinar (the exact location hasn’t been discovered).  Akkadian names are seen in Sumerian writings, dated c 2500 BC.  Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire “Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around 2000 BC.”  Near the commencement of the Middle Bronze Age.

Ge.11:10-27 Abrám descended from Arphaxad.  v.31 Abraham (born c 2100 BC) likely came from Ur/Urfa/SanliUrfa/Edessa, or Urkesh, in N Mesopotamia.  He migrated approx 25 miles S to Harrán (Akkadian ‘Harránu’, ‘crossroads’) in far S Turkey, 10 miles above the N Syrian border.  The region of Aram in Upper Mesopotamia.  Ancient Urkesh (Tel Mozan today) in NE Syria was 100+ miles E of Harran.  Abram later would migrate SSW through Damascus; cf. Ge.15:2 his “Eliézer of Damascus”.

Ge.11:16-27 the names of early Hebrews (descendants of Eber and ancestors of Abraham) are seen in the names of towns located in the vicinity of Harran, Turkey.  Péleg, the city of Paliga; Serúg, the city of Sarugi; Nahór, Nakhur in the valley; Abraham’s father Térah, Til-Turakhi (‘mound of Terah’).

Rudolph Klein Abraham’s Chaldean Origins and the Chaldee Language “He must have been literate & fluent in Sumerian, Akkadian, various other Semitic languages (e.g. Amorite), probably Egyptian as a trade language. His descendants would adopt the language of…Canaan [Phoenícian/old Hebrew].”

Mark D. Kaplan The Languages of the Bible “One of the earliest ancient cities was Akkad in Mesopotamia (Ge.10:10). Perhaps Abraham originally spoke an Akkadian dialect in Ur. Abraham went south to Canaan…the Canaanites were descendants of Ham [Ge.10:1, 6 Noah’s son]. In Canaan Abraham picked up the local language. His clan’s version of Canaanite became known as Hebrew [much later].”  (Hebrew is classed as a Canaanite NW Semitic Afro-Asiatic language.)

Eblaite, named after the city Ebla (Tel Márdikh today] in N Syria, is an extinct E Semitic Afro-Asiatic language dating from the (latter) 2000s BC.  Ebla was approx 90 miles SW of Harran & 190 miles N of Damascus.  Wikipedia: Ebla [3000–1600 BC] “At its greatest extent, Ebla controlled an area half the size of modern Syria, from Ursaum in the north [S Turkey] to around Damascus in the south, and from Phoenícia and the coastal mountains in the west to Haddu in the east. It is probable the inhabitants of 3^rd kingdom Ebla [2000–1600 BC] were predominantly Amorites, as was most of Syria at that time.”

Wikipedia: Eblaite Language “Similarity to Hebrew, Ugarític, or Phoenician.”  Eblaite is an E Semitic sister language to Akkadian.  Jeff Benner The Archives of Ebla and the Bible “The tablets were written [2300 BC at Ebla] with a cuneiform script, like Úgarit [N Syrian coastal city]. The Eblaite language shares many similarities to the Hebrew language.”  Kevin Drendel The Ebla Tablets Confirm Biblical Accounts “The tablets include Sumerian Eblahite vocabularies with thousands of translated words. Also an ancient language…related to [the later] Hebrew and Phoenician.”

Abram was also probably familiar with Hurrian, an extinct N Mesopotamia language dating from 2300 BC.  And Elamite (cuneiform).  Ge.14:1-17 Abram defeated Chedorlaómer, the powerful king of Elam.  Bible patriarchs knew Akkadian, some Eblaite & Hurrian.  And Amorite too, an extinct NW Semitic Afro-Asiatic language (and an ancestor of Ugaritic?).  Ge.10:15-16 the Amorites descended from Ham’s son Canaan.  Abram dwelt in the plain of his ally Mamré the Amorite (Ge.14:13), near Hebron.

Ge.12:10-20 while in Egypt, Abram perhaps spoke Middle Egyptian (an Afro-Asiatic language) with Pharaoh.  Ge.20:1-18 Abraham and an ancient Abimélech, king of Gerár (capital city), dialogued SE of Gaza (Ge.21:32-34).  There they possibly spoke an early form of Proto-Sináitic?  So-called “Philistine” territory was the SW coast of Canaan.  Those Philistines descended from Mizraim/Egypt, son of Ham.  Ge.10:13-14 “Mizraim begot Pathrúsim and Caslúhim, from whom came the Philistines, and Caphtorím.”  Josephus op.cit. 1:6:2 “All the children of Mizraim, eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt; though it retained the name of one only, the Philistim.”  Ge.21:34 “Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.”  Gill Exposition “For many years.”

Later the Israelites would say of their ancestor in De.26:5, “My father was a wandering Araméan [Arammíy h761, Syrian]”.  Referring to Abraham or Jacob.  Ge.14:13 “Abram the Hebrew” (Ibríy h5680) and grandson Jacob were from Eber’s line.  Abraham and Jacob (born c 1950 BC) had spent years in N Syria; both would have known Akkadian, Amorite, and Jacob the developing Proto-Aramaic.

Abraham told his servant, Ge.24:1-4 “Don’t take a wife for my son from the Canaanites, among whom I live; but go to my country to my relatives and take a wife for Isaac.”  v.10 “He went to Arám-of-the-two-rivers, the city of Nahór.”  Wikipedia: Aramaic “Ancient Aram…Syria”.  The city of Abraham’s brother Nahor was in N Mesopotamia, Syria-Turkey, 400 miles distant.  The servant brought back Rebekah for Isaac.  Ge.25:20 “Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuél the Aramean of Paddán-Arám, the sister of Labán the Aramean [Arammiy].”  Ge.22:20-23 Bethuel, the son of Nahor, was Abraham’s nephew.  90 years later, Ge.28:5 “Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean.”  A form of primitive Aramaic was likely the dialect at the ‘plain of Aram’.  Jacob brought his wives Leah & Rachel from the old country to the Land of Canaan.

Laban was an Aramean.  Pre-Aramaic and pre-Hebrew are reflected in the same verse in Ge.31:43-48. “They took stones and made a heap, and ate there. Laban called it Jegár sahaduthá, but Jacob called it Galéed.”  They made a “heap of witness” c 1865 BC at Mizpáh of Gilead, E of the Jordan River.  Laban called the memorial by a proto-Aramaic name, but Jacob called it by a precursor of Hebrew.  Barnes Notes “Here is the first specimen of Aramaic, as distinguished from Hebrew.”  Jacob would’ve learned both dialects in Canaan, Proto-Canaanite pre-Hebrew and his mother’s primitive Paleo-Syrian.

Codex 99 Proto-Sinaitic “Around 1900 BC the Proto-Sinaitic script began to appear in Egypt, the Sinai and the Levánt. Associated with hieroglyphic or hierátic signs. It was adopted by the Canaanites (hence Proto-Canaanite) and later by the Phoenicians.”  Omniglot: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite “Proto-Canaanite is a version of the Proto-Sinaitic script as used in Canaan, modern Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and parts of western Syria. It is also used to refer to an early version of the Phoenician script as used before 1050 BC, or an ancestor of Phoenician.”  Phoenicia was a 150-mile coastal region, Lebanon today.  (cf. Mk.7:26 “The woman was a Syrian-Phoenician.”)  Phoenicia included the cities of Tyre, Byblos, Sidon.  Ge.10:15 Sidón was the firstborn son of Canaan.

