Seeking to Build Zion: Seeking Enoch’s Zion
Chapter 4, part 3 of The Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People
By E. Douglas Clark
Abraham tells that, at the close of God’s conversation delivering the covenant in Haran, “after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking to me, and withdrawn his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee; thou didst send thine angel to deliver me from the gods of Elkenah, and I will do well to hearken unto thy voice, therefore let thy servant rise up and depart in peace” (Abr. 2:12-13).
Great were the blessings that Abraham had sought and found, but his seeking was not over. According to the New Testament letter to the Hebrews:
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles [or “tents” [1] ] . : for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (11:9-10)
Bible scholars have pointed out the similarity in description between this city and the one mentioned in certain Jewish and Christian apocryphal texts. [2] In the book of Revelation, when the Apostle John sees “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,” he sees that it has twelve foundations adorned with precious stones (Rev. 21:10, 14, 19).
It is the same city mentioned in 4 Ezra when the prophet Ezra sees in vision “an established city, and a place of huge foundations,” [3] and hears the Lord explain that “in the last days” [4] “Zion will come and be made manifest to everybody, prepared and built.” [5]
According to a popular view, this city was attainable by Abraham only after death, for “entrance into the heavenly city is not experienced on this side of the grave.” In this view, Abraham “did not focus [his] faith on the present and the earthly, but on the future and the heavenly.” [6] Not so, say the Joseph Smith sources, which disclose that the heavenly city Abraham had in mind had once been an actual earthly city that had been translated, even as Abraham had discovered in the patriarchal records.
And it was not just the people that were taken, said Joseph Smith, but also the very “city which they occupied, and the foundations on which it stood, with a large piece of earth immediately connected with the foundations and the city.” [7] Hence, according to Bruce R. McConkie, in looking for the “city which hath foundations,” Abraham “sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken.” [8]
But how could he seek it if it was gone from the earth? Latter-day scripture also describes an order of priesthood available in Abraham’s day that could actually give mortals access to that translated city. Different than the patriarchal order (D&C 107:40-57); it was called “the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God,” and later the “Melchizedek Priesthood” (D&C 107:3-4), and was generally available to all who believed in God (JST Gen. 14:29: “unto as many as believed on his name”) and worked righteousness (see Alma 13:10-11).
And according to the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis, that same order of priesthood gave men “power, by faith,” to perform mighty miracles, and was described as the “the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch,” for “men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven” (JST Gen. 14:27, 30, 32). It was this order of priesthood that Abraham was seeking when he left Haran. He was seeking, in other words, to be translated to the city of Enoch.
Abraham’s quest for the city of Zion may well be alluded to in ancient sources. The Qur’an records this prayer by Abraham: “O Lord, … join me with the righteous … Include me with the heirs of the paradise of bliss.” [9] Rabbinic tradition reports the suggestive statement that Abraham longed to have “wings like a dove” that he might “fly away, and be at rest.” [10]
And an early Christian illustration of God commanding Abraham to leave Haran shows a right hand being extended to Abraham through a multicolored rainbowlike arc [11] – an event echoing God’s putting forth his right hand to Noah when the rainbow was given as the sign of the covenant. [12]
What covenant? Not only the promise not to flood the earth, but also, as disclosed in the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis, the promise to eventually bring Enoch’s Zion back to the earth (JST Gen. 9:15-23). What makes this scene with Abraham particularly poignant is the fact that, as we have seen, the right hand that was extended to him at Haran was most likely that of Enoch himself, acting as messenger of the Almighty. The illustration of Enoch’s right hand being extended to Abraham seems to be poignantly symbolic of Abraham seeking Enoch’s Zion.
But if Abraham were to achieve his quest of being translated, how could his posterity bless all the nations of the earth? In the same way as happened with Enoch, whose son, as Abraham had read, “was not taken, that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to Enoch” (Moses 8:2). And if Abraham were seeking the order of priesthood that gave access to the city of Enoch, why hadn’t Enoch himself simply ordained Abraham to this order at the same time Enoch ordained him to the patriarchal order?
