1 Abraham, having no son of his own, adopted Lot, the son of his brother Haran and brother of his wife Sarah, and he left the land of Chaldea at age seventy-five, going to Canaan at God’s command, remaining there himself and leaving it to his descendants. He was a person of exceptional insight, skilled at understanding everything, able to convince his listeners, and accurate in his opinions. For this reason he was the first to champion higher concepts of virtue than others and chose to reform and correct the widespread notions about God that people held then. He was the first to boldly declare there was only one God, the Creator of the universe,⁠a arguing that since these other bodies do not maintain a consistent cycle of their own accord, they must be governed by the command of a single Ruler, to whom we rightly offer our thanks and worship. Because of these doctrines, the Chaldeans and Mesopotamians stirred up trouble against him, so he resolved to leave that region, and, with God’s help and guidance, came to dwell in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and offered a sacrifice to God. 2 Berosus references our ancestor Abram without naming him directly, saying, “In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was among the Chaldeans a just, remarkable man, skilled in heavenly matters.” Hecatæus is even more explicit, writing a whole book on him. Nicolaus of Damascus, in his fourth Book of History, says, “Abram reigned in Damascus; a foreigner who came with an army from the land above Babylon, the territory of the Chaldeans. After a long time, he moved on with his people to what was then called Canaan, now Judea, and his descendants grew numerous, of which we write elsewhere. Even now, Abram’s name is celebrated in Damascus, and there is shown a village named ‘The House of Abram.’”