Abraham's Maternal Line

Alice C. Linsley

Abraham's mother is not identified in the Bible. This seems a strange oversight since Jewish identity is traced through the mother. The oversight may be intentional if the ethnicity of Abraham's mother did not serve the later narrative of Jewish identity.

It is supposed that Abraham's mother was the wife of Terah named in Jasher 7:50 which states, "Terah took a wife and her name was Amsalai, the daughter of Karnevo; and the wife of Terah conceived and bare him a son in those days." There appears to be a connection to a high place near Jericho. Kar refers to a high place or a mountain. Nevo is a variant of Nebo; Kar-Nebo or Mount Nebo is הַר נְבוֹ‎ (Har Nevo) in Hebrew. The oldest known settlement in this area is Jericho which had ramparts as early as 4000 B.C.E. 

Jasher 7:22 states that, "...Terah was 38 years old, and he begat Haran and Nahor." These were probably Terah's firstborn sons by two wives. Haran may have been Terah's proper heir, but he died before Terah died. Nahor took governance of Terah's territory. Nahor is named after his maternal grandfather, Nahor the Elder. (Here we see further evidence of the cousin-bride's naming prerogative.) Abraham became a sent-away son who eventually established his territory between Hebron and Beersheba.

I have found 3 spellings of the name of Terah's wife: Amthelo, Amsalai, and Amtlai, but no definitive statement that this woman was Abraham's mother. Amsalai is the only female named in connection to Terah, but it isn't clear is she was the mother of Abraham, or the mother of Nahor, or the mother of Haran. 

The name Amsalai means the "sweet fragrance of the people." Am refers to people, and salai refers to frankincense derived from the Boswellia serrata, a deciduous tree that grows in dry, mountainous areas. The name suggests that this woman was of the "hill people" and known by various names: Amurru/Amorite, Edomite/Seir, and Horite Hebrew.

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Hebrew people indicates that Abraham's mother was either his father's half-sister, or his patrilineal cousin, or one of Terah's concubines. Terah had two wives, following the typical marriage pattern of his ancestors. It is likely that Nahor the Younger was the son of Terah's cousin bride and Haran was the son of Terah's half-sister bride. Both brothers were older than Abraham.

Suggestion of avunculocal residence

Abraham's older brother Nahor ruled over Paddan-Aram upon Terah's death in Harran. This was the pattern among the Horite Hebrew. The firstborn son of the half-sister bride was the proper heir. Other sons born to that bride were sent away either to serve in the realms of their maternal uncles, or to establish their own territories. 

Sent-away sons, like Abraham and Jacob, often lived with or near their maternal uncles. This is called "avunculocal residence" and it appears that Abraham's trip to Mamre and Hebron was directed by his maternal uncle who ruled that territory. From Mount Nebo his sentries would have been able to survey all of Palestine.

When Abraham arrived from Mesopotamia he likely visited his maternal uncle at Mount Nebo and went from there to consult the prophet (moreh) at the Oak at Mamre near Hebron. Hebron is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo and Edom are in the modern state of Jordan. 

This was the land of the Horite Hebrew rulers who are listed in Genesis 36. Abraham's mother and father were kin to these rulers. Among Abraham's Horite Hebrew ancestors, one's ancestry was traced by double descent, along both the maternal and paternal lines. However, the ethnicity of a child depended on the ethnicity of the mother. This is still true for Jews today. One is a Jew by two means: either by proper conversion, or if one's mother is Jewish.

Related reading: The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; The Ethnicity of Abraham and David; Edom and the Horites; Sent-Away Sons

Abraham's Mother and Seth's Father

Alice C. Linsley

Andrew, a reader of Just Genesis, has asked two interesting questions. The first is about the identity of Abraham's mother and the second pertains to the identity of Seth's father.


Abraham's Horite Mother

The Babylonian Talmud names Abraham's maternal grandfather as Karnevo, an Akkadian form of the Nilo-Saharan word Karnak. Kar refers to an elevated shrine or "high place" and nak refers to rituals. Naak is the ritual removal of front teeth among the Nilotic Luo and the ancient Natufians. Therefore, Karnak means "place of rituals" and indicates a mountain temple or a water shrine.

Karnak on the Nie was a Horite temple. It is likely that Abraham's mother was the daughter of a Nilotic priest. She gave birth to 2 sons: Nahor and Abraham. Nahor was the older and he received his father's territory between Ur and Haran. This means that Abraham's mother was his father's half-sister, as only the firstborn sons of sister brides ruled after their fathers. This is one feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Horim (Horite ancestors).

Abraham and his ancestors married exclusively within their Horite Hebrew caste (endogamy). This is a characteristic of ancient castes. The Horites were closely associated with the rulers of Kush, Nubia and Egypt. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Onn (Heliopolis) on the Nile. Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian.

Since blood line and ethnicity were traced through the mothers, as with Jews today, it is surprising that the Bible does not tell us about Abraham's mother. Perhaps the final editor of Genesis (the Deuteronomist?) found this problematic because it means that Abraham was not the first Jew as is maintained by the prevailing Jewish narrative.

Andrew's second question deals with Seth's family. "Your statements that Adam and Eve lived millions of years ago as the first humans rings true to me, but Scripture wise where do you get that Enoch was Seth and Cain's father? Genesis 5:3 clearly states the Adam was Seth's father, or am I missing something?"

(Note that there are at least 3 scriptural profiles of Adam.) when Adam and Eve stand for the first humans created by God, they are meta-historical.


Who was Seth's father?

Genesis 5:3 indicates that Seth, as well as Kain, was a "son" and son can mean offspring or descendant. Here the author is connecting Seth to Adam to emphasize that Seth was made in the likeness of Adam who was made in the likeness of God.  There may be a suggestion here that Kain was not in the divine image, but the context is still about deified sons who were rulers.

The rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and 5 (Seth's line) lived about 4000-3000 BC, no earlier. The two ruler lines intermarried, as can be determined by scientific analysis of the kinship and ascendency pattern revealed in the genealogical segment shown below. The ruler who heads this segment was called Enoch/Enosh/Nok. If Adam and Eve were Kain's and Seth's parents they would have been contemporaries of Enoch. These are the historical Adm and Eve, the founders of the Hebrew ruler-priest lineages.

Kain and Set (Set or Seti) were probably the firstborn sons of Enoch's brother by two different wives. It was the custom of these rulers to have two wives. One was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.  The other was a cousin or niece, as was Keturah to Abraham. Two wives meant there were two firstborn sons.  These sons ascended to different thrones. The firstborn son of the sister wife (probably Kain) was the heir of his biological father. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife (probably Set) was the heir of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. This is why the name of a ruler is often found two generations later in the line of the ruler's fraternal confederates. Esau the Elder had a grandson by this daughter who was Esau the Younger.  This is true for Joktan, Sheba and Lamech, as shown in the diagram below.

They married their cousins and the cousin brides named their firstborn sons after their fathers. This is why Seth's firstborn son and Kain's firstborn son have essentially the same name - Enoch/Enoch/Nok. The root of that name was NK. Later we find that the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried also.

The marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham's ancestors is the same as that of Abraham and Moses. All of these people were Horites, priest devotees of Ra-Horus-Hathor. They believed that "the Woman" of Genesis 3:15 would be of their own people and she would bring forth the divine "Seed" who would crush the serpent's head and lead his people to immortality. Jesus referred to this when He told his disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die. They refused to accept this, so He explained that unless a seed falls into the earth, it cannot live (John 12:24).


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of the Horite Rulers; Abraham's Maternal Line; Abraham's Horite Mother; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons