Translation Hide
The City of God

Chapter 15.--Of the Time of the Migration of Abraham, When, According to the Commandment of God, He Went Out from Haran.

When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of Abraham, we next read, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," ¹ etc., it is not to be supposed, because this follows in the order of the narrative, that it also followed in the chronological order of events. For if it were so, there would be an insoluble difficulty. For after these words of God which were spoken to Abraham, the Scripture says: "And Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." ² How can this be true if he departed from Haran after his father's death? For when Terah was seventy years old, as is intimated above, he begat Abraham; and if to this number we add the seventy-five years which Abraham reckoned when he went out of Haran, we get 145 years. Therefore that was the number of the years of Terah, when Abraham departed out of that city of Mesopotamia; for he had reached the seventy-fifth year of his life, and thus his father, who begat him in the seventieth year of his life, had reached, as was said, his 145th. Therefore he did not depart thence after his father's death, that is, after the 205 years his father lived; but the year of his departure from that place, seeing it was his seventy-fifth, is inferred beyond a doubt to have been the 145th of his father, who begat him in his seventieth year. And thus it is to be understood that the Scripture, according to its custom, has gone back to the time which had already been passed by the narrative; just as above, when it had mentioned the grandsons of Noah, it said that they were in their nations and tongues; and yet afterwards, as if this also had followed in order of time, it says, "And the whole earth was of one lip, and one speech for all." ³ How, then, could they be said to be in their own nations and according to their own tongues, if there was one for all; except because the narrative goes back to gather up what it had passed over? Here, too, in the same way, after saying, "And the days of Terah in Haran were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran," the Scripture, going back to what had been passed over in order to complete what had been begun about Terah, says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country," ⁴ etc. After which words of God it is added, "And Abram departed, as the Lord spake unto him; and Lot went with him. But Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." Therefore it was done when his father was in the 145th year of his age; for it was then the seventy-fifth of his own. But this question is also solved in another way, that the seventy-five years of Abraham when he departed out of Haran are reckoned from the year in which he was delivered from the fire of the Chaldeans, not from that of his birth, as if he was rather to be held as having been born then.

Now the blessed Stephen, in narrating these things in the Acts of the Apostles, says: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and come into the land which I will show thee." ⁵ According to these words of Stephen, God spoke to Abraham, not after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where his son also dwelt with him, but before he dwelt in that city, although he was already in Mesopotamia. Therefore he had already departed from the Chaldeans. So that when Stephen adds, "Then Abraham went out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran," ⁶ this does not point out what took place after God spoke to him (for it was not after these words of God that he went out of the land of the Chaldeans, since he says that God spoke to him in Mesopotamia), but the word "then" which he uses refers to that whole period from his going out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelling in Haran. Likewise in what follows, "And thenceforth, when his father was dead, he settled him in this land, wherein ye now dwell, and your fathers," he does not say, after his father was dead he went out from Haran; but thenceforth he settled him here, after his father was dead. It is to be understood, therefore, that God had spoken to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran; but that he came to Haran with his father, keeping in mind the precept of God, and that he went out thence in his own seventy-fifth year, which was his father's 145th. But he says that his settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going forth from Haran, took place after his father's death; because his father was already dead when he purchased the land, and personally entered on possession of it. But when, on his having already settled in Mesopotamia, that is, already gone out of the land of the Chaldeans, God says, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," ⁷ this means, not that he should cast out his body from thence, for he had already done that, but that he should tear away his soul. For he had not gone out from thence in mind, if he was held by the hope and desire of returning,--a hope and desire which was to be cut off by God's command and help, and by his own obedience. It would indeed be no incredible supposition that afterwards, when Nahor followed his father, Abraham then fulfilled the precept of the Lord, that he should depart out of Haran with Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son.

Translation Hide
La cité de dieu

CHAPITRE XV.

DU TEMPS DE PROMISSION OU ABRAHAM SORTIT DE CHARRA, D’APRÈS L’ORDRE DE DIEU.

L’Ecriture, après avoir parlé de la mort de Tharé, père d’Abraham, ajoute: « Et Dieu dit à Abram: Sortez de votre pays, de votre parenté et de la maison de votre père¹ ». Il ne faut pas penser que cela soit arrivé dans l’ordre qu’elle rapporte ; cette opinion donnerait lieu à une difficulté insoluble.