Ge.40:15 Jacob’s son Joseph was from the “land of the Hebrews”, peoples racially disliked by the Egyptians (Ge.43:32).  Descendants of Eber lived in N Syria and then Canaan.  After Pharaoh made Joseph a ruler in Egypt, Jacob/Israel and his sons’ families moved from Canaan to Egypt c 1827 BC.  see “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.  Ge.42:23 an interpreter was necessary, since the Middle Egyptian language and the Proto-Canaanite (and the Akkadian of the Old Assyrian period) differed.

Joseph died in Egypt c 1757 BC.  The Amorite Hammurabi (1810-1750 BC) wrote his famous law Code between 1755–1750 BC in Akkadian cuneiform text at the ancient Babylon city-state.  He was the 6^th king of the First Babylonian Empire (1894-1595 BC), ruling Mesopotamia.  (Later, after Israel exited Egypt, two Amorite kings in NE Canaan c 1575 BC were Sihon and Og. ref De.31:4.)

While in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob/Israel became slaves and learned Middle Egyptian.  Ac.7:22 “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians; he was mighty in words and deeds.”  Ex.2:16-19 Reuél’s daughters (1600s BC) in the land of Midián thought Moses was Egyptian, from his speech & dress.  Moses spent years in Midian near Mt Sinai, where he was called by God (Ex.3:1-ff).

Ex.31:18 after the Israelite exodus from Egypt, the Decalogue at Mt Sinai was written by the finger of God.  In Canaano-Akkadian, Proto-Sinaitic/Canaanite script, Eblaite, hieroglyphic or hieratic scripts?  The Lord’s Old Covenant too.  F.F. Bruce Who Wrote Genesis? “A man [Moses] ‘learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians’ would have been conversant with the Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic.”

John C Lennox Seven Days That Divide the World, p.126 “The scribal use of cuneiform script spread from Mesopotamia as far as Canaan, Hazor [in Upper Galilee], and even Hebron [between Jerusalem and Beershéba] by the 17^th century BC.”

In the Land of Canaan after 215 years in Egypt, the Israelites/‘mixed multitude’ (Ex.12:37-38) of 1550 BC likely took on Proto-Canaanite.

Andre H. Roosma The Written Language of Abraham, Moses and David “The Paleo-Hebrew script developed from a script that was used in the W Semitic area during the 2^nd millennium BC. It is often referred to as Proto-Canaanite or Proto-Sinaitic script.”  The Israelites would then use the developing Old/Paleo Hebrew (and Phoenician) in the Land of Canaan.

The Amarna Letters (1360-1332 BC) are 382 tablets found in Upper Egypt, but written in Akkadian cuneiform script (not in Egyptian).  They’re correspondence between the kings of Canaanite cities and Pharaoh.  Wikipedia: Amarna Letters “The letters, though written in Akkadian, are heavily colored by the mother tongue of their writers, who probably spoke an early form of Proto-Canaanite.”  Not long before the time of Gideon in the book of Judges (6:11-ff).  see “Chronology: the Exodus to Samuel”.

There’s no indication that Paleo-Hebrew was spoken in Mesopotamia.  Cambridge Bible Ge.11:1 “That Hebrew was the primitive language….has been disproved by the scientific comparative study of languages, and of Hebrew and the Semitic languages in particular.”  Wikipedia: Canaanite Languages “Hebrew, Phoenician…derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet to record their writings.”

That brings us to the approaching end of the ANE Bronze Age, c 1200 BC.  Further archaeological findings may bring to light other ancient dialects and/or revisions to those discussed here in this topic.

The Paleo-Hebrew (Old Hebrew alphabet) script would become the language of south Canaan.  Is.19:18 “language of Canaan”.  Language historians say the Phoenician language was spoken in NW Canaan.  Old Hebrew and Phoenician were very similar; both contained the same 22 letters.  (Aramaic too has 22.)  Wikipedia: Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet “Like the Phoenician alphabet, it is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script, which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. There is no difference in Paleo-Hebrew vs Phoenician letter shapes.”

For more on Aramaic & Hebrew in the ensuing centuries of the Iron Age, see “Aramaic in the Bible”.

Melchisedek Order Priesthood

King David of ancient Israel was given a messianic prophecy in Ps.110:1-4.  v.4 “The Lord has sworn, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  The Lord (Jesus) would be ruling King and priest in the order of Melchisedek!  This topic discusses Melchisedek and priesthood.

True religion and the Judeo-Christian ethic includes the entire Bible.  Both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) speak of priesthood.

What is a priest?  A priest performs religious rites, and mediates between God and humans.

Ancient nations and heathen cultures had priesthoods (ref Ge.41:45, Ex.3:1).  Wayne Jackson Exploring the Concept of Priesthood “The ancient Assyrians had priests, as did the Babylonians.”  OT Israel’s priests were of the Levitical order, from the tribe of Jacob’s son Levi.

Moses was a priest and a mediator (Ps.99:6; Ex.24:6, 29:26; Nu.7:1; Ga.3:19).  Then Moses’ brother Aaron and Aaron’s male descendants from the tribe of Levi were Israel’s priests (Ex.28:1).  Prior to the Levitical (Lev) Aaronic order of priests, in ancient Israel families/clans performed priestly functions (Ex.24:5).  The Aaronic priesthood was established in the wilderness (Ex.40:13-15), after the Israelites left Egypt.  But this Levitical priesthood didn’t exist in the books of Genesis or Job.

Jesus and His NT believers are of the order of Melchisedek, which both predates and postdates the Levitical order.  The person of Melchisedek (Mel) goes back to Genesis.  What does the Bible tell us about Melchisedek, and how does the order of Melchisedek compare to the Levitical order?

The mysterious Melchisedek/Melchizedek is thought by many to be a theophany or Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ the Son of God Most High (Lk.1:32).  The name “Melchisedek” means ‘king of righteousness’ (He.7:2).  And in Je.23:5, the Messiah/Branch (Jesus) is the prophesied righteous king.  Ge.18:1-33 the Lord as a Christophany appeared to Abraham.  Melchisedek appeared to Abrám in Ge.14.  Previously, in Ge.12:1-2 the Lord had said that He would bless Abram…“I will bless you.”  And then in Ge.14:18-21 Melchisedek said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High”.  It is Mel who blessed Abram!  It appears that Mel was divine, as the pre-existent Word of God, the Lord Christ.  Jn.1:1, 14 identifies Jesus as “the Word” (the Lógos in Greek).

The Dead Sea Scrolls Melchizedek document 11Q13, dated circa 100 BC, indicates Melchisedek is divine.  Wikipedia: 11Q13 “11Q13 states that….Melchizedek is ‘Your Elohim [God]’ who will deliver the sons of righteousness from Belíal.”  In the 1st century AD, Philo said Melchisedek represented the Word/Logos and is a priest (Allegorical Interpretation 3:26:82, p.59).  Again, Jesus is the Word/Logos.

Melchisedek is the first priest mentioned in the OT.  In Ge.14:18, Mel served Abram (the father of the faithful, Ga.3:7) bread & wine.  Sharing bread & wine will become the sacred communion or eucharist for the NT church in the order of Melchisedek!  (also see the topic “Bread and Wine in the Church”.)

Ge.14:18 “Melchisedek, king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now He was priest of God Most High.”  Mel was both king and priest of God.  In ancient kingdoms there was no separation of church and state.  Their politics involved pleasing their deity, so the deity would protect them.  But Israel’s priestly Aaronites among Levites weren’t kings.  Judah, not Levi, became a kingly tribe (Ge.49:10).

The Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham in Ge.17:5.  Was Abraham himself a priest, serving under Melchisedek?  Abraham knew the king of Sodom (Ge.14:21).  In Ge.18:23-24, it is plausible that Abraham was interceding to the Lord Christ as a priest on Sodom’s behalf.

The order of (King) Melchisedek includes the laws of the King.  e.g. in Ge.14 Abram tithed or paid 10% to the priest-king/church-state.  (see the topic “Tithe to Church and State”.)  Abraham obeyed God’s regulations.  The Lord said of Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Abraham had the faith to obey all that, without a codified Law of Moses!  (see “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

What are the laws taught by, or pertaining to, the order of Melchisedek?

Throughout Genesis, we read of gentiles (such as Abraham) obeying…or disobeying…God’s principles & instructions.  Also Job.22:22, God’s guidelines weren’t unknown to gentiles living prior to the Law of Moses.  (see “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” and “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)

1Enoch 99:2 “Woe to them who pervert the words of uprightness, and transgress the eternal law.”  1Eno.106:14 “Some of the angels of heaven…commit sin and transgress the law.” (ref 2Pe.2:4 & Jude 1:6.)  This indicates an eternal law existed even for the residents of heaven to obey, in order to dwell with God in harmony.  (Jude considered 1Eno.1:9 a prophecy, and quoted it in Jude 1:14.  1Enoch is included in a few Christian canons.)

Genesis reflects many similarities to the laws Christ later told Moses to codify & enact during the Levitical dispensation.  For example, in Genesis: 39:9 adultery is a great sin.  31:32 stealing is wrong.  2:2-3 God sanctified the 7^th day sabbath for mankind at Creation.  28:22 Abraham’s grandson Jacob also paid 10% to God.  7:2 only clean creatures are food.  Some try to claim the extra pairs of clean animals taken on Noah’s ark were for sacrifice.  But only domestic clean animals were sacrifices, not wild!  Yet Noah took seven pairs of wild clean animals too (there’d be plenty to eat)!  9:4 blood isn’t authorized as food (prohibited in the Ac.15:29 decree for the church.  see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)

The Lord later commanded that the above laws (and other laws too), seen in Genesis for gentiles, be part of the Levitical code and Old Covenant for Moses/Israel.  (see “Added in the Old Covenant”.)

Albertus Pieters Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind, we have here the institution of the sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  Yes, there’s much for the church found between the lines of Genesis!

The above examples from Genesis reflect some of the similarities between the order of Melchisedek and the Levitical order.  But there are also noticeable differences between them!  Such as…

In the order of Melchisedek, there’s no scriptural evidence of any physical tabernacle/temple ceremonial rituals (ref He.9:1, 10).  There’s no animal sin/trespass offerings.  There’s no Passover (before God ‘passed-over’ Moses’ Israel in Ex.12:23); there’s no other pilgrim feasts.  (Genesis does show voluntary non-temple burnt offerings.)  Also, we read of lesser incest…so they can obey God’s commands to reproduce (Ge.1:28, 9:1)…when the only humans available to marry there are relatives.

In the order of Melchisedek, there’s no lunar calendar (for determining pilgrim feast dates, e.g.).  Examining Ge.7:11 with Ge.8:3-4 indicates 30-day months of a solar calendar.  Also Re.11:2-3 reflects 30-day months of a prophetic solar calendar.  This calendar projects to add a 30-day leap-month seven times in each 40-year cycle…in years #6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 40.  Its variance from 365.2422 days per year is said to be only 4 hours 2 min over a span of 11,560 years!  Also a form of solar calendar is used in 1Enoch.  But the lunar aspect of the Levitical dispensation had 29 or 30 day months (for feasts)…and it’s less accurate.  (As another comparison, the estimated variance of the Gregorian calendar over 11,560 years may be around 80 hours, or 3 ⅓ days.  It too is less accurate than the ‘prophetic calendar’.)

Various lunar calendar and new moon reckoning dogmas for Levitical festivals can cause unnecessary division within the order of Melchisedek!  In 1Co.14:33, Paul says God is not of confusion/disorder!  Attempting to use a Levitical calendar in the Melchisedek order has resulted in a measure of confusion.

There’s a significant prophecy in Zechariah.  Again, Je.23:5-6 referred to the Lord/Messiah as the Branch.  Zec.3:8-9 the then Levitical high priest, named Yehoshúa/Yeshúa (Iesous or Jesus in the Greek LXX), was a symbol.  Zec.6:11-13 is about that ancient Yeshua. “Behold, a man whose name is the Branch. He will be a priest on his throne [kingly], and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.”  That Yeshua had the same name as the future Branch; and back in 500 BC was a symbol of the Melchisedek priest/king!  A full 500 years prior to the Messiah’s human birth, God knew the Savior’s Name would be…Yeshua (in Hebrew & Aramaic)!

Let’s now read through Hebrews 5–7.  It’s about priesthood and Jesus in the order of Melchisedek.  The Levitical and Melchisedek priesthoods are further contrasted in these chapters.

He.5:1-11 there was much to say regarding the order of Melchisedek.  He.6:13-20 Jesus is high priest in the order of Mel.  6:18 the two immutable things God swore with an oath are found in 6:13-14 and 7:21.  That is, the Lord surely would bless Abraham and multiply his descendants, and Jesus is priest in the order of Mel forever.  (also ref 1Eno.69 regarding oaths.)

He.7:1-8 the priest-king Melchisedek had no genealogy, no beginning of days or end of life, and was made like the Son of God.  v.8 “He [Melchisedek] lives on.”  In Hebrews, Melchisedek isn’t portrayed as a mortal man!  Abraham was a mortal man.  Aaronite priests were mortal men with genealogy.

Wikipedia: Priesthood of Melchizedek “The basis of the Aaronic priesthood was ancestry; the basis of the priesthood of Melchizedek is everlasting life. That is, there’s no interruption due to a priest’s death (Heb.7:8,15-16, 23-25).”  The Levitical priesthood was hereditary.  ISBE “Melchizedek, a priest of highest rank, had neither predecessor nor successor in his great office.”

He.7:17 “You [Jesus] are a priest forever in the order of Melchisedek.”  Got Questions – Who Was Melchizedek? “This term ‘order’ would ordinarily indicate a succession of priests holding the office. None are ever mentioned, however, in the long interval from Melchizedek to Christ, an anomaly that can be solved by assuming that Melchizedek and Christ are really the same person.”

He.6:20 “Jesus…having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  Poole Commentary Ps.110:4 “Forever’, not to be interrupted or translated to another person.”  Jesus is high priest forever.  Yet He.7:3, speaking of Melchisedek, “…Being made like to the Son of God, does remain a priest continually [g1336].” (Youngs Literal Translation.)  According to the writer to the Hebrews, Melchisedek is priest on into perpetuity.  Vincent Word Studies He.7:3 “The tenure of his [Melchisedek’s] office is uninterrupted.”  Are we to believe there are two high priests serving continuously and uninterrupted?!  Taken literally…if Melchisedek isn’t Jesus, then there are presently two high priests simultaneously!

Hebrews 7 also compares Melchisedek to Abraham.  He.7:4 “Consider how great this [Being] was!”  (The term for ‘man’ isn’t in the Greek text of v.4.)  The Being Melchisedek is even called great!

Abraham was highly honored and eminent, the spiritual father of the faithful, according to Paul (Ga.3:7, 29).  The Lord had told Abram in Ge.12:2-3, “I will make you a great nation, and will magnify your name….In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  God would change Abram’s name to Abraham, magnify it, and his posterity would be renowned on earth!

