Page 4 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

will start with the location. They wrote on many backgrounds, but the surviving examples include
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Cuneiform tablets primarily. Here is an example of a Sumerian Cuneiform tablet.

Location of Ancient Mesopotamia:

Mesopotamia was an
area roughly 600 miles
long and 300 miles wide
(at its largest points). It
was in the eastern edge
of the Fertile Crescent. It
was located between the
rivers. These rivers are
vital to the location as
they are fed by the
melting of snow in the
mountains they are
sourced from. This water
would melt each year and bring with it rich minerals and soil that kept the land fertile. As a result, it
produced crops and grass needed for animals. Because of this food supply the owners of crops could
sustain large herds of animals. One could become very wealthy in ancient Mesopotamia.

The area of Mesopotamia is also known as ancient Sumer. There was a north and a south Sumer that
were eventually united. The capital city of ancient Sumer during the time of Abraham, was called Ur.
This is the same Ur that the Bible tells us that Abraham was called out of by God. In Acts 7:2-3 says “And
Stephen said: ‘Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he

was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your
kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’” (ESV) In Genesis
11:28-31 we see Abraham, called Abram at this point, coming
from UR and leaving toward Haran “Haran died in the presence of
his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the
Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of
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Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the
daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was
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barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the
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son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son

1 Illustration used with permission from John Holmes from his Biblical Backgrounds course.

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