James L. Kelso
[Dr. James L. Kelso is Emeritus Professor of Old Testament History and Biblical Archaeology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His wide experience as an Old Testament scholar and archaeologist includes serving as staff member of expeditions at Tell Beit Mirsim, (1926, 1930, 1932) and as leader of excavations at Tubal Abu el Alayiq and Mitla, Jordan (1950), and Bethel (1954, 1957, 1960). He is author of a number of books on archaeological and Biblical subjects. Now in his eighty-first year, Dr. Kelso continues to be active in preparing manuscripts, teaching, and carrying on research.]
The following article first appeared in Perspective, Vol. XIII, No. 1, Winter 1972, and is reprinted here with permission. As you read this fascinating article, we suggest that you do so with your Bible opened to the book of Genesis. — Ed.
IN this article I have, as a professional field archaeologist, summarized in brief form for the benefit of the busy pastor, the picture that the archaeologist sees in the Bible story of Abraham. The historical matrix into which Abraham fits with uncanny accuracy is what the archaeologist calls Middle Bronze I and is usually dated approximately 2000 to 1900 B.C. or slightly later. Here and only here in all of Near East history can Abraham be dated; but here in Middle Bronze I, he is as much at home as is Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War period of the U.S.A.
Archaeology is essentially a detective science in which every possible clue should be traced down so as to secure as accurate a solution as possible to the problem under investigation. This is what has been done with Abraham.
An archaeologist usually begins with geography, for this is the first clue as to whether he is dealing with fact or fiction. In the Abraham story we are on familiar terrain, concentrating on such well-known key cities as Ur, Haran and Damascus, plus the land of Palestine with emphasis on (1) the mountain-ridge
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area from Shechem south to Hebron, (2) the Negeb and the area from Kadesh-barnea to Shur, (3) episodes in Egypt and Transjordan.
In the study of the geographic references in the Abraham story, the Kadesh-Shur area instantly arouses the archaeologist’s interest for this area was occupied in Middle Bronze I, c. 2000-1900 B.C., or slightly later, and then completely abandoned as a settled area until Nabatean times. Now if we understand Abraham’s presence here at some time in Middle Bronze I, then Abraham will become a genuine historical character whose whole life we can then study in detail. Furthermore, continuing our geographic studies, we find that every city mentioned in the Abraham story, which has been excavated, was occupied in Middle Bronze I and fits exactly into the Abraham story. Such a unanimous voice of geography and chronology leads to the next question.
Why was so much of Abraham’s life concentrated in the Negeb and the Kadesh-Shur areas? It was W. F. Albright who answered that question. History had always thought of Abraham as the leader of a migrant people whose wealth was concentrated in flocks and herds. But this Kadesh-Shur area is totally unrelated to that theory because of its meager rainfall. Although flocks were an asset in Abraham’s business life, he would have gone bankrupt in one year if he had concentrated his flocks here. Abraham’s major wealth in the Kadesh-Shur area could come from only one possible source, namely the caravan business.
Up to Abraham’s time and for centuries afterward, commerce between Palestine and Egypt traversed a trade road along the Mediterranean Sea. But in Middle Bronze I a new trade route suddenly appeared going from the Negeb via Kadesh-barnea to Shur, which was the Egyptian frontier near the present Suez Canal. And Abraham fits perfectly into that new caravan project. But before going into detail with this
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particular period of his life, let us look back and see if there was caravan blood in Abraham’s ancestors, or if at least some type of international commercial business was in the family history.
“Terah took Abraham his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there” (Gen. 11:31). A look at the geography of this verse suggests one of two things. Terah was either (1) a high-government official in the state or the war department of Ur, or (2) an international businessman. There is no evidence of Terah as a government official, so we shall try out the business theory. Ur was the greatest business center that the world had yet developed. And its most important trade route ran up the Euphrates and Balik rivers to Haran.
Street and buildings in Abraham’s home town of Ur.
