The Historical and Cultural Context of Abraham

Abraham lived not long after the end of the Sumerian Ur III empire, circa 2000 BC. Invading groups of Amorites brought about its fall.

Abraham was an Amorite (Ezekiel 16:3). Abraham was called a “Hebrew” in Genesis 14:13, because he was descended from an ancestor named Eber.  The term “Hebrew” means one who crosses over.  While his original homeland was Padan-Aram, on the other side of the Euphrates river, where some of his family continued to live, he “crossed over” the Euphrates into the land of Canaan.

In the ancient world, some people lived in empires which spanned large amounts of territory.  Others lived in smaller nations, while still others lived in city-states – basically, a nation that encompassed just one single city.  In that day and age, people tended to trust in military might to protect themselves. But God called Abraham to go to a land he wasn't familiar with, and trust that God would protect him. This concept of ensuring safety through superior military force versus ensuring safety God's way will come up again and again in coming articles.

People didn’t worship gods just anywhere.  Instead, gods were worshipped at specific cult centers.  For instance, the Akkadian moon god Sin had cult centers at Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, and Harran, where Abraham lived for a while on his way to the land of Canaan. This will become important later.

Gentile nations each had their own national gods, which were different from the gods of the other nations.  While lesser gods like the moon god Sin could be worshipped by different peoples, the Gentile nations each had one main god.  For instance, the national god of Babylon was known as Marduk.

According to Deuteronomy 32:7-9, the nations were divided (after the Tower of Babel), according to the number of the "sons of God." Each of these "sons of God" was given a "land grant" by El Elyon (God Most High). YHWH (the Hebrew name of God) was assigned to rule over "the people of Jacob."

In Biblical cosmology as well as across the ancient Near East, heaven was seen as a “mirror” of earth.  See Job 37:18.  Just as the heavenly sons of God ruled in heaven, the human “sons of God” - the seventy descendants of Noah, according to Genesis 10 - ruled over nations and kingdoms on the earth. In coming articles, we'll see how this important concept helps to make sense of the Kingdom of God on earth vs. the Kingdom of Heaven.

One of the important events that happened during Abraham’s lifetime was the destruction of the cities of the plain, including Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham bargained with God not to destroy those cities if there were enough righteous people there.  After all, his nephew Lot lived in Sodom!  But there weren’t enough, and instead God delivered Lot and destroyed those cities.  We’ll see later why this was an important event.

References:

YouTube - Heaven and Earth "mirror" each other

In Search of Abraham's Birthplace

Image of Abraham by Abraham Bible Stock photos by Vecteezy.