Yet He.7:4 indicates Melchisedek is greater than Abraham!  He blessed Abram.  He.7:7 ESV “It is beyond dispute that the inferior [Abram] is blessed by the superior [Melchisedek].” (Other translations render the Greek term kreítton, Strongs g2909, as “better” or “greater”.)  Barnes Notes “Melchizedek was thus superior to Abraham.”  Cambridge Bible “The inferior is blessed by one who is the Superior.”

{Sidelight: Some think Melchisedek was a title (like Caesar or Czar), not a personal name.  A Jewish tradition says Melchisedek was Noah’s son Shem.  But according to Ge.5:32 & Ge.10:22, Shem did have a literal genealogy (unlike Melchisedek).  Shem had a beginning and an end, a mortal man.  Furthermore, in scripture Shem is of lesser status than Abraham (or Noah), not greater.  Shem’s name is seen less than 20 times in the Bible, whereas Abram/Abraham appears over 300 times!  Also, in the LXX and Samaritan Pentateuch chronologies, Shem was dead long before Mel met Abram in Ge.14.}

He.7:9-12 “The priesthood being changed, there takes place a change in the law also.”  A change has occurred in some written law/toráh; in the sacrificial & ceremonial aspects.  There’s no Levitical priesthood or temple; they’re now obsolete as far as the church is concerned.

It’s changed because…Jesus fulfilled all things written about Him (but not everything written in the OT).  Let’s first notice, in Mt.5:17-18 Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill [g4137]”.  Then after His resurrection, Jesus’ words in Lk.24:44 refer back to the earlier Mt.5:17-18, with added detail. “My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled [g4137].”  Jesus came to fulfill all things written about Him in the Law, etc.  Furthermore, Luke noted in Ac.13:29, “They carried out all that was written concerning Him”.  Jesus didn’t abolish or “fulfill” in our place the Lord’s moral principles (seen way back in Genesis for gentiles/non-Jews even)!

Just because Jesus obeyed God’s principles doesn’t imply that He did so in our stead, and we may act like the devil!  In 2Co.5:10, Paul said that each of us must appear before the judgment seat…Ro.14:12 to “give an account of himself to God”.

He.7:13-28 Jesus wasn’t a Levite; He was from the tribe of Judah.  v.14 “Our Lord descended from Judah.”  Jesus didn’t have to qualify genealogically in the sense of the Levitical priesthood.  The fact that He was from Judah (was Jewish) through Mary didn’t disqualify Him in the order of Melchisedek, though He wasn’t qualified for the Levitical order.  The Levitical priesthood was based on genealogy…it consisted of only one clan (Aaron’s) within the tribe of Levi.

Continuing into Hebrews 8…the Old Covenant is of the Levitical order, the New Covenant is the order of Melchisedek.  He.8:6-13 the Lev dispensation principles, those which aren’t also part of the order of Mel, were vanishing.  v.13 “Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

He.9–10 the Levitical order’s weaker animal sacrifices were continually repeated.  All their priests were sinning humans and were temporary (they kept dying, He.7:23).  The Lev order couldn’t transform hearts nor give ancient Israelites the Holy Spirit power to obey God.  (So they’d gone into captivity.)  Whereas the order of Mel transforms hearts via the Spirit, with the sinless Jesus high priest forever!

Fire from God fell to burn Levitical order animal sacrifices on the altar (Le.6:12-13, 9:24).  Tongues of fire fell on the heads of human “living sacrifices” of the Melchisedek order (Ac.2:1-3, Ro.12:1)!

He.10:9-14 Jesus’ one-time sacrifice ends the prior Levitical dispensation, with its ceremonial temple rites.  It establishes the succeeding order of Mel.  v.9 “He takes away the first, to establish the second.”

In Jn.6:4 & 7:2, John calls God’s OT Passover and Feast of Booths the “feast of the Jews” (not “feast of God”)…because the old Levitical dispensation, with its pilgrim feasts at the temple, is ending.  They don’t exist in the order of Melchisedek.

Mt.26:26-28 Jesus restored the order of Melchisedek with the symbolic sacred bread & wine of the New Covenant as its communion (from Ge.14:19 Melchisedek).  Jewish Christian historian Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah 5:10:826-827 “With this celebration and new institution, the Jewish Passover forever ceased!”  The temple would soon be destroyed, and the pilgrim feasts at Jerusalem (their one authorized feast site then, never two simultaneously) would cease.

The OT Levites had no tribal land inheritance and were restricted in business (De.10:9; Nu.3:9, 18:20-21).  But leaders in the order of Melchisedek may work a common job, e.g. Ac.18:2-3.

The only Levitical injunctions and practices remaining…are those which are also present in the order of Melchisedek.  There are many.  Again, a detailed examination of Genesis shows that such injunctions (applicable for gentiles) existed prior to Moses and the Old Covenant.

He.13:10-14 “We have an altar which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.”  Disbelieving Levitical priests, at temple feasts of the Jews, had no right to partake of the bread & wine of the Lord in the order of Melchisedek.  Yet New Covenant believers partake.  And we needn’t be physically circumcised to take that communion!  Father Abraham (Abram) wasn’t circumcised when Melchisedek shared bread & wine with him as Abram in Ge.14!  (Whereas physical circumcision is commanded to keep a Passover, e.g. Ex.12:48-49.  see the topic “Circumcision in the Bible”.)

Few of us today have knowledge of/proof of family ancestry in the tribe of Levi or its priesthood.  1Pe.2:9 “You [Christians, 4:16] are a royal priesthood.”  Yet even us non-Levites/non-Aaronites are adopted (Ro.8:14-16) into royalty…and are become the royal priesthood in the order of Melchisedek!  Re.5:9-10 of saints from all nations, “You have made them a kingdom, and priests to our God”.

To conclude, the OT verse most often quoted in the NT is Le.19:18b. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  But the OT (short) passage most often referred to in the NT is Ps.110:1-4 (which began this topic). “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet….You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek.”  David Seilaff Who Was Melchizedek? “In fact, Psalm 110 is referred to in the New Testament more than any Old Testament section of Scripture.”  The order of Melchisedek is of such significance for Christ’s church!

Jesus is both our high Priest (He.6:20), and “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Re.19:16)…in the order of Melchisedek and the Kingdom of God!  Praise the Lord!

Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?

This topic tells, according to tradition, the history of those original animal skins God made for Adam.  There are two versions of the legend; they differ in regards to who those skins were passed down through.

Adam & Eve’s first sin and its ramifications are discussed in the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.  Ge.3:1-7 after the first humans sinned they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves.  v.7 “Their [Adam & Eve’s] eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings.”  Nakedness can be physical, being unclothed…and/or symbolic of sin and shame.  Their sin also brought guilt and shame to their psyche.

But the fig leaves they sewed, indicative of human devices/ways, are inadequate to cover sin.  So….

Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made garments of skin [owr Strongs h5785, Hebrew] for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”  God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of kidskin or calfskin.  (In so doing, the Lord showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin and their fallen condition, humans must be “clothed” by means of the death of another.  see the topic “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.)  Ge.3:22-24 the Lord cast them out of the garden of Eden.

Adam died at age 930 years (Ge.5:5).  But what happened to the skins the Lord made for him?

Presumably, those skins were passed down through succeeding generations…to eventually come into the possession of Isaac’s son Esau!

Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob were twins.  Ge.25:21-26 is the account of Esau and Jacob striving together while in the womb of Isaac’s wife Rebekah.  They were rivals even before birth.  Benson Commentary Ge.25:22 “The children struggled within her’ – in an unusual and painful manner; a presage of these two sons and their posterities.”  The firstborn son customarily inherited the birthright.  (cf. Ge.43:33 “The firstborn according to his birthright.”)  Esau and Jacob striving in the womb preluded the twins vying for the birthright (and the blessing).

Esau came out first.  Then Jacob came out, with his little hand holding onto the heel of brother Esau the firstborn.  Jacob’s name means ‘supplanter’ (Ge.27:36).  And Jacob would supplant or supersede Esau.

Ge.25:27-34 Isaac loved Esau more, but Rebekah loved Jacob.  Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.  JFB Commentary Ge.25:31 “Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright’. That is, the rights and privileges of the firstborn, which were very important, the chief being that they were the family priests [cf. Ex.24:5] and had a double portion of the inheritance (De.21:17).”  Esau disrespected his birthright.

Ge.27:1-7 Isaac had become nearly blind.  Before dying, Isaac wants to eat and bless his firstborn son Esau in the presence of the Lord (v.7 NASB).  Ge.27:8-17 but while Esau was out hunting game for Isaac…v.15 “Rebekah took the desirable [chemdáw h2532] garments of Esau her elder son, which were in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.”  v.16 garments of skins (owr h5785).  She wants her favorite son Jacob (not Esau) to receive Isaac’s blessing.  Rebekah hopes that Jacob wearing the skin garments of Esau will cause blind Isaac (age 120?) to think he’s Esau…and bless him/Jacob.

The Hebrew term chemdaw h2532 is used in v.15 to describe those particular skins.  It means desirable, choice, goodly, precious, valuable, beloved!  The root term is chamád h2530, desire or covet.

Let’s compare the use of chemdaw h2532 in other Old Testament (OT) verses:  Da.10:19 “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved [h2532 chemdaw].”  2Ch.32:27 NASB “Hezekiah had immense riches…and all kinds of valuable [h2532 chemdaw] articles.”  2Ch.36:10 ESV “King Nebuchadnézzar brought him [King Jehoiachín] to Babylon, with the precious [h2532 chemdaw] vessels of the house of the Lord.”  The term chemdaw h2532 was even used here to describe the holy vessels of God’s temple!  Ezr.8:25-27 utensils for the house of the Lord, were as “precious [h2532 chemdaw] as gold”.

Book of Jubilees 26:11 (written pre-100 BC) reads, “Rebecca took the goodly raiment of Esau, her elder son, which was with her in the house, and she clothed Jacob, her younger son, (with them)….”

So Isaac thought Jacob was Esau (Ge.27:21-24).  Ellicott Commentary Ge.27:15 “Evidently the clothing was something special, and such as was peculiar to Esau. For ordinary raiment, however handsome, would not have been kept in the mother’s tent.”  Cambridge Bible Ge.27:15 “Goodly,’ lit. ‘choice, desirable.’ By this is meant the clothes worn by Esau on festivals and solemn occasions.”  Poole Commentary Ge.27:15 “Either the sacerdótal garments which the eldest son wore in the administration of that office which belonged to him; or rather some other suit better than ordinary.”  Not Esau’s usual attire.  As the firstborn son, Esau might have later assumed the role of family priest, after the death of his father Isaac.  Pulpit Commentary Ge.27:15 “The firstborn didn’t serve in the priesthood while his father lived.”

But how had Esau come into the possession of those desirable special garments or vestments?

According to traditional sources, those skin garments were passed down from Adam to his descendants!  Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Palestinian), sec.6 “Rebekah took the pleasant vestments of Esau her elder son which had formerly been Adam’s; but which that day Esau had not worn, but they remained with her in the house, and (with them) she dressed Jacob her younger son. And the skins of the kids she laid upon his hands and the smooth parts of his neck.”  Benson Commentary Ge.27:16 “Goats’ hair is very like the human.”  It resembled human hair.

Antiquities scholar Louis H. Feldman of Yeshiva University wrote, “Even the fact that Rebekah took the special garments of Esau (which he had inherited from Adam by virtue of his being the eldest son) and gave them to Jacob was justified by the rabbis”.  They excused the deception.

Louis Ginzberg Legends of the Jews, v.2, pp.96-97 “She [Rebekah] dressed him [Jacob] in them, for those garments were the garb of the priesthood, and the Holy One, blessed be He, had clothed Adam in them, for he was the glory of the world; and prior to the construction of the Tabernacle, sacrificial worship was performed by firstborns. Primordial Man bequeathed them to his firstborn, and so they passed from firstborn to firstborn until they reached Noah. Noah gave them to his son Shem [Shem the firstborn?], Shem passed them on to Abraham [the firstborn?]; Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac to Esau, who was his firstborn. Since Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob, Rebekah considered that henceforth it was proper for Jacob to wear these garments, because he now had the status of firstborn.”

The above version of the skins legend is…Esau inherited those skins, Adam’s original garments, by line of descent.  But there’s a second version, which follows:

Louis Ginzberg adds op. cit., “These were the garments that Esau coveted from Nimrod, and killed him and took them.”  Midrash Rabbah 65:15 “Rebekah then took the best [Heb. ha-hamudot] clothes of her older son Esau, which he had coveted [chamad] from Nimrod.”  In this second version, Esau got Adam’s garments of skin…from Nimrod.

Gill Exposition Ge.27:15 “They were, as some Jewish writers say (Targum Jonathán), the garments of Adam the first man, which Esau seeing on Nimrod, greatly desired them, and slew him for them; and hence called desirable garments.”  Esau’s wrong covetousness resulted in murder.

But how had the skins come into Nimrod’s possession?  Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, Higger ed., ch.24 (written ca 833 AD) “Rabbi Hakhinai says Nimrod was mighty in strength, as it is said, ‘Cush also begot Nimrod’. Rabbi Judah says the garment that the Holy One, blessed be He, made for Adam and his wife were taken by Noah and his sons into the ark. When they came out of the ark, Noah’s son Ham took it with him [cf. Ge.9:20-23] and passed it on to Nimrod; when he wore them, any beast or animal that saw the writing would prostrate themselves before him. Human beings believed it was due to his might and therefore they made him king over them. Hence the saying, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter by the grace of the Lord [cf. Ge.10:9].”  Earlier, Nimrod’s ancestor Ham had those skins.

Ge.9:22 “Ham, the father of Canáan, saw the nakedness of his father [Noah], and told his two brothers [Jápheth and Shem] outside.”  According to this second version of the legend, Ham stole the skins from the sleeping Noah (the priest).  Adam’s (priestly) garments then came into the possession of the line of Hamites…Ham → Cush → Nimrod.  Traditionally, that’s how Nimrod got his power and might.

Ge.10:8 “Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on earth.”  Nimrod’s kingdom was in ancient Mesopotámia.  (In Mic.5:6, Assyria is called the “land of Nimrod.”)

Jewish Encyclopedia: Nimrod “His great success in hunting was due to the fact that he wore the coat of skin which God had made for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21). They were stolen by Ham.”

Supposedly the desirable skin garment (which became Nimrod’s and Esau’s) contained special powers!  Targum Neofití Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of glory, for the skin of their flesh, and He clothed them.”  Those (glorious) leather garments were unlike any coats made since!

