Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's Hebrew caste reveals that the rulers had two wives. The first was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The wives maintained separate settlements on a north-south axis. These settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of the ruler's territory. Sarah resided in Hebron, at the northern edge of Abraham's territory in Edom. Keturah, of the royal line of Sheba, resided at Beersheba to the south. Both Hebron and Beersheba were in the territory that the Greeks called Idumea, which is Edom, the land of red people.

This two-wife marriage pattern for high-ranking Hebrew rulers was common. Many Hebrew rulers had two wives. Among them were Lamech the Elder, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau the Elder, Amram, Jesse, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash. Abraham's two wives were Sarah (his half-sister) and Keturah (his patrilineal cousin). They resided in separate settlements in Hebron and Beersheba.

In 1 Chronicles 4:5, we read that "Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah."

In 1 Chronicles 4:17-18, we read that Mered had two wives, and one was "Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, whom Mered had married."

 
According to Genesis 25:1, Keturah is described as Abraham’s wife. The Hebrew word here is ishshah, which means woman or wife. However, according to I Chronicles 1:32, Keturah was a concubine (piylegesh or piyegesh meaning concubine). I Chronicles reflects a time long after the events described and is not consistent with the overwhelming evidence that Keturah was a wife. The confusion may be due to the Chronicles' post-exilic reading of Genesis 25:6: "To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac..."  It was the custom to send away non-ascendant sons. Abraham, Moses, Jacob and Joseph are among the sent-away sons in the Hebrew Bible.

Keturah was Abraham's second wife who he married at a later age. Analysis of the marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham’s people makes it clear that Keturah was a wife. Typically, the first wife was the bride of the Hebrew ruler's youth and usually his half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham). The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham).

Keturah resided at Beer-Sheba, which took its name from the great patriarch Sheba who controlled the well there. (Beer means well.) Keturah's firstborn son was probably Joktan, who she named after her father. This is an example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

It may be that the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia are among Joktan's descendants.  

Abraham and Keturah were both descendants of Sheba, the great grandson of Ham. They are also descendants of Shem, as the lines of Shem and Ham intermarried. Sheba was a contemporary of Eber, Shem's great grandson. Eber’s son Joktan married a daughter of Sheba. We know this because Joktan’s first-born son was named Sheba, after his cousin bride’s father. This naming prerogative of the cousin bride was already a custom in the time of Lamech (Gen. 4). Lamech’s daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.  Lamech the Younger would ascend to the throne of his maternal grandfather.
 
 

Keturah likewise named her first-born son Joktan, after her father. Abraham had two first-born sons by his wives: Isaac and Joktan. He also had firstborn sons by his two concubines Masek and Hagar. By Masek he had Eliezar and by Hagar he had Ishmael. Contrary to common belief, Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn. Keturah, though Abraham's second wife, would have produced a son before Sarah who was barren and did not bring forth Abraham's proper heir until very late in her life.

Keturah and Sarah were wives whose firstborn sons would rule over different territories. Isaac was Abraham's proper heir who ruled over Abraham's territory after Abraham's death. Abraham's concubines Hagar and Masek were of subordinate status to his wives. This was the case also with Jacob's concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.


The Pattern of Keturah Parallels the Pattern of Naamah

According to Gen. 10:24-30, Keturah’s father had a brother named Peleg. The text makes much of the implications of Peleg’s name which means “division”, “because it was in his time that the earth was divided” (Gen. 10:25). There are different possible explanations for this division, but the most likely is that expressed in the pattern of genealogical information. The daughter of Sheba who married Joktan and named her firstborn son Sheba is the last bride named of Ham’s line. In this respect she parallels Naamah, the last bride named of Cain’s line.

Keturah’s father was Joktan and her paternal uncle was Peleg, who is said to be the “first” son. This means that Joktan, like Abraham, was not to receive the rights of primogeniture by which he would become chief after his father’s death. So Joktan, Abraham’s firstborn by Ketu-rah, would not be chief after his death. That would fall to Isaac, the son of Sarah. Nevertheless, the Joktanites would become a powerful presence in the Sinai and by their skills and generosity would enable the Israelites to come out of Egypt and survive in the wilderness.

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. Almodad appears to be the first-born, as his name is listed first. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his two wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis. This may be the meaning of the sites mentioned in Gen. 10:30: Mesha and Sephar, although “sephar,’ which means “numbering,” might refer to the cosmology of Abraham’s people rather than to a specific location.