Haran’s name in Sumerian actually means “Caravan City” and it handled the commerce (1) of the South coming up from Ur, (2) that coming out of the East from Iran via Assyria,
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(3) that coming down out of the North from the Hittites and Lake Van, (4) that coming from the Mediterranean Sea to the West, and (5) that coming up from Egypt, Palestine and Syria to the South.
The Ur-Haran caravan route seemed an ideal business program for Terah, but about this time war clouds were darkening the eastern horizon at Ur and the Elamites destroyed the city c. 1955 B.C. Later it was rebuilt and back at its commercial business. At some phase in this crisis Terah abandoned Ur, and made Haran the center of a new business project—a caravan route from Haran into Canaan (Gen. 11:31).
This projected move of Terah from Ur to Canaan is seldom taken seriously by modern scholars, but it actually helps to solve a later problem in Abraham’s life, for his heir was Eliezer of Damascus. In the legal terminology of that day it meant that Eliezer held a first mortgage on Abraham’s estate. But if Abraham were only a master shepherd running his flocks and herds south of Shechem in Palestine and concentrating this work in the Hebron-Beersheba area, as earlier Bible scholars thought, then Abraham certainly would not be doing his banking in Damascus. But if he was a caravaneer running a trade route from Haran to Damascus to Egypt, then Damascus was the ideal banking center since it marked the commercial halfway point. Furthermore, if Terah had actually put his projected Haran-Canaan route (or even the Haran-Damascus unit of it) into operation before his death, it is still easier to see Eliezer as being Terah’s banker as well as Abraham’s.
Another clue to Terah as an international businessman with heavy investments in and around Haran is seen in Genesis 11:22–26. In his family tree we find the names Serug and Nahor. These names designate not only persons but also places that archaeologists know. The family of Terah thus seems to have been large enough and influential enough in earlier times to have left their names on these cities which
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they occupied.
In the light of Genesis 12:1, it seems that Terah’s projected trade route went only as far south as Damascus. .. the ideal first section of a Haran-Canaan project. This would thus account for Abraham’s good credit rating in Damascus; and yet leave the country south of Damascus as totally unexplored territory for Abraham, since God himself was to be Abraham’s guide in this unknown country (Gen. 12:1).
The suggestion that Abraham was a businessman from Haran also explains the appearance of Shechem in the narrative (Gen. 12:6–7). Haran, like modern Hong Kong, was a city of two distinctly different cultures. Haran was a blending of Semitic and Hurrian cultures, so it was natural for Abraham to stop at Shechem, which was a Hurrian enclave or trade outpost. Historians have usually conjectured that Abraham used the normal shortcut from Damascus to Palestine via the trade route just south of old Lake Huleh and then across Galilee and Samaria to Shechem. But more likely the route he used was from Damascus straight south in Transjordan to
Shechem, where the Lord appeared to Abraham (Genesis 12:6, 7).
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the Jabbok River, then down it to a crossing at the Jordan River, and on westward along the Wadi Faria to Shechem. Here this East-West trade route crossed the North-South trade route coming from Galilee and Samaria. When Jacob went back to Haran he doubtless used the same route that his grandfather had used, and that was the route just described. Furthermore in the Lot story Abraham’s knowledge of Transjordan geography was essential to his military victory. Genesis 25 shows that even Arabia itself was a part of Abraham’s business territory. On the other hand the Galilee area is never referred to in the Abraham story.
Abraham’s next stop was at Bethel, another caravan center on the main North-South trade road, where it was crossed by the East-West Transjordan route via Jericho and the valley of Ajalon to the Mediterranian. Later, after the Sarah episode in Egypt, it was on the Bethel-Ai ridge that Lot separated from Abraham and moved to Sodom. It might be well to note here that Lot’s final location at Sodom was not only excellent for his flocks and herds; but Sodom also fits perfectly into the
A modern Abraham passes the site of Bethel where Abraham of old “builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8).
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caravan business pattern of Abraham’s life.
Hebron later became Abraham’s summer home, for Hebron was the business center in West Palestine which handled all the trade from the Transjordanian area of the southern half of the Dead Sea. (Hebron shows Abraham as an active caravaneer living in a tent [Gen. 18:1] and also as a settled Caravaneer or “ger” living in the city itself [Gen. 23:4]). Thus Abraham had his nephew Lot at Sodom to handle his Arabian business which must have been very lucrative, as Arabia was the major source of incense which every ancient religion used. Arabia was also a major source of gold and the still more valuable pearls and precious stones. Every one of Arabia’s exports was ideal for international commerce. More of Abraham’s business ventures will be taken up later but at this point we need to look at Lot’s capture at the hands of the four kings of Genesis 14.
In the thirteenth verse of that chapter Abraham is actually called a caravaneer, for we now know that the word “Hebrew” at that time had the meaning “caravaneer.” (Later the true meaning of the word “Hebrew” was forgotten and its etymology became an enigma to scholars.) In the fourteenth verse of the same chapter we have a demonstration that Abraham was a caravaneer, for he pursued Lot’s captors with 318 “trained men, born in his house.” This technical term refers to the specially trained guerilla fighters used to protect the caravans of the richest merchants. Abraham himself led his commandos in the rescue of Lot. This episode certainly does not portray Abraham as a pastoral sheik; but it does show the typical military problem which any major caravan owner must always be prepared to meet. Note also that Abimelech, the ruler of the caravan city of Gerar, also had his own private army and even its commander, Phicol, is specifically named (Gen. 21:22, 32).
One cannot but conjecture that since Abraham was near Damascus during this military episode, he probably visited his
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banker Eliezer in Damascus. Indeed it is very significant that the only place where we learn of Eliezer as Abraham’s heir is in Genesis 15:2 immediately following this military episode.
But it was Genesis 20:1 which gave the best clue to Abraham as a caravaneer. Before we discuss that section of his trade route, however, let us get a clearer picture of the caravaneers of Abraham’s day. These men all worked with donkeys, which were the only pack animals used at that time. Later in Middle Bronze II donkeys were often replaced by mules, and that type of caravan was in turn replaced by wagons drawn by mules. But some donkey caravans were still active as late as the days of the Judges (Jud. 5:10–11). The camel did not become a caravan animal until about the thirteenth century B.C.
The caravan donkey or ass was a particular breed, whose special virtue was that it could travel two or three days without water while carrying a pack weighing 150 to 200 pounds. There are records of Anatolian and Syrian caravans with up to 3,000 donkeys, but Egyptian caravan records show a maximum of 1,000 donkeys. Abraham’s caravans were doubtless of the Egyptian pattern since his home base at Gerar in the Negeb was close to Egypt. The caravan leaders who were in charge of the various units of the caravan, rode on donkeys but the other members of the caravan walked behind their donkeys. In Egypt one man looked after five donkeys and this was probably the case with Abraham’s caravans.
The unique area where Abraham ran his caravans was between Kadesh-barnea and Shur. Kadesh-barnea was twin oases near one another, and Shur was the Egyptian frontier. To oversee this route Abraham, who was an alien, had to receive permission to be a “ger” or resident foreigner at the large caravan center of Gerar (Tell Abu Hureirah). That city was approximately halfway between Gaza and Beer-sheba. This was an ideal location for Abraham’s business headquarters, where his family would live while he checked on his
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caravans. Gerar kept him in touch with the normal caravan route to Egypt along the Mediterranean with its Palestine base at Gaza, as well as his own shorter Kadesh-barnea road. This later route, however, had one handicap: it could not be used in the long hot summer. By that time the winter rains which had collected in natural pools, as well as that saved in the artifically cut reservoirs along the route, had been used up by the donkeys. Indeed, water was so important that Abimelech’s servants tried to steal one of Abraham’s wells (Gen. 21:25). Also the grain planted along the trails to feed the caravans would be all eaten up by summer time. The people who tended these specially terraced fields and watched the water resources lived in tiny hamlets in good circular “bee-hive” houses, although they probably occupied them only six or seven months a year. But during the winter season this was an ideal short-cut to Egypt.