Our Bibles mention the Book of Jasher in Josh.10:13 and 2Sa.1:18 (LXX “Book of Right”).  The (supposed) Book of Jasher today contains this second version of the skins legend regarding Nimrod and Esau:

Jash.7:23-32 “Cush the son of Ham, the son of Noah, took a [another] wife in his old age, and she bare a son, and they called his name Nimrod. And the garments of skin which God had made for Adam and his wife [Eve] were given to Cush. For after the death of Adam, the garments were given to Enoch; he gave them to Methusélah his son. And at the death of Methuselah, Noah brought them to the ark. And in their going out, Ham stole those garments from Noah his father, and hid them from his brothers [Japheth and Shem]. And when Ham begot his firstborn Cush, he gave him the garments in secret. When Cush had begotten Nimrod, he gave him those garments, and when he was 20 years old he put on those garments. Nimrod became strong when he put on the garments, God gave him might and strength….And he reigned upon earth.”  In the Book of Jasher, Nimrod is contemporary with Esau.

Jash.27:3-14 “Jealousy was formed in the heart of Nimrod against Esau [both were hunters]. On a certain day Esau went in the field to hunt, and he found Nimrod walking in the wilderness. Esau concealed himself from Nimrod. Esau started suddenly from his lurking place, drew his sword, ran to Nimrod and cut off his head….And Esau took the valuable garments of Nimrod, which Nimrod’s father [Cush] had bequeathed to Nimrod, and with which Nimrod prevailed over the whole land. And he [Esau] ran and concealed them in his house. He came into his father’s [Isaac’s] house exhausted and was ready to die through grief. He approached his brother Jacob and said, ‘Behold I shall die this day, and why then do I want this birthright?’ Jacob acted wisely in this matter, and Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, for it was so brought about by the Lord. And Jacob wrote the whole of this in a book, and sealed it.”  Jash.27:15-16, “All the days that Nimrod lived were 215 years and he died. Nimrod reigned upon the people 185 years.”

Traditionally, Nimrod was empowered by those skins of Adam’s!  Esau took the skins from Nimrod.

Isaac was deceived by Esau’s garments, worn by Jacob (Ge.27:18-end).  Isaac blessed Jacob.  Those weren’t just any skins smelling of leather…God’s Presence was there (Ge.27:7)!  They were unique.

Book of Jasher says Nimrod was the son of Cush’s old age.  But there may be chronological problems with this second version of the skins legend.  Again, in Jasher, Nimrod and Esau are contemporaries.

Noah had three sons, born prior to the Flood…Japheth, Shem, Ham.  Ge.10:6-9 LXX Nimrod was the 3^rd generation after Noah.  Noah → Ham → Cush → Nimrod.  But Esau was the 12^th/13^th generation after Noah (Ge.11:10-26, 21:3, 25:21-25)!  Noah → Shem → Arphaxad → Cainán (cf. Lk.3:36) → Shélah → Éber → Péleg → Reú → Serúg → Nahór → Térah → Abraham → Isaac → Esau.  Quite a disparity!

{Sidelight: According to the LXX chronology, the Flood occurred ca 3189 BC.  Noah lived on after the Flood for 350 years, until ca 2839 BC.  Shem lived for 600 years; 502 of his years were after the Flood.  Correspondingly, Shem lived ca 3287–2687 BC.  And Shem’s son Arphaxad lived for 565 years.  Arphaxad (born 2 years after the Flood) lived ca 3187–2622 BC.  ref Ge.11:10-13 LXX NETS.  Perhaps Ham’s son Cush lived a much longer life than Shem’s son Arphaxad’s 565 years?  (Seems doubtful.)  And Ham’s son Cush fathered Nimrod very late in life? ref Jash.7:23, 9:21.  Genesis doesn’t say.  Noah, Japheth, Shem, Ham, and Ham’s son Canaan (Cush’s younger brother) are all alive in Ge.9:18-28.

Later, Esau, born ca 1957 BC, at age 40 married two Hittite wives (Ge.26:34), ca 1917 BC.  Esau sold his birthright prior to marrying (Ge.25:27-34).  If Esau was age 16 when he killed Nimrod and took the skins, it occurred ca 1942 BC.  Jash.27:15 Nimrod lived for 215 years.  That would place his birth ca 2157 BC, 215 years before his death in 1942 BC.  For the LXX chronology to fit, Cush lived a very long life (living past 2157 BC), and Nimrod was born late in Cush’s life.  The Hebrew OT Masoretic Text chronology fits this more easily.)  Or, Moses’ account in Ge.10:1-20 skips some of Ham’s generations.  see “Chronology: Septuagint versus Masoretic Text”, “Chronology: Abraham to the Exodus”.}

Gill Exposition Ge.10:8 “Probably this [Nimrod] was his [Cush’s] youngest son.”  Pulpit Commentary Ge.10:8 “Cush begot’ – not necessarily as immediate progenitor.”  Ellicott Commentary Ge.10:8 “This does not mean that Nimrod was the son of Cush, but only that Cush was his ancestor.”  So there may have been more generations, not recorded in Genesis, between Cush and Nimrod.

Moses’ Genesis narrative summarizes thousands of years.  His compilation shows historical highlights.  Other ancient writings, e.g. Jasher, Jubilees, Targums… add details and convey traditional beliefs.

The New Testament (NT) too refers to earlier traditions, some not recorded in the OT.  Such as….

In 2Ti.3:8, Paul wrote of a Jannes and Jambres tradition.  Jánnes and Jambrés aren’t mentioned in the OT.  Perhaps Paul was referencing Jash.79:27; it notes Jannes and Jambres, and Pharaoh.  Jewish Encyclopedia: Jannes and Jambres “According to rabbinical tradition they were the two chiefs of the magicians at the court of Pharaoh who foretold the birth of Moses, ‘the destroyer of the land of Egypt,’ thereby causing the cruel edicts of Pharaoh (Soṭah 11a; Sanh. 106a).”

Jude 1:9 tells of Michael the archangel having disputed about the body of Moses.  That dispute isn’t recorded in the OT.  Life Application Bible Jude 1:9 “Here Jude may have been making use of an ancient book called the Assumption of Moses.”  The dispute was a traditional belief in the 1^st century.

In He.11:37, “They were sawn asunder” refers to the Martyrdom of Isaiah tradition.  Jewish Encyclopedia: Isaiah “Isaiah, fearing Manasséh, hid himself in a cedar-tree, but his presence was betrayed by the fringes of his garment, and Manasseh caused the tree to be sawn in half (Jerusalem Talmud Sanh. X).”  Also see the Ascension of Isaiah 5:1-ff, dating from the early 1^st century AD.

The above three ancient historical incidents, recorded in traditional sources, but not in our OT…are nonetheless incidents mentioned in our NT.  (Needless to say, the OT doesn’t show every single incident regarding God’s people that occurred between the creation of Adam and Jesus’ birth!)

However, several dozen miracles are recorded in the OT.  For example: Ex.4:1-5, 17 the Lord did miracles through Moses’ rod/staff.  Ex.34:28-35 Moses’ face shined after he’d been in God’s presence to receive the Decalogue.  2Ki.13:20-21 a dead man revived and stood up when his corpse came into contact with the bones of the prophet Elisha.  2Ki.2:7-8 the Jordan River parted when the prophet Elijah struck the waters with his mantle garment.  Also, in the NT, God performed healing miracles through cloths touched by the apostle Paul, Ac.19:11-12.

From the beginning, the Lord has done amazing things… sometimes even through garments and cloths!

The skins legend may not seem credible enough for us to believe?  However, the Biblical truth of all the wonders God has done…perhaps adds feasibility and credence to the legend that the skins God made for Adam were empowered, desired, and passed down to Adam’s descendants.

Israelites Identification (2)

Foundational scriptures for this topic were covered in “Israelites Identification (1)”.  This Part 2 is the sequel.  Part 2 won’t contain a full recap of what was covered in Part 1.  Verses referenced in (1) are essential for (2).  Also see the topic “Israelite Deportations by Assyria” for more background.

Part 1 ended with Hoséa’s prophecy.  The Lord told Hosea to prophesy to the northern kingdom of Israel.  Ho.1:4-11 “I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. For you are not My people and I Am not your God. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sands of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered. And it will come about that it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.’ And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together.”  The disobedient 10 tribes of Israel would be exiled from the Holy Land, and become a multitude in Assyria, Persia, and elsewhere.  But Ho.2:23 “And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!”  Yet eventually in the future, descendants of the 10 tribes would become the people of God again!  Israel gathered to Christ together with the descendants of the southern kingdom of Judah, the Jews (ref Ezk.37:15-22)…all 12–13 tribes together.

“Israelites Identification (1)” noted Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews 11:5:2. “There are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the 10 tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.”  In 94 AD, the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel were still gone!  Talmud Yebamot 17b “The 10 tribes of scattered Israel in their places of exile are legally gentiles for all intents and purposes.”

Jewish Virtual Library “The belief in the continued existence of the ten tribes was regarded as an incontrovertible fact during the whole period of the Second Temple and of the Talmud.”  Jewish Encyclopedia: Tribes, Lost Ten “Those of Judah and Levi [and Benjamin] returned with Ezra and Nehemiah. If the Ten Tribes have disappeared, the literal fulfilment of the prophecies would be impossible; if they have not disappeared, obviously they must exist under a different name.”  Only the 2–3 tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, not the 10, returned to the Land from Babylonian captivity.

In the 60s AD, Peter wrote to scattered people living among gentiles in the area of Asia Minor, north from the Holy Land (1Pe.1:1).  1Pe.2:9-12 “You are a chosen stock, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You were once not a people, but now you are the people of God. Conduct yourselves honorably among the gentiles [nations].”  The scattered resident aliens to whom Peter wrote included those who were “not a people”, but had now become the people of God.  Peter tied them to the ancient northern Israelites of Ho.1:10 & 2:23.  Israelites migrated from captivity.  Jews did too.  Peter continued, 1Pe.4:16 “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed”.  Recipients of 1Peter had become Christians of God!

Paul wrote in Ro.9:6, “They are not all Israel who are of Israel”.  There was a spiritual remnant.  v.24-27 “Even us whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among gentiles. As He says in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not My people, My people. Though the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved.” (Paul here also quotes Is.10:22 LXX).  Paul too relates the 10 tribes of Israel to…gentiles. (also see the topic “Gentiles in the Bible”.)

Paul continues in Ro.11:13, addressing gentiles, “I am speaking to you gentiles”.  v.17-26 RSV “I want you to understand this mystery, brethren; a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved.”  JFB Commentary Ro.11:25 “Blindness (hardness) has come partially, or upon a portion of Israel.”  Meyer’s NT Commentary “A part of Israel is hardened, until the gentiles collectively shall have come in.”  Jews and gentiles, including the 10 tribes, together the people of God.  All Israel.  Judah and Joseph as “one stick” (Ezk.37:15-ff).

Paul spoke his defense before King Agríppa in Ac.26:6-7. “Now I’m standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; which our 12 tribes hope to obtain, as they serve God night and day. For this hope, O King, I am being accused by the Jews.”  Does Paul here differentiate the 12 tribes from the Jews, or are the “12 tribes” representative of “Jews”?  Cambridge Bible Notes Ja.1:1 “The ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, though they had been carried into a more distant exile than Judah and Benjamin, were thought of, not as lost and out of sight, but as still sharing the faith and hope of their fathers. So St Paul speaks of ‘the twelve-tribed nation’ as ‘serving God day and night’ (Ac.26:7), and our Lord’s promise that His twelve disciples should sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt.19:28).”  1Clement 22:24 “Nor did Esther expose herself to any less hazard, for the delivery of the 12 tribes of Israel, in danger of being destroyed.”  After the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, Israelites of the 12 tribes were in Persia too at the time of queen Esther (400s BC).

By the 1^st century, many Jews saw the restoration of the 12 tribes as part of the eschatological work of Elijah or Messiah (ref Mt.19:28).  Ja.1:1 “James, a bondservant of God, to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad, greetings.”  Benson Commentary Ja.1:1 “James very properly inscribed his letter to the twelve tribes which were in the dispersion, seeing the twelve tribes really existed then, and do still exist, although not distinguished by separate habitations, as they were anciently in their own land.”  Gill Exposition “They were the posterity of those who had been dispersed in former captivities, by the Assyrians and others, and who remained in the several countries whither they were carried, and never returned. We read of 144,000 sealed of all the tribes of Israel, Re.7:4.”  Those weren’t just the Jews.

Rabbi A.H. Fink from Spokane, WA, “The Jews do not claim to represent the twelve tribes, for the ten tribes never returned from captivity and are lost to history.”

In 1Co.10:18, Paul speaks of “Israel according to the flesh”, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.  Yet Paul’s writings reflect both a fleshly and a ‘spiritual Israel’.  In Ga.6:15-16, Paul doesn’t restrict the “Israel of God” to those physically circumcised (Jews).  Ellicott Commentary “By the ‘Israel of God’ is here meant the ‘spiritual Israel’, not converts from Judaism alone.”  JFB Commentary “Not the Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual seed of Abraham by faith.”  Paul wrote in Ga.3:28-29, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed.”  Gentiles are grafted-in, as Paul puts it in Ro.11:17.

The New Covenant is with descendants of Israel and Judah, God’s two ancient kingdoms.  In He.8:8-10 the writer quoted God’s words to Jeremiah. “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be My people.”  According to Paul, gentiles share in the new covenant by being grafted-in, becoming part of spiritual Israel.  God writes His laws on their hearts & minds via the Holy Spirit.

In Mt.12:3-4, Jesus spoke of the time David had “entered the house of God”.  The Old Testament house of God was the tabernacle/temple (e.g. Jg.18:31, 2Ch.3:3).  Later He.4:14, 10:21 “We have a great priest over the house of God”.  Now Jesus is High Priest over the house of God (in the order of Melchisedek, He.5:6).  Paul wrote in 1Ti.3:15, “The house of God, which is the church of the living God”.  There’s no more physical temple…the house of God is the church of God!

God’s kingdom and temple “house” was taken from those Jewish leaders…and is given to others.  Jesus proclaimed in Mt.21:42-46, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it. The chief priests and Pharisees understood He was speaking about them.”  Accordingly, in 70 AD the kingdom was taken from the physical ‘nation’ of Judaea, and given to a spiritual “nation” bearing fruit.  1Ch.28:5-6 the old kingdom.  De.4:23-27 if the ancient Israelites ignore or violate God’s covenant, they wouldn’t remain in God’s Land!  So God exiled them to other nations.  Paul spoke of them in Ro.10:19 (ref De.32:21 LXX), “I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation”.  The “nation” bearing fruit isn’t a singular national entity.  Again 1Pe.2:9-10 “You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”  Peter wrote to a holy “nation”, Christians (1Pe.4:16)…the house of God.

So where are the 10 or 12 tribes of Israel located, since Christ?  Josephus Wars of the Jews 2:16:4 is Herod’s 1^st century speech about Israelite tribes then beyond the Euphrates in Ádiabene (central old Assyria).  Then around 300 years after Josephus, Jerome said the ten tribes were “Still beyond the Euphrates, in the land of their captivity. Nor has their captivity ever been loosed” (Opera 6:780).  They were still  ‘lost’, gone from the Holy Land.

Asahel Grant wrote The Nestorians in 1841.  Grant had missionary experiences in Assyria & Persia.  He there encountered a people who displayed an Israelite culture and claimed to be descendants of ancient Israel.  We’ve also heard of Ethiopian Jews.  The Lemba people in Zimbabwe observe Jewish customs.  In northeast India are a people who exhibit a surviving Israelite culture and claim descent from the tribe of Manasséh.  Some think even Queen Elizabeth of England looked Jewish!?

Dr. J.H. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, said in 1918: “The people known as Jews are the descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with a certain number of the tribe of Levi. So far as is known, there is not any further admixture of other tribes. The Ten Tribes have been absorbed among the nations of the world. The Jews look forward to the gathering of all the tribes at some future date.”

So the ancient 10 tribes of northern Israel, and the Jews too, are for the most part now assimilated into the various nations.  And intermarriage is increasing!  In 1900 AD, only 2% of married Jews worldwide were wed to non-Jews or gentiles.  In 1975 that figure was 25%.  But by 2004, 50% of marrying Jews intermarry with non-Jews.  And among non-Orthodox Jews in the USA, in 2013 the intermarriage rate is 70%.  And beyond Jews, it’s speculated that by now at least a small fractional % of our father Abraham’s ‘blood’, so to speak, is existent in most nations, if not in most people on earth!

Who is a real Jew today?  Regardless of descent, some consider a Jew to be anyone who practices Judaism.  But the religion or oral tenets of Judaism wasn’t that of ancient Jacob/Israel’s son Judah.  Judaism isn’t ‘Judah-ism’, so to speak.  Many say a (genetic) Jew is anyone who has a Jewish mother (some add, ‘and who hasn’t adopted another faith’).  Sects within Judaism have differing views on this issue.  However, in scripture, genealogies are patrimonial; not reckoned from the mother, whose name often isn’t included.  (a related topic is “Levites and the Exodus Multitude”.)

Some Jews say physical circumcision is unnecessary.  Joseph Jacobs wrote in 1905, Jew. Enc. X, 283. “The question whether the Jews of today are in the main descended from the Jews of Bible times, and from them alone, is still undecided.”  And after 3,500+ years of intermarriage & proselytizing, today it’s difficult to ascertain who’s really of the Abraham–Isaac–Jacob–12 tribe line anyway!

Genetic studies have produced mixed results…“No test can give you unambiguous proof.”  Some results may seem surprising.  Wikipedia: Genetic Studies on Jews “Many genetic studies also found substantial genetic overlap between Muslim Palestinians and Ashkenazi and Sephárdic Jews.”  Wikipedia: Canaanite Religion “The DNA [50%] of the modern Arab and Jewish people matches the DNA of the ancient Canaanites.”  Patheos: “Y–chromosome haplotypes revealed that Arabs and Jews are essentially a single population. Palestinians and Jews are virtually indistinguishable.”

Semites are a language group, not a racial group.  Today 340 million people speak Semitic languages (Shem, Ham, Jápheth were the three sons of the patriarch Noah, Ge.10:1).  Of those: 300 million speak Arabic, 22 million Amháric (Ethiopia), 7 million Tigrínya (Horn of Africa), 10 million speak Hebrew.  (Yiddish was mostly a Germanic language, not a Semitic.)  By definition, anti-Semitic opposes Arabs, Ethiopians, Jews/Hebrew speakers.  But usually the term is used wrongly, with racial implications.  Dr. Benjamin Freedman (Facts Are Facts, 1954) thought the term anti-Semitism doesn’t apply to Jews in the sense its most commonly used, and even “should be eliminated from the English language”.

The question continues to be raised as to whether some secular Zionist Jews who founded the modern Israeli state were really Semites (‘Shemites’, descended from Shem)?  Their Yiddish language wasn’t Semitic.  They’re Ashkenazi (German) ‘Jews’.  Ge.10:1-3 but Ashkenáz descended from Noah’s son Japheth, not Shem.  If so, possibly they’re non-Semitic (and pre-1950 had a non-Semitic language, Yiddish), perhaps descending from East European Slavs; i.e. Kházars who settled in Russia & Ukraine.  In 740 AD, the ruler of Khazária adopted Judaism as their official state religion.

Jewish scholar Arthur Koestler wrote in The Thirteenth Tribe: “The Khazars came not from Jordan, but from the Volga, not from Canaan, but from the Caucasus. Genetically they are more related to the Hun, Úygur and Mágyar than to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The story of the Khazar Empire, as it slowly emerges from the past, begins to look like the most cruel hoax that history has ever perpetrated.”

But Jewish scholar Yair Davidiy doesn’t think the Khazars came from Turkish stock. The Khazars, Tribe 13 “Early traditions spoke of the Lost Ten Tribes being in the Scýthian and Khazar areas. According to most Jewish sources, Khazars were a portion of the 10 tribes, especially Ephráim and Manasseh. All Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews, in the same way that all Texans are Americans but not all Americans are Texans.” (p.200)

Descendants from Japheth and Ashkenaz traditionally settled in Germany, but were driven out and established new communities elsewhere in Europe.  They called themselves Ashkenazi, following customs & rulings previously practiced by Jews in Germany.

The Sephardic Jews are in the minority.  ref Ob.1:20 “Sepharád”.  Sepharad meant Spain to rabbis.  Sepharim were Spanish Jews or those following customs & rulings of Spanish Jews.  Sephardics now dwell around the Mediterranean area and North Africa.  Any future DNA matching for the 10 tribes?

When the Land allotments were originally assigned to the tribes of Israel (Jsh.14–19), at least 50% of the West Bank area inheritance went to the tribes of Ephraim & Manasseh & Issachár, not all of it to Judah & Benjamin (who became the Jews)!  And in the north, the area of the Golan Heights within Israel went to Manasseh (and a fringe area to Naphtalí), not to Judah or Benjamin.  That’s Bible history and geography from Joshua, not so-called anti-Semitism.  Yet…if the Khazars descended from the tribes of Israel, adopted Judaism, intermarried with Jews, and some of their seed returned to the Land during the past 130 years…then some living in modern Israel are the seed of ancient Israelites?!

Who is a true descendant of Abraham and Jacob/Israel?  Ga.3:28-29 “There is neither Greek nor Jew, you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed.”  Paul includes all who are in Christ…Christians. (Ro.11:24 with Jews re-grafted.)  Ge.17:1-6 anciently God changed Abrám’s name to Abraham, because he would become father of many nations.  Ro.4:16-17 includes all who have the same faith as “Abraham, the father of us all”.  Ro.11:26 thus all Israel will be saved!

Paul wrote in Ro.2:28-29, “Neither is circumcision outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart [cf. De.30:6], by the Spirit.”  According to Paul, it’s spiritual; not based on physical circumcision or a % of Jewish blood ancestry.

To conclude: Re.7:4-8 “I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel.”  John identifies 12 tribes (including the tribe of Judah).  Re.21:10-12 “It had a great and high wall with twelve gates; and names were written on them, those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.”  At the end of the Book…the names of the 12 tribes are on the gates of the Holy City!

Ps.22:23, 27-28 “You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him. All you seed of Israel. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations will worship before Thee.”  (Ge.32:28 God changed the man Jacob’s name to Israel, see Part 1.)  Eventually all the tribes will be saved.  All the nations will praise Christ, the God/Rock of Israel.  Praise the Lord!!