Some of the descendants of Joktan and Sheba hold an annual autumn feast at an oasis in the wilderness to celebrate the date harvest. This is the one time of the year that women and men may dance together. The date palm (“tamar”) is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. The ‘Id el-Tamar is a festival when the unmarried check out the pool of available matches. As is the custom from time immemorial, wife selection takes place at a well or an oasis.

The Significance of the Well

Wells and oases are where boy meets girl in the Bible. There are several incidents of wives being found at wells. Abraham’s servant found Rebecca at a well. Moses met Zipporah at a well. The wells were under the control of the local ruler, often Hebrew priests, such as Jethro. Probably Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba, one of their common ancestors.

The Hebrew priests among Abraham's people established their shrines near rivers and wells. They needed the water to sustain their flocks, and it was from these flocks and herds that they selected animals to sacrifice. The evidence of the Bible indicates that the rulers among Abraham's Hebrew people married the daughters of Hebrew priests (caste endogamy). Moses married his cousin Zipporah, the daughter of a Hebrew priest named Jethro. He was of the Hebrew clan of Midian. Midian was another son born to Abraham by Keturah. Abraham had nine sons. Here is a list of sons:

Sarah, daughter of Terah (Gen. 20:12)
Yitzak (Issac)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Yismael (Ishmael) was Egyptian, since ethnicity was traced through the mother and Hagar was Egyptian. Tracing ethnicity through the mother rather than the father is still required to establish Jewish identity today. This pattern is recognized in Egypt as well, which is why the Egyptian government has made it illegal for Egyptian men to marry Jewish women.

Ketu-rah, daughter of Joktan (Gen. 25)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian

Yishbak
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek (Keturah’s handmaid, mentioned only in the Septuagint.)
Eliezar 

Related reading: Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Identifying the Status of the Two Wives; The Hebrew were a Caste; Abraham's Sons; Eliezar of Damascus; Abraham's Two Concubines; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way

A Book about the Nephilim

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

There is a great deal of interest in the Nephilim, and much of what is written is not supported by the canonical Scriptures, history, archaeology and anthropology.

The term refers to powerful men who were considered "sons of God" in the ancient world because of their authority and grandeur.

In Genesis 6 the phrase "sons of God" parallels the phrase "daughters of men." Such parallelism is typical of Semitic literature. 

The attempt to portray the archaic rulers as an alien supernatural element fails because these were mortal men whose descendants were living among the Horite Hebrew in Hebron. Numbers 13:33 identifies the Nephilim with the people of Anak, a ruler. His “Anakim” people are associated with Kiriath Arba, an ancient name for Hebron, where Sarah resided. Her settlement marked the northern boundary of Abraham’s territory.

Unfortunately, most Bibles translate Nephilim as “giants” when it should read “great ones.” Nephilim comes from the same root as the Aramaic npyl (naphil) which means great. This is equivalent to the Arabic nfy, meaning hunter. It is said concerning Nimrod that he was a “mighty hunter” or a “mighty man” before the Lord (Gen. 10).

If the word nephilim came from Hebrew naphal, it would not be spelled as we find it. For the word nephilim to mean "fallen ones" it would be spelled as nephulim. Likewise, nephilim does not mean "those who fall" or "those who fall away" - that would be nophelim. The only way in Hebrew to get nephilim from naphal by the rules of Hebrew morphology would be to presume a noun spelled naphil and then pluralize it. However, this noun does not exist in biblical Hebrew.

These powerful rulers were also designated gibborim, a Hebrew word that means "mighty ones". The word gibor refers to a great or powerful man. Some Hebrew queens held the title gibrah, meaning powerful woman.

The period of 300-200 BC includes the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and the First Book of Enoch, both of which gave rise to the idea of fallen angels mysteriously mixing with humans. The Books of Enoch are 1 Enoch, also known as the "Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch" and the Slavonic version that is referred to as 2 Enoch or "The Book of the Secrets of Enoch." 1 Enoch was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (probably both), but the only complete copy known today is in Ge'ez, a language of Ethiopia. 1 Enoch dates to no earlier than around 200 BC. The pertinent chapters are 1-36 (The Watchers) and chapters 72-82 (The Astronomical Writings). These books fit Risto Santala's description of literature that, like "the esoteric Qabbalah wandered off the right track in creating a very extensive literature on doctrines of angels and mysteries..."

I have written an entire book on these "mighty men" who are identified as "heroes" and "men of renown" in Genesis 6:4. They were the First Lords of the Earth and their influence on humanity continues to this day. 

