Stanley Arthur Cook

“ The double name Abram-Abraham has even suggested that two personages have been combined in the Biblical narrative; although this does not explain the change from Sarai to Sarah. [8] But it is important to remember that the narratives are not contemporary, and that the interesting discovery of the name Abi-ramu (Abram) on Babylonian contracts of about 2000 B.C. does not prove the Abram of the Old Testament to be an historical person, even as the fact that there were “Amorites” in Babylonia at the same period does not make it certain that the patriarch was one of their number. ”

“ Marriage with one’s own folk (cf. Gen. xxvii. 46, xxix. 19; Judg. xiv. 3) , and especially with a cousin, is recommended now even as in the past. For its charm the story is comparable with the account of Jacob’s experiences in the same land (xxix.) . For the completion of the history of Abraham the compiler of Genesis has used P’s narrative. Sarah is said to have died at a good old age, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron, which the patriarch had purchased, with the adjoining field, from Ephron the Hittite (xxiii.) ”

“ Arioch, king of Ellasar, has been connected with Eriaku of Larsa—the reading has been questioned—a contemporary with Khammurabi. Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, bears what is doubtless a genuine Elamite name. Finally, the name of Tid‛al, king of Goiim, may be identical with a certain Tudḥulu the son of Gazza, a warrior, but apparently not a king, who is mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, and Goiim may stand for Gutim, the Guti being a people who lived to the east of Kurdistan. ”

“ Driven by a famine to take refuge in Egypt (cf. xxvi. 1, xli. 57, xlii. 1) , he feared lest his wife’s beauty should arouse the evil designs of the Egyptians and thus endanger his own safety, and alleged that Sarai was his sister. This did not save her from the Pharaoh, who took her into the royal harem and enriched Abram with herds and servants. But when Yahweh “plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues” suspicion was aroused, and the Pharaoh rebuked the patriarch for his deceit and sent him away under an escort (xii. 10–xiii. 1) . ”

“ That similar traditional elements have influenced them is not unlikely; but to recover the true historical foundation is difficult. The invasion or immigration of certain tribes from the east of the Jordan; the presence of Aramaean blood among the Israelites (see Jacob) ; the origin of the sanctity of venerable sites,—these and other considerations may readily be found to account for the traditions. ”

“ Judg. xiii. 2; 1 Sam. i. 5) . ↑ Abram’s connexion with Damascus is supplemented in the traditions of Nicolaus of Damascus as cited by Josephus (Antiq. i. 7. 2) . ↑ Abram (or Abiram) is a familiar and old-attested name meaning “ (my) father is exalted”; the meaning of Abraham is obscure and the explanation Gen. xvii. 3 is mere word-play. It is possible that rāhām was originally only a dialectical form of rām. ↑ See Sir Charles Warren’s description, Hasting’s Dict. Bible, vol. iii. pp. 200 seq. The so-called Babylonian colouring of Gen. xxiii. has been much exaggerated ”