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Genesis says Terah died at 205, while the Samaritan Pentateuch says 145. The Samaritan version removes a problem in the Masoretic, which says Abram left after Terah’s death even though other passages say Abram left while his father was alive.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 11:32
Hebrew Bible
29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Samaritan Genesis 11:32
Samaritan Penteteuch
Samaritan
29 And Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai and Milcah his two daughters-in-law, the wives of his sons Abram and Nahor, and he brought them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and lived there. 32 And the days of Terah were one hundred and forty-five years; and Terah died in Haran.
Date: 130–120 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... From this statement it is clear that the author of Acts is not following the standard biblical chronology of Genesis 11-12 ... Admittedly, this is an OT problem, related to the narrative techniques employed (i.e., rounding off an episode even when it is related to a subsequent narrative), but what concerns us here is the reaction(s) of later readers. In the Samaritan Pentateuch (Hebrew and Targum) we are confronted by one type of reaction, namely the need to correct the apparent chronological discrepancies of the biblical narrative. Instead of 205 years, the total of Terah's life is given in the Samaritan Pentateuch as 145 years ..."
Earl Richard, “Acts 7: An Investigation of the Samaritan Evidence,” CBQ (1977): 190–208.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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