It is interesting to note that although camels are mentioned in the Abraham narrative, there is no reference of any kind to them as caravan animals. Indeed, most of the work of building terraces for raising grain and the hewing out of catchment basins for rain and the making of dams to collect flood waters would have been unnecessary, if camels had been used on the Kadesh-Shur route. The camel of Abraham’s day was simply a luxury riding animal for the rich, as the horse was later the luxury riding animal for the desert sheik.
The size of Abraham’s business ventures is seen in Genesis 14. This passage was long an enigma to exegetes, but now it is seen to fit perfectly into the Middle Bronze I period, i.e., Abraham’s time. This military expedition seemed like pure fiction to many early exegetes, for why would any major military expedition be interested in this dead-end road to Edom and Sinai. But now we know these two areas were at that time major copper producers; and copper was the universal metal of that age. And metals have always been a major economic asset, as well as an ever-present excuse for war.
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The loss of the Sinai copper and turquoise mines would have been a heavy blow to Egypt and a challenge to its delta area. Even some of the kings mentioned in Genesis 14 can now be identified.
Another clue to the size of Abraham’s business empire is seen in Gen. 25:1–6. Just as Abraham had to work through a Palestinian native, Abimelech, for his business dealings in the Negeb, so in Transjordan, Abraham used an Arab “go-between”—probably the father of Keturah. That business partnership would be sealed by Abraham’s marriage to Keturah. This is the only way to account for Keturah in the Abraham story. Her children, like Hagar’s were not in the covenant. Lot was Abraham’s Transjordan agent at Sodom, which like later Petra, was the trans-shipment point for Arabian incense, gold, precious stones and pearls—all luxury items for which the Mediterranian world was clamoring. Other items in Abraham’s business category everywhere would be perfumes, jewelry of all types, art objects, bronze weapons and tools, along with embroidered garments. The latter were so valuable that they were listed as war booty.
Now it is time to look into the flocks and herds of the Abraham story. Notice first of all that there is no mention of these in the Terah story, and flocks and herds are rare even in the Abraham narrative. Gen. 13:2–12 demonstrates that shepherding was not the major business that Abraham followed, for the best pasture land west of Jordan was already occupied by other tribes. Lot even preferred to abandon the whole mountain pasturage west of the Jordan River for that of the Jordan Valley and Transjordan. One of the major expenses, however, for a master caravaneer was food for man and beast; and Abraham solved this problem by owning his own flocks and herds and pasturing them along all his trade routes except the Kadesh-Shur area. The emphases on the size of these flocks, as in Gen. 13:8–11, seems, however, to imply that the caravaneer Abraham had also a second but
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smaller business emphasis in animal husbandry for other than caravan purposes.
But Abraham, like his father Terah, was essentially a city man, although always living in somebody else’s city. He is specifically mentioned as a resident alien at Gerar (Gen. 20:1) and again at Hebron (Gen. 23:4). The former city was ideally located for his Egyptian caravan business, and the latter for his Arabian commerce.
The purchase of the cave of Machpelah illustrated one of Abraham’s business dealings. Note that since he was a resident alien, his purchase had to be approved by the whole town council. Hittite customs appear in this business deal, which includes (1) a cave (2) the field in which it was located and (3) the trees in the field, and this verifies the Hittites as living here. In all probabilities they too were caravaneers. Like Abraham they also had started out as representatives of northern business on the Egyptian frontier.
The traditional cave of Machpelah where Abraham was buried with Sarah (Genesis 25:8–10).
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When Abraham was well along in years, he delegated his most trusted servant to secure a bride for Isaac from the ancestral clan near Haran. This was Rebekah, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew. The family line must be kept pure; there was to be no Canaanite marriage.
As death drew near, Abraham gave gifts to the children of Hagar and Keturah and later sent them to the east country (Gen. 25:6). This was to keep them out of “the promised land” which was reserved for Isaac only. Abraham willed all that he had to Isaac (Gen. 25:5).
At last, Abraham “died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years. .. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife” (Gen. 25:8–10).
Next issue: “Abraham the Spiritual Genius”
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