Texts in Conversation
The Aramaic translation of Genesis in Targum Neofiti and Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah interpret God’s promise to Abram including rescue from fire in “Ur,” highlighting the use of the Hebrew word “ur” that can also mean “fire.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Neofiti Genesis 15:7
Targum
And Abram believed in the name of the Memra of the Lord and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he said to him: “I am the Lord who brought you out of the furnace of fire of the Chaldaeans to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said: ‘“I beseech by the mercies that are before you, how, I pray, will I know, that I shall inherit it?” And he said to him: “Sacrifice before me a heifer, three years old, a goat, three years old, and a ram, three years old, a turtle dove and the young of a pigeon.
Genesis Rabbah 38:13
Aggadah
Rabbinic
water.’ He said to him: ‘If so, let us bow down to the clouds, that bear the water.’ He said to him: ‘[All right,] let us bow down to the clouds.’ He said to him: ‘If so, let us bow down to the wind, that scatters the clouds.’ He said to him: ‘[All right,] let us bow down to the wind.’ He said to him: ‘Better let us bow down to a person, who can withstand the wind.’ He said to him: ‘You are saying mere words. I bow down only to fire. I will cast you into it, and let that God to whom you bow down come and rescue you from it.’ Haran was there and he was conflicted. He said: ‘Either way [I will know what to do]; If Abraham is victorious, I will say: I am with Abraham, and if Nimrod is victorious, I will say: I am with Nimrod.’ When Abraham descended into the fiery furnace and was rescued, they said to him [Haran]: ‘With whom are you?’ He said to them: ‘I am with Abraham.’ They took him and cast him into the fire and his innards were scorched. He emerged and died in the presence of Teraḥ his father. That is what is written: “Haran died in the presence of Teraḥ…”
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This reasonable supposition (backed up by Isaiah 29:22) that the Chaldeans might have sought to harm Abraham because of his beliefs soon took on a new form. For, the city in which Abraham and his family lived was called Ur. But the word 'ur' in Hebrew had another meaning as well: 'fire' or 'flame.' Ancient readers of the Bible could not help concluding that this was no mere coincidence. And so, when God later says to Abraham: 'I am the Lord who took you out of [the] ur of the Chaldeans' many interpreters found in these words a hidden meaning, a hint about some fire or burning that had taken place in Ur and from which God had in fact saved Abraham, taking him from the midst of the flames ..."
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Wow, such a big help and illumination in gain of understanding with the HOLY SPIRIT all over me confirming TRUTH