Comments on: How old was Abraham when he left Haran?

By: Errancy

Errancy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:55:08 +0000

Stephen making a mistake does seem most likely here: the source for his claim about Abraham leaving Haran was presumably Genesis 11, and it’s easy to see how this could be misread as claiming that Abraham left Haran after his father died, which is what Stephen says.

Whether this is an error in the Bible or not depends on whether Acts is committed to agreeing with Stephen. The Chicago statement suggests that it isn’t, and I tend to agree (a true report of a false report is a true report), but I don’t think it’s clear-cut.

By: WisdomLover

WisdomLover — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:28:31 +0000

It is also possible that the harmonization that you had in place up to the point of Stephan’s remark is perfectly good.

Stephan’s remark is correctly reported by Luke. Stephan himself was mistaken, having misread (or misremembered) Gen.11/12 as a chronological account.

By: Amtiskaw

Amtiskaw — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:30:53 +0000

It’s possible to harmonise the verses by reading Genesis 11:26 as saying something like:

“After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran” (NIV)

In other words, it might just be saying that his first child was born when he was 70.

Assuming the three names are not in chronological order, it’s therefore possible that Abram was born when Terah was 130.