"In the Land of the Chaldeans": The Search for Abraham's Homeland Revisited

Authors

Stephen O. Smoot, University of Toronto

Keywords

Mormon studies, Chaldeans, Abraham's homeland, Hebrew Bible

Abstract

Readers of the Hebrew Bible first encounter Abram (later Abraham), the spiritual father of the three great monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—at the end of Genesis 11. There they discover he was the son of a certain Terah and claimed “Ur of the Chaldeans” as his home (Gen. 11:28). Being as central as Abraham is to the patriarchal narratives of Genesis and, subsequently, to the faith of scores of believers across the globe, both faithful and nonbelieving readers have turned a critical eye toward the passages where Abraham makes an appearance and have attempted to discern if any historicity lies beneath the narratives enshrined in the Bible.

Recommended Citation

Smoot, Stephen O. (2017) ""In the Land of the Chaldeans": The Search for Abraham's Homeland Revisited," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 56: Iss. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol56/iss3/3