From Ur to Haran
Beginnings · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 72960c45a25a0fbe · No editorial review date recorded
Date: not assigned.
Terah takes his son Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, who is unable to have children, and his grandson Lot, and sets out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. They come as far as Haran and settle there, and Terah dies in Haran.
Primary Scripture
11:27 This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
11:28 During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
11:31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
11:32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Related Scripture
Stephen says God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
At Shechem, Joshua recalls that Terah’s family served other gods beyond the Euphrates.
Location evidence
Most identify Ur of the Chaldeans with Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq; a minority favor a northern Ur near Urfa, close to Haran. Haran is identified with Harran in southern Turkey. The route along the Euphrates is illustrative.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [39.032778, 36.864444]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Ur of the Chaldeans: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [46.104444, 30.962222]. Classification source: editorial.
Haran: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [39.032778, 36.864444]. Classification source: editorial.
For the class
Terah sets out for Canaan but stops in Haran. What does that prepare for in Genesis 12?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/beginnings.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm