1.148
I will now treat of the Hebrews. The son of Phaleg, whose father
Was Heber, was Ragau; whose son was Serug, to whom was born Nahor; his
son was Terah, who was the father of Abraham, who accordingly was the tenth
from Noah, and was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after
the deluge; for Terah begat Abram in his seventieth year. Nahor begat Haran
when he was one hundred and twenty years old; Nahor was born to Serug in
his hundred and thirty-second year; Ragau had Serug at one hundred and
thirty; at the same age also Phaleg had Ragau; Heber begat Phaleg in his
hundred and thirty-fourth year; he himself being begotten by Sala when
he was a hundred and thirty years old, whom Arphaxad had for his son at
the hundred and thirty-fifth year of his age. Arphaxad was the son of Shem,
and born twelve years after the deluge. Now Abram had two brethren, Nahor
and Haran: of these Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcha his
daughters; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city of the Chaldeans, called
Ur; and his monument is shown to this day. These married their nieces.
Nabor married Milcha, and Abram married Sarai. Now Terah hating Chaldea,
on account of his mourning for Ilaran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia,
where Terah died, and was buried, when he had lived to be two hundred and
five years old; for the life of man was already, by degrees, diminished,
and became shorter than before, till the birth of Moses; after whom the
term of human life was one hundred and twenty years, God determining it
to the length that Moses happened to live. Now Nahor had eight sons by
Milcha; Uz and Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Azau, Pheldas, Jadelph, and Bethuel.
These were all the genuine sons of Nahor; for Teba, and Gaam, and Tachas,
and Maaca, were born of Reuma his concubine: but Bethuel had a daughter,
Rebecca, and a son, Laban.
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1.154
Now Abram, having no son of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran's
son, and his wife Sarai's brother; and he left the land of Chaldea when
he was seventy-five years old, and at the command of God went into Canaan,
and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity. He was a person
of great sagacity, both for understanding all things and persuading his
hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions; for which reason he began to
have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew
and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God;
for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, That there was
but one God, the Creator of the universe; and that, as to other [gods],
if they contributed any thing to the happiness of men, that each of them
afforded it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power.
This his opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible
both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun,
and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus: - "If [said he] these
bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their
own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity, they
make it plain, that in so far as they co-operate to our advantage, they
do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to Him that
commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving."
For which doctrines, when the Chaldeans, and other people of Mesopotamia,
raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country; and
at the command and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land
of Canaan. And when he was there settled, he built an altar, and performed
a sacrifice to God.
1.158
Berosus mentions our father Abram without naming him, when he says
thus: "In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was among
the Chaldeans a man righteous and great, and skillful in the celestial
science." But Hecatseus does more than barely mention him; for he
composed, and left behind him, a book concerning him. And Nicolaus of Damascus,
in the fourth book of his History, says thus: "Abram reigned at Damascus,
being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon,
called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up,
and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the
land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this
when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which posterity of his,
we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abram is even
still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named
from him, The Habitation of Abram."
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