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way; STEM Education: The Genesis Rulers Through the Lens of Anthropology

Jewish Responses to My Research

 

Dr Alice C. Linsley

I have been asked about the response of Jews to my research. While I have never been concerned about the reaction of anyone to my work, I attempt to be sensitive to the religious traditions of my many readers.

Generally, I have found a positive reaction from the Jews who have reached out to me. A Jewish woman who teaches women in her synagogue wrote:

Alice Linsley - I have used some of your work as background material for a small women's group in my synagogue as a part of a teaching Sukkot celebration these past few years. The material has just been part of my brief oral presentations - not given out textually about the women personalities in Torah and Tanach.

Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel (Jacob's clan) were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. I have written about the wanderings from mountain to mountain and theorized that these mountains were sacred to various Hebrew clans who were kin to the Israelites.

Follow the Mountains: A Different View of the Exodus

After leaving Egypt, the clan of Jacob (Israel) journeyed by stages, making contact with Hebrew kinsmen at each stage. The first people to help them were their cousins the Midianites (descendants of Abraham by Keturah) in the region of Horeb, the Midianite sacred mountain (Deut. 29:1). 

Another people to help them were the Edomites related to Seir the Horite Hebrew chief named in Genesis 36. The Edomite sacred mountain was Paran (Deut. 33:2). 

Crossing through Edomite territory (where Aaron was buried), the Hebrews moved northeast into Moab. They visited with Lot’s descendants and worshipped on Mount Nebo (Deut. 32:49), where Moses died.

At each of these sacred sites, the reunion of kin was celebrated by a covenant that included animal sacrifice and a night of feasting. These covenants resembled the covenant made between Jacob and Laban at Mizpah (Gen. 31:44-54).

The early Hebrew ruler-priests (4000-2000 BC) established themselves at high places where they built temples, palaces, garrisons, etc. These places were supported by permanent water sources. That is why the earliest known archaeological sites of the Ancient Near East are on high ground near major rivers such as the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Jordan, and the Nile.

Some of the high places served by Hebrew royal priests were dedicated to the sun, the symbol of the High God. (See BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Hebrew Ruler-Priests at the Ancient Sun Cities.)

Response to my distinction between the historical realities revealed through kinship analysis and Midrash.

I also have had a positive response to my exposition of the common themes of Midrash, the rabbinic method of interpreting events that took place thousands of years before Judaism emerged. Midrash has influenced the shape of the Jewish ethnic narrative. Some people, including this writer, claim that the influence of the rabbis on Jewish identity has been greater than the influence of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Knowledge of the social structure of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste explains why many things happened the way they did. However, the midrashim in the Old Testament often give a different explanation for events that took place before Judaism.

Midrash is characterized by some narrative devices such as famines that drive the Hebrew people into other lands. Famines in Caanan are a device to explain why Abraham went to Egypt and why Noami and her family went to Moab. The rabbis are anxious to disguise the fact that there were Hebrew living in Egypt and in Moab. The earliest known Hebrew clans lived in the Nile Valley, and the Moabites and Hebrew share a common ancestor in Terah, Abraham’s father.

However, the Book of Genesis makes it clear that the early Hebrew had dispersed into many regions long before the time of Abraham. Their dispersal was driven by features of their social structure such as endogamy and the sending away of non-ascendant sons.

Another device of Midrash is jealousy among brothers. Though the Genesis story does not explain why Cain killed Abel, midrash supplies the explanation that he was jealous. Likewise, Joseph’s treatment by his brothers is explained as an act motivated by jealousy.

Midrash employs the practice of slavery to explain why Joseph is in Egypt, why Daniel is in Babylon, and why Mordecai and Esther are in Persia. In the sixth century B.C., many Judean noblemen were taken to Babylon, and Babylon was conquered by the Persians who took captives to Susa. These events have been historically verified. Midrash embroiders historical events to convey a theological message.

Midrash tends to point to God or supernatural intervention as an explanation for why things happened. An example is Joseph’s declaration to his brothers: “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” (Genesis 45:5-7)

Another example is Mordecai’s declaration to Esther: “Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:12-14)

Jewish Reactions versus Evangelical Reactions

Over the 40 years that I have been investigating the social structure of the biblical Hebrew I have found that Jewish readers are more appreciative of my work than Evangelical Christians who espouse the profoundly errant doctrine of inerrancy.

It is best to read the biblical texts critically, but since God is truthful and He has superintended the Scriptures, they tell us truth. We should read them as if they were law briefs: there is a majority opinion and a minority opinion. Or to express this differently: close listening reveals dominant voices and subservient voices. When these are singing to the glory of God, the music is rapturous.