Apparently for the same reason that the Lord appeared in the Kirtland Temple and then sent other messengers: once he delegates authority, such authority is to be obtained only from those to whom it has been delegated. [13]
Hence Enoch, the only living patriarch with the patriarchal priesthood, had been sent to ordain Abraham to that priesthood. But since the Melchizedek Priesthood was available through a mortal whom Abraham would later meet – the man Melchizedek – Abraham must be patient and continue to seek it, and thereby obtain Enoch’s translated city of Zion.
Thus Abram – whose very name can mean “the father is high” or “the father lifts himself on high” [14] – left Haran to seek residence with his forefather Enoch, who was already “high and lifted up” (Moses 7:24). Might Abram himself have thought that his own name prophetically portended his own destiny, that he was to join his forefather Enoch in that beautiful terrestrial world that was high and lifted up?
And if Abraham had read his ancestor’s prophecy about a descendant who would not only be perfect and blameless but would actually “set his dwelling on high,” [15] did he interpret this to mean that he would be translated to the city of Enoch?
Devout Prayer and Divine Protection on the Journey into Canaan
As we have seen, it was Abraham’s fate to live in the age of the great sacral kingships that claimed not only rule by divine right but also global dominion. Abraham’s own writings hold the key to understand those audacious claims as but an imitation of Adam’s patriarchal priesthood authority, to which Abraham himself was the rightful heir.
What most occupied those ancient pretenders can be seen to this day in the various inscriptions scattered throughout the world’s great museums. Written in first person, they declare in lofty words the daring military conquests and ostentatious building projects of those mighty monarchs. In sharp contrast, the restored writings of the true holder of that royal patriarchal authority attest to an entirely different agenda. Also written in first person, Abraham’s record declares that with that authority he sought to neither conquer nor to build monuments, but to obediently travel forth to build the kingdom of God.
Thus with the patriarchal authority received from Enoch, Abraham obeyed the divine command to leave the goodly land of Haran for a “strange land” (Abr. 2:6; Heb. 11:9 – “a strange country”), a destination he had never seen. Commenting on Abraham’s situation, Joseph Smith stated that “the word spoken to Noah was not sufficient for Abraham,” and “it was not required of Abraham to seek an inheritance in a strange country upon the word spoken to Noah, but for himself [Abraham] obtained the promises at the hand of the Lord.” [16]
Orson Hyde similarly observed that “Abraham might have searched all former records and revelations, but here was a duty he never could have learned therefrom – Depart … Hence the circumstances required new revelation, and God gave it by commanding this great man … to go forth into a country where he never had been.” [17]
In Abraham’s words in the Book of Abraham, “I, Abraham, departed as the Lord had said unto me … and I, Abraham, was sixty and two years old when I departed out of Haran” (Abr. 2:14). This number contradicts that given in Genesis, [18] but happens to correspond precisely with Abraham’s age as given in the chronicle of George Syncellus, the ardent chronographer from Byzantium. [19]
Abraham parents did not go, his mother having died in Haran, [20] and his father having returned to his idolatry and choosing to remain behind (Abr. 2:5). Abraham took his wife and his nephew Lot, [21] and the large community of Saints, numbering at least into the hundreds, that had joined him. He led by inspiration: “Abraham was guided in all his family affairs by the Lord,” said Joseph Smith, and “was told where to go, and when to stop.” [22] President Spencer W. Kimball added that it was “Abraham’s faithfulness in all things [that] qualified him to receive revelation for his family.” [23]
And having received that revelation, Abraham led his family and his people by love, beginning with Abraham’s love for the author of the commandment he was now following. “Not only did Abraham listen to God’s command,” says a rabbinic text about Abraham’s leaving Haran, “though it entailed hardship and inconvenience, but he did so joyfully and not grudgingly.” [24]
Abraham’s love encompassed also those whom he led, beginning most ardently with his own wife. Speaking of Abraham taking Sarah out of Haran, the Zohar comments that “it was by persuasion and not by compulsion [that] he induced Sara to go with him.” [25] Abraham’s priesthood leadership was the model of what the Lord commands concerning latter-day priesthood leadership: never by “compulsion” but “only by persuasion” and the similar attributes of gentleness, meekness, kindness, and love unfeigned – qualifications for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and the presence of God (D&C 121:37, 41-42, 45-46).
And if Abraham so qualified, so did his beloved Sarah, whose faith at least matched that of Abraham. He had heard the command to leave directly from God, she only from Abraham. [26] Yet she went without argument and with full purpose of heart, qualifying for the continuous presence and protection of the Almighty. And what of the multitude of his converts following him on this journey?
One writer supposes that they must have been apprehensive inasmuch as their leader could not tell them exactly where they were headed. [27] In reality, they had faith in their prophet and leader, who was leading by the Spirit. In the words of W. F. P. Noble, “Following the leadings of divine Providence with the one supreme motive to honor and obey God, he carried with him the presence of the Lord.” [28]
As did Sarah, Jewish tradition tells of a visible “cloud of holiness” [29] that hovered over her tent as “God’s testimony to what went on within.” [30] Sarah constantly “brought … holiness into her home,” which was imbued with the divine presence, [31] a light that spread over the rest of the camp as well. The Jewish sage Nachmanides held that “the Divine Presence rested upon [their] tents.” [32]
It was perhaps this visible divine protection to which Abraham alluded when he wrote, as recorded in the Book of Abraham, “we … came forth in the way to the land of Canaan, and dwelt in tents as we came on our way; therefore, eternity was our covering and our rock and our salvation” (Abr. 2:15-16). For both Abraham and Sarah, this “was a journey that transformed them both.” [33]
The glory hovering over Abraham’s caravan was an indisputable manifestation that Zion was again upon the earth, even as divine glory had once visibly rested on Enoch’s city of Zion (Moses 7:17). But if the phenomenon reflected the past, it also foreshadowed the future, for according to Exodus, the Israelites under Moses were accompanied by “a pillar of cloud by day” and “a pillar of fire by night” (JPST Exodus 13:21), as they were led by the Lord’s angel on whom he had placed his name (Ex. 23:20-21), namely Enoch [34] (raising the possibility that Enoch was also leading Abraham and his followers in their journey).
As remembered in rabbinic tradition, the Israelites were “surrounded … with the Clouds of Glory” which “protect[ed] them,” covering them like a “canopy” or a “pavilion.” [35] Thus the children of the patriarchs, in the words of Nachmanides, “returned to the eminence of their forefathers who had God’s mystery upon their tents, and who were themselves the … bearers of His Shekhinah [Divine Presence].” [36]
All this seems to be echoed in the Jewish festival Sukkot, or feast of tabernacles, which according to tradition is intended to symbolize the protective clouds of glory that covered the Israelites in their march. On the first day of Sukkot, the invited heavenly guest is none other than the patriarch Abraham. [37]
For Latter-day Saints, however, the most important foreshadowings of Abraham’s experience have yet to be fulfilled.
Similar glory will rest on Abraham’s latter-day seed. Isaiah prophesied of the time when the Lord would “create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night” (Isa. 4:5), [38] which sounds like the Lord’s invitation to latter-day Zion to “arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” (D&C 115:5). It is yet another example of the events of latter-day Zion being foreshadowed by Abraham, who “is one of those key figures,” says Hugh Nibley, “in whom all the events of the past are brought into focus as by a burning glass and whose actions are in turn projected into the future as an ever-expanding image.” [39]
Abraham’s fateful journey from Haran southward left an indelible imprint still visible in the Middle East, for “virtually every country through which Abraham passed en route to Canaan has its own holy site and legend associated with him.” [40] Various routes for his travels have been suggested, [41] but it appears likely he passed through the city of Aleppo, which contains the “Mosque of Abraham” and since ancient times has claimed the honor of being on Abraham’s route. [42]
Continuing south, the journey would have taken them through the Syrian desert undoubtedly into Damascus. [43] At least two ancient historians [44] reported that Abraham had there reigned as king, while Josephus added that the name of Abraham “is still even now famous in Damascus,” [45] near to which was a village called “Abram’s abode.” [46] It may be the same village that still today claims to have once been home to Abraham, located near Damascus in a secluded hilly area considered one of the Middle East’s more remarkable survivals, being the only place where ancient Aramaic has survived as a living language. [47]
But the very terseness of Abraham’s own description of their route to Canaan seems to leave open the possibility of other settlements visited but not mentioned. Maimonides’ description of the journey seems to suggest a course that (not unlike the missionary journeys of Abraham’s descendant the Apostle Paul) may have meandered as they were led by the Spirit to perform their missionary labors. Abraham and his company “were walking and calling and gathering the people from town to town and from country to country,” insists Maimonides. [48]
As the Lord would later lead Abraham’s descendant Lehi into “the more fertile parts of the wilderness,” (1 Ne. 16:16), so it seems that the Lord led Abraham to the most fertile fields of souls ready to harvest.
