Texts in Conversation
Acts and Jubilees follow traditions that try to solve the issue in Genesis where Abraham leaves Haran and seems to abandon his father. Jubilees has him claim he will return, and Acts retells the story so he does not leave until after his father dies.
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Jubilees 12:28
Pseudepigrapha
27 He took his fathers’ books (they were written in Hebrew) and copied them. From that time he began to study them, while I was telling him everything that he was unable to understand. He studied them throughout the six rainy months. 28 In the seventh year of the sixth week [1953], he spoke with his father and told him that he was leaving Haran to go to the land of Canaan to see it and return to him. 29 His father Terah said to him: ‘Go in peace. May the eternal God make your way straight; may the Lord be with you and protect you from every evil; may he grant you kindness, mercy, and grace before those who see you; and may no person have power over you to harm you. Go in peace.’
Date: 150-100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Acts 7:4
New Testament
3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your country and from your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this country where you now live. 5 He did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, not even a foot of ground, yet God promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham as yet had no child.
Date: 75-85 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Abram spoke with his father and told him that he was going to Canaan merely to see it and return. Ancient commentators were troubled by the fact Abram is said to have left Haran at the age of 75 (Genesis 12:4), apparently alone, thus abandoning his aged father (who would then have been 145 according to Genesis 11:26). Genesis never speaks of Terah later joining his son in Canaan nor of Abram ever returning to his father; by implication, Terah must have died alone in Haran at the age of 205 (Genesis 11:32) without ever having seen Abram again. Various alternatives were proposed by commentators; see 4Q252 Genesis Pesher, Philo, Migrations of Abraham 177, Acts 7:4 ..."
Kugel, James L.
A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation
(p. 91) Brill, 2012
* 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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Please cross reference Jubilees 12:22 to Acts 7:3