Why Abrahm from Ur? Why not Imotep from Egypt or Hwai Do from China?

[ByTheSpirit]

Btw, the ziggurat temple of Ur is still standing in southern Iraq.

During the Persian Gulf war, I was the first person to find Saddam Hussein hiding fighter jets around it. That was our first clue that Saddam was hiding fighter jets in non-targetable areas. My briefing board stayed on the Whitehouse.gov site for about a decade. The reason I found the hidden jets first was because I had a biblical interest in keeping an eye on it.

I've been to the Ziggurat of Ur myself. My last Iraq rotation of 2009-2010 we were stationed literally right outside of it within maybe a mile of it. Just on the upper portions of your photo there we would have been. Interesting place, especially the top. I originally though the structure as it is now was all original, but that is incorrect. Saddam Hussein was renovating it when OIF happened and this is as far as he got. Although from my understanding, the top portion that looks like a heap rubble is original. Either way it's a fascinating place to see and visit.

 

[Arctangent]

The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that the story of the calling of Abraham follows immediately after the story of the Tower of Babel, and that Abraham's home was in the heart of the ancient Babylonian Empire (as opposed to the Neo-Babylonian Empire which took Judah into exile), which is the paradigmatic idolatrous civilization. Abraham was called out of the origin and capital of paganism and worship of false gods in order to be the father of a new nation which would worship the one true Most High God.

 

[mindlight]

The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that the story of the calling of Abraham follows immediately after the story of the Tower of Babel, and that Abraham's home was in the heart of the ancient Babylonian Empire (as opposed to the Neo-Babylonian Empire which took Judah into exile), which is the paradigmatic idolatrous civilization. Abraham was called out of the origin and capital of paganism and worship of false gods in order to be the father of a new nation which would worship the one true Most High God.

Oh, you beat me to it, this was my reaction having read through the thread. After the flood, Nimrod built his kingdom in this area and Abram left about 3-400 years before Hammurabi and his code and the falsification of the creation account in the Enuma Elish carrying the true account of creation with him. It is possible that Abram could even have known Noah as he died when Abram was in middle age. So the timing is important as the oral witness to the world that came before was carried with Abram before Babylon went completely nuts and rewrote the history of the universe in the 1750-1800BC area. The tower of Babel incident was probably a good 100 years (2240) before Abram's departure (2100) and the scattering of the peoples that occurred then. Was Terah called to leave at that time or after the initial scattering? That Abram's family did not leave with that initial scattering is interesting. They remained at the heart of what constituted the first post-flood kingdom. But then so did Noah and that seems the most important fact to me as it gives Abram a continuity and credibility that goes all the way back to creation down the righteous line of believers. He carried this into the next chapter of the believer's story in Israel.

 

[Red Gold]

This probably isn't going to get much responses but I looking for reasons for why God called Abrahm out of Ur? Why Mesopotamia? Is their a stronger connection between our God and their gods. Alot of stories are similar. There seems to be a better flow from the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish (Babylonian Creation Story) and Genesis.

Now, I am not looking for some secular archeological answer like "because the authors of Genesis copied from the Enuma Elish". No, in my eyes, there was an Abrahm and God did want him to leave Ur because of its wickedness and God wanted to start a civilization of His own righteous people. Again though, why Ur and not Egypt, China, South America, or Africa?

a good question!

 

[RDKirk]

I've been to the Ziggurat of Ur myself. My last Iraq rotation of 2009-2010 we were stationed literally right outside of it within maybe a mile of it. Just on the upper portions of your photo there we would have been. Interesting place, especially the top. I originally though the structure as it is now was all original, but that is incorrect. Saddam Hussein was renovating it when OIF happened and this is as far as he got. Although from my understanding, the top portion that looks like a heap rubble is original. Either way it's a fascinating place to see and visit.

Aww.

Well, the rubble of the walls of ancient Ninevah can still be seen near Mosul.

 

[ByTheSpirit]

Aww.

Well, the rubble of the walls of ancient Ninevah can still be seen near Mosul.

I have seen those as well. Didn't get to spend much time there, just drove by them actually, but still, pretty nifty

 

[Saucy]

I don't think the answer is complex. God saw an older couple beyond their reproductive years who had no kids. He saw a tiny sliver of land that would be surrounded by powerful enemies on all sides. Just like He chose to take the Hebrews out of Egypt, took them the long way across the Red Sea instead of up and over...because it revealed who He was to His people. Despite the odds, the God of Israel was THE God. Out of these people and out of this place would come the Savior of the world.