The Book of Abraham adds a stop on the itinerary southward not mentioned by Genesis: the land of Jershon (Abr. 2:16-17), which some have identified as the ancient city known to us as Jerash, located in present-day Jordan.
In Jershon, Abraham “built an altar … and made an offering unto the Lord, and prayed” (Abr. 2:17). That prayer and the accompanying sacrifice would have been offered, as he had learned to do from the patriarchal records (Moses 5:8; 6:52), in the name of Jesus Christ. And this particular prayer included a petition for mercy on behalf of his father, who had nearly succeeded in having Abraham killed, and who, after repenting and following Abraham to Haran, had “turned again unto his idolatry” and had chosen not to continue the journey with Abra ham.
It could have been cause for Abraham to reject and forget his father, but Abraham was a man of mercy and forgiveness. “I, Abraham … prayed that the famine might be turned away from my father’s house, that they might not perish” (Abr. 2:17). Nor did Abraham wish his father to perish spiritually; the Qur’an reports that Abraham implored the Lord to “forgive my father – for, verily, he is among those who have gone astray.” [49]
From Jershon, Abraham would probably have headed west and crossed the Jordan River to arrive at Shechem in the land of Canaan. It was a delightful land, described by a nearly contemporaneous account thus: “Figs were in it, and grapes. It had more wine than water. Plentiful was its honey, abundant its olives. Every kind of fruit was on its trees. Barley was there, and emmer. There was no limit to any kind of cattle.” [50]
But there was also danger in this lush land. Here he built another altar and prayed, as reported by an Armenian apocryphal source, holding “his hands on high.” [51] In Abraham’s own words, “I offered sacrifice … and called on the Lord devoutly, because we had already come into the land of this idolatrous nation” (Abr. 2:18).
The idolatry was as rank as that which he opposed in Ur, and included human sacrifice and ritual prostitution. It was to the heart of such spiritual darkness that God sent his messenger of light, for, as a modern Jewish writer relates, “as God directed Abram’s steps steadily to the south, far from keeping him away from the centers of Canaanite deviancy, their temples and high places, He guided him straight for strategically located cultic sites.” [52] Shechem was in fact located at the crossroads of two intersecting trade routes, making it “well suited to maximize the potential number of spiritually starved Canaanites Abram might teach.” [53]
But not without some peril. A passage from the Testament of Levi discloses that travelers through Shechem were often murdered and their wives ravished, and that in fact Abraham and Sarah had been in just such danger from the residents. “But the Lord prevented them,” even though they “grossly mistreated” one of Abraham’s group. [54] Abraham did not respond in kind.