Related reading: Distinguishing Midrash from Historical Realities; Get to Know the Biblical Hebrew!; Genesis and Inerrancy; Reading Genesis as Verifiable History; Five Features of the Hebrew Social Structure; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons

Another Look at Genesis 3:13-15

 

Mary and the Christ Child with Angels and Saints George and Theodore, c. 600 AD 

(St. Catherine's Monastery)

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The most primitive model of the Mother of the Son of God is found among the early Hebrew at Nekhen on the Nile (4000-3000 BC). Nekhen predates the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza and the step pyramid of King Djoser (Third Dynasty). The oldest known tomb, with murals on its plaster walls, is located at Nekhen and dates to c. 3500–3200 BC.

Nekhen is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. That is where the Narmer Palette was found. It dates to c. 3100 BC. At the top of the Palette are two images of Hathor wearing the bovine horns. Among the early Hebrew, Hathor was venerated as the mother of Horus, the son of the High God. In Ancient Egyptian the Son of the High God was called HR, meaning Most High One. 

Nekhen predates the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza and the step pyramid of King Djoser (Third Dynasty). The oldest known tomb, with murals on its plaster walls, is located at Nekhen and dates to c. 3500–3200 BC.

The people of Nekhen were cattle herders. The bull's horns were often show cradling the solar orb, a symbol of the presence of the High God. Hathor was shown with the Sun resting in the horns. This represented her conception of the Son of God by divine overshadowing, as was fulfilled in the Virgin Mary's conception of Jesus. In answer to Mary's question, the Angel Gabriel explained, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God."

Hathor overshadowed and wearing the blue of the divine ones.

This belief of the early Hebrew (4200-2000 BC) is found in the canonical Scripture in Genesis 3:13-15, the first Messianic prophesy of the Bible. That prophesy concerns the Woman, her Child, and the Serpent. This passage is called the "proto-Evangelium" or the proto-Gospel. It speaks of the eventual victory of the Woman and her divine Son over all God's adversaries.

The passage appears slightly different in the various translations. The Greek speaks of how He will bruise the serpent's head. The Latin speaks of how She (ipsa) will bruise the serpent's head. The Hebrew speaks of how the Woman's offspring shall strike the Serpent's head and the Serpent's offspring shall strike at their heel. In the Hebrew the Woman and her Son are both targets of the Serpent's attacks (cf. Rev. 12).

The early Messianic expectation was expressed in the 4200-year-old Pyramid Texts: "Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot" (Utterance 388). 

Psalm 110:1 expresses God victory through His Son. "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" This was expressed 1000 years earlier in Passage 148 of the Coffin Texts: "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." 

The Horite and Sethite Hebrew believed that the Son of God would be miraculously conceived by divine overshadowing. They also believed that in His repose he would proclaim glad tidings to those in Hades. A Horite Hebrew song found at the royal complex at Ugarit speaks of Horus (HR) who descends to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." (cf. The Apostles' Creed)

The basic pattern of the Messiah's saving work is found in the early texts of the Nilotic Hebrew. A reference to the third day resurrection is found in the Pyramid Texts: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars." (Utterance 667) 

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Horus is called the "advocate of his father" (cf. 1 John 2:1).

Related reading: The Earliest Known Site of Horite Hebrew Worship; The Golden Calf in Anthropological Context; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; The Substance of Abraham's Faith; Revelation 12: The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon; The Story Behind Osiris; Hebrew Names and Titles

Readers, it is your turn!

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

I started this blog 16 years ago with the intention of exploring the Book of Genesis as an anthropologist and a Christian. I have attempted not to impose commonly circulated interpretations on the Book. Instead, I have taken a scientific approach by identifying anthropologically significant data in the text. 

What does that mean?

An anthropologist seeks data about culture traits, social structures, kinship patterns, burial customs, tools, household objects, laws, forms of governance, social hierarchies, etc. When considering the Book of Genesis this is an especially difficult task because there are many biblical populations to investigate. That is why I have focused mainly on the biblical Hebrew, a ruler-priest caste with a moiety structure and a distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern.

Longtime readers of this blog will have noted how some of my thoughts changed over the years as more data came to light. I have the most confidence in the accuracy of the posts in last few years because many questions I have had about the early Hebrew (4400-2000 BC) have been answered to my satisfaction.

Now, dear readers, I would love to hear your questions. Please ask what you will in the comments, and I will try to address each question.

