{"id":68951,"date":"2025-01-07T01:53:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T06:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=68951"},"modified":"2025-01-03T08:26:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T13:26:50","slug":"the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Abraham Saga Begins– Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely Sodom, and from the view of the narrator, this almost always spells trouble, living with people who do not honor the Biblical God.\u00a0 Notice that we are told at the outset of the chapter that Abram and kin leave Egypt heavily laden with cattle, silver, and gold.\u00a0 You should not picture them as poor wandering nomads, though nomads they are.\u00a0 They pass through the Negev and Abram heads back to the last place where he erected an altar\u2013 namely at Bethel.\u00a0 In this setting we see Abram \u2018invoke the name of the Lord\u2019 at the altar he built.\u00a0 But what name would that be?\u00a0 Probably not Yahweh, which seems to have been first revealed to Moses at the burning bush, many years later.\u00a0 And El or even Elohim was a generic name for god or gods.\u00a0 This seems to leave Adonai.\u00a0 But one must always remember that the author of this material writes from a much later point of view.\u00a0 Note again the retrospective reference\u2013 this time to \u2018there were then<\/em> Perizites and Canaanites dwelling in the land\u2019,\u00a0 which clearly implies they were not there later when the narrator was writing this story.<\/p>\n

The trouble began when Abram\u2019s and Lot\u2019s herdsman were arguing over turf, and who should have what.\u00a0 Sounds like an episode from Yellowstone.\u00a0 Here Abram shows himself to be magnanimous, at least with his own relatives and so he gives Lot the choice of which land he wants, and Lot wants the fertile Jordan plain, that leads down to the Dead Sea, and Abram agrees.\u00a0 He\u2019s staying between Bethel and Ai.This\u00a0 period\u00a0 map\u00a0 shows\u00a0 us\u00a0 where\u00a0 Bethel\u00a0 was.\u00a0 The\u00a0 name\u00a0 means\u00a0 Gate\u00a0 of God.\u00a0 You can also see the Jordan plain leading down to Jericho and beyond.\u00a0 As\u00a0 for\u00a0 where Sodom\u00a0 was\u00a0 apparently\u00a0 it\u00a0 was\u00a0 close\u00a0 to\u00a0 the\u00a0 Dead Sea.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So Lot takes what appears to be the more lush and fertile land, and again notice the retrospective note, \u201cthe whole plain of Jordan was well watered before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0This narrator clearly knows the story of the garden of Eden, but notice he also knows about Egypt, because he adds \u201clike the land of Egypt before you come to Zoar\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0This name means \u2018little\u2019 and it seems to have been in the fertile northern delta area of Egypt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The end result of this dividing up the real estate is that Abram is actually obeying God, and living in Canaan, which is here distinguished from the plain of Jordan which is not said to be part of Canaan. And this is forgetting that there were all the native inhabitants of both regions!\u00a0 \u00a0This is why Alter suggests that Abram\u2019s dividing up the territory is somewhat ironic, as if they already controlled it all, but the next story in the saga makes clear they didn\u2019t!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely Sodom, and from the view of the narrator, this almost always spells trouble, living with people who do not honor the Biblical God.\u00a0 Notice that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":68563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15137,15134],"class_list":["post-68951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-this-land-is-my-land","tag-this-land-is-your-land"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-07T06:53:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-03T13:26:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/12\/61CqwvqQ6xL._SL1200_-2-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"515\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/\",\"name\":\"The Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-07T06:53:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-03T13:26:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Abraham Saga Begins– Part Two\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two","description":"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two","og_description":"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2025-01-07T06:53:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-03T13:26:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":515,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/12\/61CqwvqQ6xL._SL1200_-2-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/","name":"The Abraham Saga Begins-- Part Two","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-01-07T06:53:54+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-03T13:26:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"Gen. 13 continues the theme of Abram and his kin being nomads, living in tents. At some point, Lot will shift to living in a town or village, namely","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2025\/01\/07\/the-abraham-saga-begins-part-two\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Abraham Saga Begins– Part Two"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}