The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 220

with St. PBul's Brgumont (Gal. iii. 16-18); Now, there ie absolutely nothing to forbid and thBt therefore tho blessings of the the supposition that such was his age. It Abmlmmio covonBnt could not be dupendent does not follow tho.t because Abmm is named upon tho Lo.w or the temple. The God of. first he was the eldest. He might be named glory. This unusnBl phrase identifies God, first a.a being by fa.r the most illustrious of of whom Stephen speo.ks, with the God whose the three. He might be ncimed first because visible glory WBS seen by tho po.triarchs tho subsequent genealogies-Isa.a.c, Ja.cob, (Oen. xii. 7; xviii. 1; xxvi. 2; xxviii. 12, e.n,I the twelve Patriarchs-were deduced 13; xxxv. 9; Exod. xxiv. 16, 17; Numb. from him. There may, too, have been other xvi. I!); Iso.. vi.; John xii. 41), St. Paul sons ofTera.b, not named here because notbin er uses a similo.r phrose, "The Lord or glory" was going to be so.id about them. Nabor i~ (1 Cor. ii. 8). Our father. He thus identi- mentioned because Rebekah was his grand- fies himself with his judges, whom he had d~ughter (Gen. xxiv. 15, 24) and Rachel just called "brethren." In Mesopotamia, hlB gree.t-grBndda.ughter. And Haran is which would be in Hebrew "Aram of the mentioned because he was the father of two rivers." The exact plBCe, us we learn Lot. Others, whether sons or da.ugl,ter~, from Gen. xi. 31, was "Urof the Chaldees;" would not be ment10ned. If Terah, there• whence the Israelites were taught to say fore, bego.n to have children when he was (Deut. xxvi. 5), "An Are.mean ree.dy to seventy, it is quite probable that Abram perish was my father." That this e.ppea.r- may not have been born till he wo.s a hun- ance wa1dn Ur, before he dwelt in Ha.ran, dred a.nd thirty. That the son named first is me.nile'st from Gen. xi. 31, because it is need not necessarily be the eldest is clear there· said that they went forth from Ur from the order in which Shem, Ham, and "to go into the land of Cane.an," which Ja.pheth a.re no.med, whereas it appears from makes it quite certain that the appearance Gen. ix. 2.J: that He.m was the youngest, of God to Abraham hBd preceded their e.nd from Gen. x. 2, 21 (a.cording to the A..V. leaving Ur, and was the cause of it. And e.nd the LXX., Symmachus, the Targum of this is confirmed by Gen. xv. 7 ; N eh. ix. 7 ; Onkelos, e.nd the old Jewish commentators), and Josephus (' Ant.,' i. vii. 1). Moreover, that Je.pheth we.s the eldest. In Josh. the very langua.go of the coll shows plainly xxiv. 4 God says," I gave unto lso.ac Jacob that it came to him when he wBs living iil e.nd Esau," though Esau was the elder; and his ne.tive country, among his kindred. and so Heb. xi. 20. So age.i.Il in Exod. v. 20 we in his father's house, i.e. e.t Ur, not in Ho.ran, read, "Moses e.nd Aaron" (see e.lso Exod. where they were only sojourners. There is xl. 31 ; Numb. xvi. 43; Josh. xxiv. 5; 1 nothing the lee.at unusual, in Hobrew nar- Sam. xii. 6; etc.), though it o.ppears from rative, in the writer going back to any poi.Ilt 1 Chron. vi. 3 that A.nron was the eldest. in the preceding nnrrative with which the So age.in we read in Gen. xlviii. 5, "Thy subsequent narrative is connected. Gen. two sons, Ephraim o.nd Me.no..sseh," and iil xii. 1 precedes in point of time Gen. xi. 31; vcr. 20, "God make thee as Ephraim and as similar examples e.re Gen. xxxvii. 5, 6; Mo.ne.sseh," though in ver. 1 of the ea.me Judg. xx., paBsim; 1 Sam. xvi. 21 compo.red cho.pter they are named according to the with 1 Se.m. xvii. 28; 1 Sa.m. xxii. 20, 21, true order of birth - " Manasseh a.nd compared with 1 Sa.m. xxiii. 6; a.nd many Ephraim." It is, therefore, e.n unwarrantable more. It is, however, of course possible inference that Abram we.s the eldest son that a. fresh call may have been given after becaUBe ho is named first; e.nd with the 'l'ere.h's denth, though it is by no means remove.I of this inference the difficulty necessary to suppose it. Another ime.gina.ry vanishes; and .Stephen we.s quite accurate difficulty arises from the statement in Gen. when he ea.id that God appeared to Abra- xii. 4 that Abre.he.m was seventy-five yea.re ham in Ur, before be dwelt in He.ran, and old when he departed from He.ro.n, that that he did not move from Haran till the Terab lived seventy yea.re e.nd bege.tAbram, death of Tere.h. Ha.rBn. Charran in A.V. Nabor, and Haran, Bnd tho.t Tarah died at marks the difference between Haran (J;,:,), the e.ge of two hundred e.nd five; Bnd from Lot's father, e.nd tbo name of the place ()~;;:). the statement in ver. 4 of this cbe.pter tbo.t Abram did not leave Harnu till Teroh's It is called" the city of Nabor" (Gen. xxiv. del\th. From which it is concluded that 10 compared with Gen. xl vii. 43). It still 'l'cruh must h11ve lived sixty yeBrs after exists as an Arab villa.go, with the name of Harrln (see 'Dictionary of Biblo '). Abram's departure (70 + 75 + 60 205). = Ver. 3.-Thy land for thy country, A.V. But the whole difficulty a.rises from the l('rBtuituu~ suppositio11 that Abre.m WBS Ver. 4.-Haran for Charran, A.Y.; God 'rerub'e tirstboru because be is nu.med first. rem011ed for he remcnied, A.V. The land of lf 'J'emh were e. hundrou BDU thil'ty 11t the the Che.ldme.ns. In Ger.. xi. 28 Ur is ea.lied birth or Abram, h11 would be two hundred " Ur of the Che.ldees." Whan his father and five when Abram wo.s seventy-five. wa.1 dead (see note to ver. 2). God removed 216 TRE AC'l'S OF TI1E APOSTLES. [on. vu. 1-60.