Глава 11

Gen.11:28. “And Haran died before his father in the land in which he was born, in the country of the Chaldeans.” Instead of our customary reading “in the land of the Chaldeans,” the Hebrew text reads “in ur kasdim (א֥וּר כַּשְׂדִּֽים),” that is, “in the fire of the Chaldeans.” And on the basis of this, the Jews convey the following information: Abraham was sent into the fire because he did not want to worship the fire that the Chaldeans worship; and being freed from the fire by Divine assistance, he escaped the fire of idolatry. And a little further [in the Seventy Interpreters] it is written that Farah came out with his descendants from the land of the Chaldeans. The Hebrew text reads instead “from the fire of the Chaldeans.” And the Jews preserve the tradition that these words: “Aran died before the eyes of his father Fara in the land of his birth, in the fire of the Chaldeans,” most likely mean that since he did not want to bow to the fire, he was destroyed by fire. And subsequently the Lord says to Abraham: “I am the One who brought you out of the fire of the Chaldeans” (Gen. 15:7). Gen.11:29. “And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarah, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran. And Milka’s father was also Iska’s father.” Haran, the son of Farah, brother of Abraham and Nahor, had two daughters: Milka and Sarah, nicknamed Iska - δυώνυμον [double name]. Of these, Nahor took Milka as his wife, and Abraham took Sarah as his wife. After all, marriages between paternal uncles and nieces had not yet been prohibited by law. Among the first people, marriages were even between brothers and sisters.