There are any number of things God could have commanded to mark our entrance into a new life in Christ. He chose baptism. What is the significance of immersion in water? I would like to suggest that God chose immersion because it was something that the Jews were already doing.
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The room was small, the kind of space that felt safe for discussion—until it didn’t. We were in an adult Bible study when the topic of baptism surfaced. The teacher, along with several others, quickly reaffirmed what we’d all heard countless times: “Baptism does not save. It’s something you do after you’re already saved.”
Then, a woman spoke up. She didn’t argue, didn’t push. She simply flipped through her Bible and read aloud from Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, and Acts 22:16. Then came her question that shifted the room’s energy: “What do we do with these verses?”
For a moment, silence. Then, like a reflex, someone shot back, “Are you saying baptism saves?” Before she could respond, another voice cut in, sharp with frustration: “She’s just asking a question!”
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Abraham was likely a Habiru and possibly a mercenary. Some Habiru hired themselves out as mercenaries to provide protection for cities. It may surprise you to learn there is biblical evidence suggesting that Abraham may have been a Habiru mercenary.
Genesis 14 records the rebellion of five vassal kings from their distant overlords. One of the city-states that rebelled was Sodom where Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had taken up residence. The coalition of four kings who came to put down the rebellion took Lot, and others, captive.
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The name “Hebrew” probably doesn’t derive from an ancestor of Abraham, but rather from the word “habiru.” The first time the word “Hebrew” appears in the Bible it describes Abram (Abraham):
“Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram.” (Gen. 14:13 ESV)
Many Bible students speculate that the word Hebrew derives from “Eber” who was one of Abraham’s ancestors. According to Genesis 11, Eber was Abraham’s great-great-great-great grandfather and Eber himself was the great-great grandson of Noah. Eber had two sons and, combined, they in turn had more than a dozen sons. Clearly Eber’s descendants were numerous.
If the Bible called Abraham a Hebrew because he descended from Eber, why didn’t it call all of Eber’s descendants Hebrews? The Bible restricts the description of Hebrew only to the nation of Israel and the Patriarchs who beget them. Abraham’s first-born son, Ishmael, was a descendant of Eber, but the Bible never refers to him as a Hebrew. The same is true of Lot and Esau (and many others). Since this is the case, we have reason to doubt that Abraham was called a Hebrew because of his ancestor Eber.1
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Everyone knows where Abraham’s hometown of Ur is, right? We’ve all been taught that it is in southern Iraq. It is common for Bible teachers to present a biblical explanation or interpretation as if it were an undisputed fact. Often this is because they do not know there are any other explanations. One reason this blog exists is to inform Christians about information and plausible alternative interpretations debated among scholars which somehow never filters down to the person in the pew.
Sometimes these sequestered ideas are very consequential to our faith, and others are mere curiosities. One such example of a disputed “fact” that falls in the curiosity category is the location of “Ur of the Chaldees.”
Until the 1920’s there was general consensus among Christians, Jews, and Muslims that Abraham’s Ur was in northern Mesopotamia in what is today southern Turkey. In the 1850s, British archaeologists identified Tell el-Muqayyar as the ancient Sumerian city-state of Ur. Tell el-Muqayyar is in southern Iraq about 150 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf. A tell (aka tel or tall) is a word meaning “mound.” Ancient cities were usually elevated above their surroundings.
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