A very early midrash, (by which I mean a reading or interpretation of biblical text) can be found in the book of Nehemiah, when the the Levites (or perhaps Ezra, himself) address the people with something that seems like some kind of blessing or a history lesson. They say:
Additional Torah True support:for this suggestion comes from many places:
You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you...
When the ancient interpreters read this verse, they took it to mean that Abraham was tested. How else, they reasoned, would God have discovered that his heart was faithful? This idea of a tested Abraham appears (according to James Kugel) in apocrypha including Ben Sira, Maccabees and Jubilees, before it was recorded for posterity in Bereishis Rabba (The other books are older, lost, and exist today only in translation.)
Now the puzzle: Does the verse in Nehemia refer to the tradition of Avraham's trials, or was what we know as that tradition, in reality, based on this verse? What I mean is: Did the speakers in Nehemiah 9 know about this tradition of trials, and have the tradition in mind when they spoke the words, or did they intend something else that was, nonetheless, understood by later interpreters to be a reference to Abraham's ordeals? To put it simply: Did they create the tradition, or did they know about it?
Additional fun fact to know and tell: There's an old tradition that Abraham was tossed into a furnace by a king who objected to Abraham's monotheistic beliefs. Where did this story come from? Possible answers (mix and match them!)
Now the puzzle: Does the verse in Nehemia refer to the tradition of Avraham's trials, or was what we know as that tradition, in reality, based on this verse? What I mean is: Did the speakers in Nehemiah 9 know about this tradition of trials, and have the tradition in mind when they spoke the words, or did they intend something else that was, nonetheless, understood by later interpreters to be a reference to Abraham's ordeals? To put it simply: Did they create the tradition, or did they know about it?
Additional fun fact to know and tell: There's an old tradition that Abraham was tossed into a furnace by a king who objected to Abraham's monotheistic beliefs. Where did this story come from? Possible answers (mix and match them!)
- It happened
- It was devised as a solution to an ambiguity in Isaiah 29:22 where it says God redeemed Abraham using the word pada which can also mean "rescued." But from what was Abraham rescued? Answer: the furnace in Ur Casdim.
- Josh Waxman points out that the heh of the definite article in Gen 19:28 (haKivshan) is evidence of a significant furnace in Abraham's past.
- It developed from a misunderstanding of our verse in Nechemia and/or a verse in Genesis. To those of us who know a city named Ur once existed, the verses seem plain enough:
- Genesis 15: 7
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֵלָ֑יו אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר הֹוצֵאתִ֙יךָ֙ מֵא֣וּר כַּשְׂדִּ֔ים לָ֧תֶת לְךָ֛ אֶת־ הָאָ֥רֶץ הַזֹּ֖את לְרִשְׁתָּֽה
I am YKVK who took you out from Ur of the Chaldean and gave you this land to inherit
Nehemia 9:7אתה־הוא יהוה האלהים אשר בחרת באברם והוצאתו מאור כשדים ושמת שמו אברהם
You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham
This, by the way, is exactly how the Vulgate translates Nehemiah 9:7 into Latin, suggesting Jerome took the story of Abraham escaping the furnace as pshat in the verse!
- TPJ translates the words Ur Kasdim as "the fiery furnace of Kasdim"
- Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer reports the legend and gives Genesis 15:7 as the proof-text, suggesting that the author of this book, like the author of TPJ, imagined the word Ur referred to a furnace and not a place
- LXX translates Ur Kasdim as "the land of the Chaldees" No knowledge of any city called Ur is indicated.
- The Talmud frequently refers to a place called Kasdim. This is Chaldea, a region in southern Babylon. To the best of my knowledge, the Talmud does not ever speak of a place called Ur. This supports the notion that Kasdim was recognized as a place but Ur was not. This misunderstanding is what would have produced the reading I've suggested above.
