thus closely associates himself with his hearers. Wetstein comments: ‘“ Ste- phanus ergo non fuit proselytus, sed Judzus natus,” but it would seem from Wetstein himself that a proselyte might call Abraham father ; cf. his com- ment on Luke i. 73, and cf. Ecclus., xliv., 21; Speaker’s Commentary, ‘ Apocry- pha,”’ vol. ii. ; see also Lumby’s note, zn loco, and ef. Schirer, ¥ewish Ῥεοβίε, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 326, note, E.T.— Μεσοποταµίᾳ: a difficulty at once arises in comparing this statement with the Book of Genesis. Here the call of Abra- tham is said to have come to him before
he dwelt in Haran, but in Gen. xii. 1, after he removed thither. But, at the same time Gen. xv. 7, ¢f. Josh. xxiv. 3, Neh, ix. 7, distinctly intimates that Abra- ham left “Ur of the Chaldees” (see “ Abraham,” Hastings’ B.D., p. 14, and Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, pp. 166- 169, as to its site) in accordance with the choice and guidance of God. St. Stephen applies the language of what we may describe as the second to the first call, and in so doing he was really following on the lines of Jewish literature, ¢.g., Philo, De Abrah., ii., 11, 16, Mang., paraphrases the divine counsel,
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αὐτὸν ἐν Χαῤῥάν, 3. καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτόν, ““Ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου
Ν 3 fol ΄ Δ - 3 fol a 34 ΄ 35 καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς γῆν ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω. 4.
~ , a τότε ἐξελθὼν ἐκ γῆς Χαλδαίων, κατώκησεν ἐν Χαῤῥάν: κἀκεῖθεν,
μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ, µετῴκισεν αὐτὸν eis τὴν γῆν
and then adds 8a τοῦτο τὴν πρώτην ἀποικίαν ἀπὸ τῆς Χαλδαίων γῆς εἰς τὴν Χαῤῥαίων λέγεται ποιεῖσθαι. Moreover the manner of St. Stephen’s quotation seems to mark the difference between the callin Ur and the callin Haran (R.V., not Charran, Greek form, as in A.V.). In Gen. xii. 1 we have the call to Abra- ham in Haran given as follows: ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου καὶ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου. But the call in Ur, according to St. Stephen’s wording, is one which did not involve the sacrifice of his family, for Abraham was accompanied by them to Haran, and so the clause ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου κ.τ.λ. is omitted because inappropriate. Of course if we omit ἐκ before τῆς συγ- γενείας (see critical notes), St. Stephen’s words become more suitable still to the position of Abraham in Ur, for we should then translate the words, “from thy land and the land of thy kindred ” (Ren- dall, cf. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb.). St. Stephen may naturally have referred back to Abraham’s first migration from Ur to Haran, as desiring to emphasise more plainly the fact that since the call of God came to him before he had taken even the first step towards the Holy Land by settling in Haran, that divine re- velation was evidently not bound up with any one spot, however holy.—Xappayv, Gene xi! ασ χι sg; χι 49 Le in the old language of Chaldea = road (see Sayce, vu. s., pp. 166, 167, and ‘“‘Haran” Hastings’ B.D., and B.D.?, i. (Pinches)), in Mesopotamia; little doubt that it should be identified with the Carre of the Greeks and Romans, near the scene of the defeat of Crassus by the Parthians, B.C. 53, and of his death, Lucan, i., 104; Pliny, N.H., v., 24; Strabo, xvi., p. 747. In the fourth century Carre was the seat of a Christian bishopric, with a magnifi- cent cathedral. It is remarkable that the people of the place retained until a late date the Chaldean language and the worship of the Chaldean deities, B.D.?, “Haran,” and see Hamburger, Real- Encyclopddie des fudentums, i., 4, p. 499, and references cited by him for identifi- cation with Carre (cf. Winer-Schmiedel, Ρ. 57).