Chaldeans, And Lived In The Land Then Called Canaan But Now Judea.
1. Now Abram, having no son of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran's
son, and his wife Sarai's brother; and he left the land of Chaldea when
he was seventy-five years old, and at the command of God went into
Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity. He
was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things and
persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions; for which
reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he
determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to
have concerning God; for he was the first that ventured to publish this
notion, That there was but one God, the Creator of the universe; and
that, as to other [gods], if they contributed any thing to the happiness
of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment,
and not by their own power. This his opinion was derived from the
irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as
those that happen to the sun, and moon, and all the heavenly bodies,
thus:—"If [said he] these bodies had power of their own, they would
certainly take care of their own regular motions; but since they do not
preserve such regularity, they make it plain, that in so far as they co-
operate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as
they are subservient to Him that commands them, to whom alone we ought
justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving." For which doctrines, when
the Chaldeans, and other people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against
him, he thought fit to leave that country; and at the command and by the
assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan. And when he
was there settled, he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.
2. Berosus mentions our father Abram without naming him, when he says
thus: "In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was among the
Chaldeans a man righteous and great, and skillful in the celestial
science." But Hecatseus does more than barely mention him; for he
composed, and left behind him, a book concerning him. And Nicolaus of
Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: "Abram reigned
at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land
above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time,
he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and
went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of
Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which
posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name
of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is
shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abram."