Profound prayer brought profound revelation, as told in Genesis and in first person in the Book of Abraham: “And the Lord appeared unto me in answer to my prayers, and said unto me: Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Abr. 2:19; cf. Gen. 11:7). The momentous event is still commemorated at a site revered by Druze Arabs as the place where God covenanted with Abraham. Here barren women of all religions make pilgrimage, praying for a child. [55]
Commenting on Abraham’s experience, nineteenth-century clergyman Christopher Wordsworth, nephew of the famous poet, observed that it was “at Sichem [Shechem], the centre of Canaan, in the beautiful valley between Mount Ebal on the north, and Mount Gerizim on the south,” where “the Lord appeared unto Abraham for the first time in Canaan. And afterwards … to Sichem, JESUS CHRIST, the Incarnate Word of God, the Lord JEHOVAH in [the] flesh, the true Seed of Abraham, came, and sat at the well, in the weariness and weakness of humanity, and first revealed Himself as the Messiah, and declared, that He would give to all the living water of the Holy Spirit … Thus Christ at Sichem explained and fulfilled the promise given to Abraham there.” [56]
God’s promise to Abraham of posterity is still commemorated by Druze Arabs at a site to which barren women of all religions make pilgrimage, praying for a child [57] – as undoubtedly did Sarah herself, whose expectation of children was vibrant and sustaining. As recounted by a modern Jewish mother, “Sarah left home, just has Abraham did, with the expectation that if they had the courage to follow God’s way and if they kept their pact, staying in an obedient, loving relationship, they would be showered with blessings . Knowing that she would have a child to love and fill with a dramatically new vision . gave her identity, meaning, and focus. It kept her going” during the long years and even decades when, despite her faith and obedience, somehow she did not get pregnant. “She never cut off her conversation with God; she prayed continually for a child of her own,” and “God took pleasure in hearing her voice,” as did a host of people in need of spiritual and temporal sustenance. “She became a teacher and spiritual guide, teaching women about God and God’s covenant. She was a hostess extraordinaire, whose capacious tent was a place where travelers on their own journeys could feel temporarily at home and could become refreshed.” And she “was graced with an abundant spiritual presence,” a visible sign of God’s approval of her life and mission. [58]
Each new renewal of God’s promise must have brought renewed hope and joy to both Abraham and Sarah. It was the word of the Lord: Abraham would be blessed with posterity. What else could this mean but that Sarah would have a child? The question and its answer were simply taken for granted as they both, with childlike faith, continued to look forward to the event that would change their lives and fulfill the great promises.
The verse in the Book of Abraham relating God’s appearance in the land of the Canaanites is one of but four short verses chronicling Abraham’s journey to and through the land of promise, and all four verses mention prayer (Abr. 2:17-20). [59] Abraham personifies the oft-repeated latter-day commandment to “pray always.” [60]
In fact, according to Maimonides, no matter what Abraham was doing, his heart and mind were always with God [61] – a striking example of his descendant Amulek’s exhortation that “when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out into prayer unto him continually” (Alma 34:27). Well did a nineteenth century cleric observe that Abraham “was a man of prayer, and therefore he was a man of power.” [62]
President Spencer W. Kimball counseled that “like Abraham, we must seek to qualify for such revelation by setting our lives in order and by becoming acquainted with the Lord through frequent and regular conversations with him.” [63]
But Abraham’s altar in Canaan served a larger purpose than prayer. He built it, insisted nineteenth-century clergyman David Breed, to openly “acknowledge his God” before all men. “Such was the character of his religion wherever he dwelt, and to the end of his days … His principles were manifest to prince and to people.” Of God, Abraham was not ashamed; he lived his religion openly. So likewise, counseled Breed, “let it be manifest that you are the friend of God, and the follower of Jesus.” [64]
But Abraham’s purpose was larger still, according to Ephrem the Syrian, who maintained that Abraham built his altar in the land of the Canaanites “so that he might teach the worship of holiness in their land.” [65] What worship? The same performed by Adam, Noah, Enoch, and all the Saints since the beginning: the worship of the Father in the name of His Only Begotten Son, He whose blood would be shed even as the sacrificial animal on the altar.
Abraham preached Christ and Him crucified, and offered the ordinances Abraham himself had followed, beginning with baptism in water for the remission of sins. Commenting on the Lord’s promise to Abraham in Haran that “thou shalt be a blessing,” the Genesis Rabbah explains that the Hebrew word for “blessing,” berachah, is associated with the Hebrew word for “pool of water,” beraychah; and “just as a pool of water purifies those who are impure [or, according to another translation, “just as a pool of water removes the cultic uncleanness of an unclean person” [66] ] so you, Abraham, shall bring near to God those who are afar and shall purify them to their Father in Heaven.” [67]
If we had the full record, we would read of Abraham testifying of the Son of God and leading his converts into the waters of baptism. And, says a midrash, “how great is his reward who leads his fellowman back in penitence to the Almighty!” [68]
2. See, for example, Young, Jerusalem in the New Testament, 117-64, especially 117, 134-38; and Buchanan, To the Hebrews, 191-94.
8. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 805, quoting JST, Genesis 14:34 (which refers to what Melchizedek and his people were seeking). Notably, the same chapter of Hebrews had already mentioned Enoch’s being “translated that he should not see death,” Enoch having “pleased God” by faith, as required of all those who would please God, for “he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” (Heb. 11:5-6). Abraham’s diligence in seeking God is mentioned in the book of Abraham at the very point of his departure from Haran when he will, as Hebrews says, go looking for the city with foundations (Abr. 2:12). It is the same city, as scholars point out, that is also referred to in the next chapter of Hebrews: “But ye are come unto mount Sion [Zion], and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:22-23). See Buchanan, To the Hebrews, 192; and Hermann Strathmann, in Kittel and Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 6:531. When similar language is used in latter-day scripture, it describes the people of Enoch. Those attaining celestial glory are said to “come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all. These are they who have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn” (D&C 76:66-67). Clearly Abraham was seeking Enoch’s city of Zion.
10. Genesis Rabbah 39:8, in Harris, Hebraic Literature, 240, stating explicitly, “This is spoken of Abraham.”
13. See also the example of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration, when not only the Savior but also Moses and Elias transferred keys to Peter, James, and John. Since the Savior holds all the keys, why did he need Moses and Elijah to transfer their keys? Because of the principle of delegation. See: Galbraith and Smith, Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 179; McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:400; McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 805.
16. Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1984), Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 298, letter to Silas Smith, September 26, 1833 (capitalization normalized, and comma added after “Noah”).
17. Journal of Discourses, 15:101. This passage seems to conflate the commands to leave Ur and Haran.
19. See quotes and discussion in Adler, Time Immemorial, 189-91. Jasher gives Abraham age at his departure from Haran as fifty. Jasher 13:5, in Noah, Book of Yashar, 37.
21. Abraham 2:14, and see v. 4 (“Lot, my brother’s son”). So also Jubilees 12:30 and Genesis Apocryphon 20.22, 33; 22.3. See VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 74; and Martinez and Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 1:43, 47.
29. Munk, Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, 27; and Encyclopaedia Judaica, 14:868, citing Genesis Rabbah 60:16.
34. See Sanhedrin 38b, in Epstein, Babylonian Talmud; and see discussion in Barker, The Great Angel, 78-79, 90-94.
36. Ramban’s Introduction to the Book of Exodus, quoted in Munk, Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, 27. For consistency, I have changed the spelling of Shechinah.
38. See also Isaiah 35:10; 52:7-12; and rabbinic comments thereon in Kasher, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, 8:123, 125. The latter-day Zion will yet “stand like a castle of light” in a dark world. Georg Fohrer, in Kittel and Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 7:313, citing Isaiah 60:2ff.
39. Hugh Nibley, “Facsimile No. 1, by the Figures – A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price, Part 8, Continued,” Improvement Era, October 1969, 88.
41. One of the most plausible was suggested several decades ago by someone who actually made the trip and published his results in National Geographic. See Kenneth MacLeish, “Abraham, the Friend of God,” National Geographic 139:6 (December 1966), 739-789, and see map on 746.
44. Nicholas of Damascus, cited by Josephus, and Pompeis Trogus, cited in Feldman’s comments on the Josephus passage. Judean Antiquities 1.159-60, in Feldman, Josephus, 59-60. See also Chronicles of Jerahmeel XXXV.2, in Gaster, Chronicles of Jerahmeel, 77.
45. Judean Antiquities 1.159-60, in Feldman, Josephus, 59-60. See also Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews 5:216, n. 46.
48. Klinghoffer, Discovery of God, 36, quoting Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avodat Kochavim 1:3.
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