Genesis 11:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Hebrew text presents a contrast to what we find in the Septuagint, which refers to ‘in the land of the Chaldeans.’ The original Hebrew phrase, "in ur chesdim," translates as "in the fire of the Chaldeans." In this context, Jewish tradition recounts that Abraham was thrown into the flames for refusing to honor the fire revered by the Chaldeans, but with divine intervention, he emerged unharmed from the flames of idolatry. Following this, the Septuagint states that Farah and his descendants departed from the land of the Chaldeans, which corresponds in Hebrew to "out of the fire of the Chaldeans." The Jewish narrative then relates this to the account of Aran, who died under his father Farah in his homeland, enduring the flames of the Chaldeans. This signifies that he, having also renounced the worship of fire, met his end amidst the flames.

The timeline from the Flood to Abram can vary between 700 to 900 years based on different methods of calculation. A notable challenge arises when trying to establish the year of Abram's birth. Farrah lived for seventy years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Aran. This could suggest that Abram is the eldest. However, if this were the case, then at the time of his father’s passing—Farrah lived a total of 205 years (Gen. 11:32)—Abram would have been 135 years old at his father's death. Contrarily, he was actually seventy-five years old at that moment (Gen. 12:4). Thus, it can be concluded that Abram was born during the 130th year of Farrah's life, and he is held as the foremost among his siblings, not by chronological order, but due to his personal merit.