Terah
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Terah (Hebrew: תּרח, Téraḥ; "breathe, scent, blow") (1878 AM 2281 BC
1480 H
1878 AM-2083 AM 2077 BC
1684 H
2083 AM) is the named son of Nahor. He was born in 1878 AM.
74,874.651 da altogether.[1] Terah is also supposed to be the father of Abram's wife Sarai on the basis of this verse:
And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. Genesis 20:22
James Ussher suspected that Sarah's father was not Terah himself, but his son Haran. If one assumes a "late birth" for Abraham, that theory is entirely tenable, but not if Abraham's birth was early in Terah's life. The verse quoted above therefore militates in favor of an early birth.
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Terah's journey
Terah and his family were from the city of Ur of the Chaldees. The Bible tells this story of Terah and his family:And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. Genesis 11:26-32
This is a tale of a failed purpose. The best assumption, absent any evidence to the contrary, is that Terah was the first person to whom God gave a promise of resettlement in what became the Promised Land of Israel. Terah came part of the way, to a country called Haran. And there Terah stayed, and there also Nahor stayed. By staying, they passed from Bible history, and died a spiritual death.
Chronology
The birth order of his sons, and more particularly whether he sired Abram when he was 70 or 130 years old, is in dispute. James Ussher assumed 130 years, solely because the Bible discusses the departure of Abram from the country of Haran after it records Terah's death. But the Bible often mentions life events out of order, particularly if they are the events of different men's lives. Furthermore, the sentence "Terah died in Haran" could refer to a spiritual death, not a physical one.
The best grounds for supporting Ussher comes from Stephen, who in Acts 7:4 specifically says that Abram left Haran after his father died. But whether Stephen is giving an actual prophecy or merely quoting the Septuagint in his hearing before the Sanhedrin is not clear from the context of his remarks. Certainly by the time Stephen would have given his evidence, the concept of "spiritual death" would have been known and understood throughout the early Christian community of which Stephen was a part. The best assumption, therefore, is that Abram was born when Terah was 70 years of age, as the Seder Olam holds.