En effet, à la suite de ce commandement de Dieu à Abraham, on lit dans la Genèse : « Abram sortit donc avec Lot pour obéir aux paroles de Dieu; et Abram avait soixante-quinze ans lorsqu’il sortit de Charra² » . Comment cela se peut-il, si la chose arriva après la mort de Tharé? Tharé avait soixante-dix ans quand il engendra Abraham; si l’on ajoute les soixante-quinze ans qu’avait Abraham lorsqu’il partit de Charra, on a cent quarante-cinq ans. Tharé avait donc :cet âge à l’époque où son fils quitta cette ville de Mésopotamie. Ce dernier n’en sortit donc pas après la mort de son père, qui vécut deux cent cinq ans : il faut entendre dès lors que c’est ici une récapitulation assez ordinaire dans l’Ecriture³, qui, parlant auparavant des enfants de Noé, après avoir dit⁴ qu’ils furent divisés en plusieurs langues et nations, ajoute:

« Toute la terre parlait un même langage[^3]». Comment étaient-ils divisés en plusieurs langues, si toute la terre ne parlait qu’un même langage, sinon parce que la Genèse reprend ce qu’elle avait déjà touché? Elle procède de même dans la circonstance qui nous occupe elle a parlé plus haut de la mort de Tharé[^4], mais elle revient à la vocation d’Abraham, qui arriva du vivant de son père, et qu’elle avait omise pour ne point interrompre le fil de son discours. Ainsi, lorsque Abraham sortit de Charra, il avait soixante-quinze ans, et son père cent quarante-cinq⁵. D’autres ont résolu autrement la question: selon eux, les soixante-quinze années de la vie d’Abraham doivent se compter du jour qu’il fut délivré du feu où il fut jeté par les Chaldéens pour ne vouloir pas adorer cet élément, et non du jour de sa naissance, comme n’ayant proprement commencé à naître qu’alors⁶.

Mais saint Etienne dit, touchant la vocation d’Abraham, dans les Actes des Apôtres : «Le Dieu de gloire apparut à notre père Abraham lorsqu’il était en Mésopotamie, avant qu’il demeurât à Charra, et lui dit: Sortez de votre pays, et de votre parenté, et de la maison de votre père, et venez en la terre que je vous montrerai⁷ ». Ces paroles de saint Etienne font voir que Dieu ne parla pas à Abraham après la mort de son père, qui mourut à Charra, où Abraham demeura avec lui, mais avant qu’il habitât cette ville, bien qu’il fût déjà en Mésopotamie. Il en résulte toujours qu’il était alors sorti de la Chaldée; et ainsi ce que saint Etienne ajoute: « Alors Abraham sortit du pays des Chaldéens et vint demeurer à Charra⁸ », ne montre pas ce qui arriva après que Dieu lui eut parlé (car il ne sortit pas de la Chaldée après cet avertissement du ciel, puisque saint Etienne dit qu’il le reçut dans la Mésopotamie), mais se rapporte à tout le temps qui se passa depuis qu’il en fut sorti et qu’il eut fixé son séjour à Charra. Ce qui suit le prouve encore: « Et après la mort de son père, dit le premier martyr, Dieu l’établit en cette terre que vos pères ont habitée et que vous habitez encore aujourd’hui ». Il ne dit pas qu’il sortit de Charra après la mort de son père, mais que Dieu l’établit dans la terre de Chanaan après que son père fut mort. Il faut dès lors entendre que Dieu parla à Abraham lorsqu’il était en Mésopotamie, avant de demeurer à Charra, où il vint dans la suite avec son père, conservant toujours en son coeur le commandement de Dieu, et qu’il en sortit la soixante-quinzième année de son âge et la cent quarante-cinquième de celui de son père. Saint Etienne place son établissement dans la terre de Chanaan, et non sa sortie de Charra, après la mort de son père, parce que son père était déjà mort, quand il acheta cette terre et commença à la posséder en propre. Ce que Dieu lui dit: « Sortez de votre pays, de votre parenté et de la maison de votre père », bien qu’il fût déjà sorti de la Chaldée et qu’il demeurât en Mésopotamie, ce n’était pas un ordre d’en sortir de corps, car il l’avait déjà fait, mais d’y renoncer sans retour. Il est assez vraisemblable qu’Abraham sortit de Charra avec sa femme Sarra, et Lot, son neveu, pour obéir à l’ordre de Dieu, après que Nachor eut suivi son père.