Wishing you all the best,

Alice C. Linsley

Five Features of the Hebrew Social Structure

Dr. Alice C. Linsley


The application of kinship analysis has proven extremely useful in identifying the following features of the social structure of the biblical Hebrew.

1. The Hebrew ruler-priests were a caste. The most significant feature of a caste is the practice of taking marriage partners only from members of the caste (caste endogamy).

2. The Hebrew caste is characterized by cognatic double descent or bilateral descent. (See diagram above.) The individual’s descent is traced through both the father’s line and the mother’s line. With bilateral descent, there is a doubling of ancestors. Lamech the Younger could claim descent from both Cain and Seth since his father and mother had Cain and Seth as common ancestors. Nimrod could claim descent from both Ham and Shem and their wives since the descendants of Ham and Shem intermarried.

Tamar’s two sons Zerah (the firstborn) and Perez and their wives were the principal cognatic ancestors of the people of Judah. Judah was Hebrew, not Jewish, because Judaism did not exist in the time of Judah. Jesus is a descendant of Tamar and Judah. The wives of Zerah and Perez are the principal female ancestors of the people of Judah. This story is told in Genesis 38 and the cognatic feature is reintroduced in Ruth 4 where we are told that these men and women are associated with Bethlehem, an ancient Horite Hebrew settlement.

Descent from Hebrew cousin wives can be traced for especially high-ranking Hebrew by the cousin bride's naming prerogative. The diagram shows the pattern. Lamech the Elder's daughter Naamah (Gen. 4) married her cousin Methusaleh (Gen. 5) and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.

The firstborn son of the cousin wife was not the proper heir of his biological father. Methuselah's proper heir was the firstborn son of his first wife, probably a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.

3. In the Hebrew cognatic double descent system, caste members receive some rights and obligations from the father’s side and some from the mother’s side. Those rights and responsibilities depend on the parent’s status and the order of marriage. The rights and responsibilities of the firstborn son of the first wife (usually a half-sister) are different than those of the firstborn son of the second wife (usually a cousin).

4. Hebrew men who ruled over territories maintained two wives in separate settlements. These settlements marked the boundaries of the ruler’s territory. The wives’ settlements were usually on a north-south axis. The settlements were guarded by warriors. The wives of high-ranking Hebrew ruler-priests were served by handmaids, metal workers, potters, shepherds, weavers, brewers, and farmers.

5. Only males offered blood sacrifice at the altars. Women were not permitted in the area where animals were sacrificed. Likewise, men were not permitted in the birthing chambers where women shed blood in childbirth. These distinct types of blood work speak of death and life and the two were never to be confused. Therefore, the blood work of the Hebrew priests and the blood work of the Hebrew women never shared the same space.

Because the Hebrew caste resisted innovations, their customs persisted among Abraham’s numerous Hebrew descendants. Some of Abraham’s ancestors lived in the Nile Valley, some lived in Canaan, and others lived in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. That is why it is possible to speak of Kushite Hebrew, Canaanite Hebrew, and Anatolian Hebrew.

Jacob and Esau were both Hebrew rulers as they were members of the Hebrew ruler-priests caste. A trait of castes is endogamy, the custom of marrying only members of the caste or blood relatives. Jacob and Esau married Hebrew women, including women of the clan of Seir the Horite Hebrew (Gen. 36), and women of the clan of Nahor the Younger of Padan-Aram ("Plain of Aram") otherwise known as Aram-naharaim ("Aram of the two rivers"). The town of Haran was there. The word Haran is derived from the Ancient Akkadian word harranū, meaning "road" or "caravan route." That is where Abraham’s father died and Nahor, Abraham’s older brother, assumed rule of Terah’s household and territory.

One of Esau's wives was the daughter of the Hittite Hebrew ruler, Elon. The Hittites were descendants of Heth, a Hebrew ruler listed in Genesis 10:15. Some of his descendants lived in Hebron (Gen. 23:3,7) which was in Abraham's territory.

Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his wives in Hebron and Beersheba Shown on the map). Both settlements were in ancient Edom (Greek: Idumea). The place names Edom and Idumea refer to a land of red people. Some of Abaham’s descendants are described as "red" or "ruddy "in the Bible.

After David became king, he brought the Ark "from the house of Abinadab, that was in Gibeah” (Saul's hometown) to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:1-12). However, for three months the Ark rested in David’s hometown of Bethlehem on the property of Obed-Edom.

Genesis 36:31 states that there were kings in Edom long before there was a king in Israel. This suggests the antiquity of David's royal lineage. That lineage is traced back to Abraham whose territory was entirely in ancient Edom.

Related reading: Why Women Were Never Priests; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; The Wives' Settlements Mark the Boundaries; The Influence of Early Hebrew Women; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Reading Genesis as Verifiable History

Reading Genesis as Verifiable History

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Chapters 1-11 of Genesis often are called "Prehistory" in the sense that the persons and events detailed in these chapters supposedly took place before the invention of writing. This is an erroneous assumption because numerous scripts existed before the time of Adam and Eve (c.5000 BC). Among them are Vinča scripts believed to be the earliest form of writing, predating ancient Nilotic and Sumerian writing by thousands of years. What is known of these signs is limited because the inscriptions are short and found mainly on clay burial objects such as the one shown here.

Three 7300-year tablets with incised Vinča scripts were discovered in 1961 at a Neolithic site in the village of Tărtăria, Romania. One is shown above. The tablets were buried with the burnt, broken, and disarticulated bones of an adult male. 

Ancient Nilotic scripts date to c.4000 BC and were the work of priest scribes. Most of the surviving texts appear on the walls of tombs or monuments. Some of these have been collected and translated to English. (See The Ancient Pyramid Texts).

Sumerian scripts date to c.3400 BC and appear on clay tablets. Sumerian royal scribes kept records of transactions, trade agreements, laws, and treaties. Their cuneiform writing was created by making wedge-shaped indentations in clay tablets using a reed stylus.

Akkadian scripts date to c.2500 BC (500 years before Abraham). These were written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay.

All of these languages predate the alphabetic Proto-Canaanite scripts which date from c.1700-1500 BC. The oldest known Paleo-Hebrew scripts date to c.1000 BC. The early Hebrew (5000-2000 BC) did not speak Hebrew or use the Hebrew script.

If we conceive of history as a written phenomenon, Genesis 1-11 clearly cannot be described as prehistory. It is about people and events between 5000-2000 BC when writing existed among various populations.  

"Primeval History" is another Misnomer

Another misleading description of the early chapters of Genesis is "Primeval History." Today much information is available about humans who lived many millennia before the historical Adam and Eve (C.5000 BC). Some fossil remains of archaic humans date to over 3 million years. Archaeological discoveries verify that humans gravitated to the ancient water systems of Africa where they fished using barbed harpoons and hooks made from the jaw bones of crocodiles and from mammal bones. The flood of Noah came during one of the last great inundations of the African Humid Period. We know where and when Noah lived and the type of boats he used. Discoveries at Nekhen on the Nile verify that this was a site of Horite Hebrew worship as early as 4000 BC. Nimrod's extensive construction projects took place during the peak of Sumerian city and monument building. In other words, the term "primeval" can no longer be applied to the narratives of Genesis because they come from a time well after 2500 BC.

Relatively Recent Literature

The first three chapters of Genesis have close affinity with the creation and origin narratives of Africa. The themes of those chapters find their closest parallels in African stories. This should not surprise us since Abraham's Hebrew ancestors came out of the Nile Valley. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was a Nekhen, and there were Horite and Sethite mounds the length of the Nile River.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis also resonate to some of the later literary motifs of the Ancient Near East. The story of the first human pair in a garden, a devasting flood, a struggle with a serpent, and a quest for immortality are echoed in portions of the Babylonian poem Enūma Eliš and in the Gilgamesh Epic.

Genesis chapters 1-11 constitute a History of the Early Hebrew

Chapters 1-11 provide data about the religious beliefs and the social structure of the early Hebrew (5000-2000 BC). Early Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. Abraham enters the picture in Chapter 12. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these rulers indicates that they are historical persons and that they are all members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

The Hebrew are not listed in the Genesis 10 ethnography because the Table of Nations does not recognize castes. It does mention some Hebrew clans, however. Among them are the clans of Shem, Ham, Japheth and many of their descendants. Some of them are shown on this diagram.

Some argue that the term "Hebrew" is derived from the name Eber, but that is not the supported by the biblical and linguistic data. The term comes from the ancient Akkadian abru, meaning priest. The Hebrew ruler-priests were widely dispersed before the time of Abraham (c.2000 BC). This map shows the regions into which they dispersed.

If this interests you, I recommend my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study. It dives into the history of the early Hebrew in great detail and reveals that Genesis is verifiable history. The sequel The First Ladies: An Anthropological Study will be available in February 2025.

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Hebrew Names and Titles; Hebrew, Israelite or Jew?; The Adam and Eve of History; Artifacts of Great Antiquity; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant