Hebrew Myths

by Robert Graves

  3. Harran (Assyrian Kharran, ‘road’) was an important mercantile city, on the highway from Nineveh to Carchemish, at its junction with the main road to Damascus. It is still in existence on the Balikh River, sixty miles west of Tell Halaf.

  4. Since the raven is a solitary bird, the ‘ravens’ which damaged Mesopotamian crops may have been starlings, which fly about in large flocks. Or they may have been tribesmen with a raven totem; perhaps Midianite nomads from the Syrian Desert—Oreb (‘raven’) mentioned in Judges VII. 25, was a Midianite Prince.

  5. Abram’s genealogy is meant to show that the ancestors of Israel were all wise, virtuous, first-born sons; and the final details are evidently edited in that sense. Haran’s birth should refer to a stay in Harran—though, indeed, the names are not etymologically identical; but he is said to have previously died at Ur. The repetition of ‘Nahor’ suggests that despite Genesis XI. 26–27, which lists Terah’s three sons as Abram, Nahor the Second and Haran, Nahor will have been considered Terah’s first-born, because he bore his paternal grandfather’s name. This custom still prevails in the Middle East. Moreover, Terah married his cousin Edna, Abram’s daughter; their second son should therefore have been an Abram too. Thus the midrashic tradition that Abram was younger than Nahor makes sense, though he would have been so named only if he were the second, not the third, son.

  6. Midrashic commentators on Abram’s marriage, who uphold the laws against incest found in Leviticus XX. 17, are obliged to disregard the clear evidence of Genesis XX. 12 that Sarai was his sister by a different mother. Instead, they make her Abram’s brother’s daughter—a union permitted under Mosaic law. Yet marriage to a half-sister born of a different mother was common in Egypt—Abram is connected in Biblical myth with Egypt—and was legal in Israel down to the days of King David.

  24

  ABRAHAM’S BIRTH

  (a) Prince Terah commanded the royal armies, and one evening all King Nimrod’s courtiers, councillors and astrologers assembled in his house to make merry with him. That same night Terah’s son Abram was born and, as the company returned to their homes and gazed up at the sky, an enormous comet coursed around the horizon from the east, and swallowed four stars each fixed in a different quarter of Heaven. The astrologers stood amazed, knowing what this sight portended, and whispered to one another: ‘Terah’s new-born son will be a mighty Emperor. His descendants will multiply and inherit the earth for all eternity, dethroning kings and possessing their lands.’

  When morning came they assembled again, and said: ‘That comet was hidden from our lord Nimrod. Were he now to hear of it, he would ask us: “Why have you concealed so great a wonder from me?”, and thereupon kill us. Let us rather acquit ourselves of blame by freely disclosing it.’

  They did so, telling Nimrod: ‘Pay Terah his price, and kill the child, before he can engender sons to destroy the King’s posterity and ours.’

  Nimrod sent for Terah, commanding him: ‘Sell me your son!’ Terah answered: ‘Whatever the King orders his servant, will be done. Yet I humbly beg my lord’s advice in a certain matter. Last night your Councillor Aayun ate at my table. He said: “Sell me that tall, swift stallion which our master lately bestowed on you, and I will fill your house with gold, silver and excellent fodder.” How, my lord, could I have avoided offence in answering him?’

  Nimrod cried angrily: ‘Were you so foolish as even to consider such a sale? Does your house lack silver and gold? Or of what use would his fodder have been if you sold my gift, the finest stallion alive?’

  Terah replied softly: ‘Did not the King command me to sell my son? And is it not his purpose to destroy him? And what use will I have for silver and gold after the death of my heir? Must not all my treasures return to the King if I die childless?’

  At this Nimrod grew angrier yet; but Terah said pacifically: ‘All that is mine lies in the King’s hands! Let him do to his servant as he wills, taking my son without payment.’

  Nimrod said: ‘No, but I shall surely pay you well for the child!’

  Terah answered: ‘May it please my lord that I ask a small favour?’ And, being given leave, he said: ‘Only allow me three days in which to commune with my soul and with my kinsmen, that we may do gladly what our lord demands in rage.’

  Nimrod granted this favour and, on the third day, his messengers fetched the child. Terah, knowing that he and his kinsmen would be put to the sword unless he obeyed, took a slave-woman’s son, born on the same night as Abram, gave him to the King, and accepted a price in silver and gold.

  Nimrod dashed out the infant’s brain, and afterwards forgot the matter. Terah hid Abram in a cave with a chosen foster-mother, and brought them food month after month. God cared for Abram throughout the next ten years; though some say that thirteen years passed before Terah at last gave Abram permission to leave the cave, where he had seen the light of neither sun nor moon; and that, on emerging, he spoke the holy tongue of Hebrew, despised the sacred groves, loathed idols and trusted in the strength of his Creator.237

  Abram sought out his ancestors Noah and Shem, at whose house he studied the Law for thirty-nine years; but none knew his parentage.238

  (b) According to another account, King Nimrod himself was versed in astrology, and learned from the stars that a child soon to be born would overthrow the gods whom he held in awe. Nimrod sent for his chief princes and councillors, asking them: ‘What can I do against this child of destiny?’ They advised him to raise a great building, and issue an order that all women big with child should be delivered there; he should also post sentries at the gates, and set mid-wives to watch over the women and slaughter every male child as soon as born. ‘Nevertheless,’ they added, ‘spare every female infant, clothe its mother in royal purple, and shower her with gifts, saying: “Thus shall it be done to mothers of daughters!”’

  Nimrod took their advice, and the angels who watched this slaughter, reproached God, crying: ‘Have You not seen how Nimrod the blasphemer murders innocents?’ God replied: ‘I never sleep, nor turn away My eyes, but observe all that happens on earth—either openly or in secret! Soon I shall chastise him.’

  When Terah saw that Amitlai’s belly swelled and her face paled, he asked: ‘What ails you, wife?’ She answered: ‘This ailment, the qolsani, comes upon me yearly.’ He told her: ‘Uncover yourself, that I may see whether you are with child; for, if so, we must obey the King’s command.’ But the unborn child rose in her breast; thus Terah, groping at Amitlai’s belly, found nothing and said: ‘It is indeed the qolsani.’

  Amitlai, knowing that her hour was at hand, went out across the desert to a cave by the River Euphrates. There the pangs of travail came upon her, and she gave birth to Abram, the radiance of whose face lighted up the cave from end to end. Amitlai cried: ‘Alas, that I have borne you in this evil time! King Nimrod has destroyed seventy thousand male infants, and I fear greatly for your sake.’ She took part of her garment and wrapped Abram in it, saying: ‘God be with you and forsake you not!’ Then she departed.

  Abram, lying alone in the cave without food, began to weep; but God sent the archangel Gabriel to give him milk, which flowed from the little finger of his right hand—and so the child was suckled.

  At sunset on the tenth day, Abram stood up and walked down to the riverbank. He saw the stars rise, and thought: ‘Surely, these are as gods?’ When dawn came and the stars vanished, he said: ‘Yet I shall give them no worship, for gods do not vanish.’ Then the sun rose in splendour, and he asked: ‘Is this my god, whom I should praise?’ But when it set again at dusk, he cried: ‘It was no god! Sun, Moon and stars are surely moved by One greater than they.’ Gabriel appeared, saying: ‘Peace be with you!’ Abram answered: ‘And with you be peace! What is your name?’ He said: ‘I am Gabriel, the Messenger of God,’ whereupon Abram washed his face, hands and feet at a spring, and prostrated himself.

  Some days later, the sorrowing Amitlai, pale from lack of sleep, returned to the cave where she had left her son, but foun
d no sign of him; and her tears flowed afresh to think him devoured by wild beasts. On the riverbank she saw a grown boy, and said: ‘Peace be with you!’, whereupon the following colloquy took place:

  Abram: And with you be peace! What is your business?

  Amitlai: I am come to find my infant son.

  Abram: And who brought him here?

  Amitlai: I was with child, and fearful lest our King should destroy my son, as he has destroyed seventy thousand others. Therefore I came here, bore him in yonder cave, went home alone, and now he is nowhere to be seen.

  Abram: When was your son born?

  Amitlai: Twenty days ago.

  Abram: Can any woman abandon her child in a desert cave, yet hope to find him alive after twenty days?

  Amitlai: Only if God shows mercy.

  Abram: Mother, I am your son!

  Amitlai: That cannot be! How have you grown so tall, and learned to walk and talk in twenty days?

  Abram: God has done these things for me, to show you how great, terrible and eternal He is!

  Amitlai: My son, can there be a greater one than King Nimrod?

  Abram: Even so, Mother: God sees, but cannot be seen! He lives in Heaven, yet His glory fills the earth! Go to Nimrod, and repeat my words to him!

  Amitlai returned, and when Terah heard her tale, he bowed low before the King, and asked leave to address him. Nimrod said: ‘Lift up your head, and say what you would have me hear!’ Terah told him all, repeating Abram’s message; and Nimrod blanched. He asked his chief princes and councillors: ‘What shall be done?’ They cried: ‘Divine King, do you fear a little child? Does not your kingdom hold princes by the thousand thousand, besides countless lesser nobles and overseers? Send the least of your nobles to secure the child and shut him in your royal prison.’ But Nimrod asked: ‘What infant ever grew to boyhood within twenty days, or sent me a message by his mother that there is a God in Heaven who sees yet cannot be seen, and whose glory fills the world?’

  Then Satan, dressed in raven-black silk, prostrated himself before the King and, being given leave to raise his head, said: ‘Why be confounded by a child’s babble? Let me offer you good counsel!’ Nimrod asked: ‘What counsel is that?’ Satan answered: ‘Throw open your armouries and deal out weapons to every prince, noble and warrior in your land, so that they may secure the child and bring him here to serve you.’

  This Nimrod did; but when Abram saw the approaching army, he prayed for deliverance, and God interposed a cloud of darkness between him and his enemies. They ran in terror to the King, crying: ‘It were better if we departed from Ur!’ Nimrod gave them leave of absence, paid for their journey and fled himself to the Land of Babel.239

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  1. The birth of Abraham is laconically recorded in Genesis XI. 27: ‘Terah begot Abram, Nahor and Haran.’ Myths of Abraham’s miraculous birth and his escape from King Nimrod have survived among the Near Eastern Jews. Both these versions are midrashic, and draw on a common stock of Indo-European mythology. The second was sung until recently as a Ladino (i.e. Sephardic Spanish) ballad at birth celebrations in Salonica.

  2. Lord Raglan, in The Hero, examines myths of many diverse heroes—Greek, Latin, Persian, Celtic and Germanic, listing their common characteristics. The hero’s mother is always a princess, his reputed father a king and her near kinsman; the circumstances of his conception are unusual, and he is also reputed to be the son of a god; at his birth, an attempt is made, usually by his father or grandfather, to kill him. The hero is spirited away by his mother, reared in a far country by lowly foster-parents; nothing is known of his childhood, but on reaching manhood, he returns home, overcomes the king, sometimes also a dragon, giant or wild beast, marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and becomes king himself.

  3. Sometimes the child is set adrift in a boat by his mother, as were Moses and Romulus; sometimes, exposed on a mountainside, as were Cyrus, Paris and Oedipus—though Oedipus is also said to have been set adrift. The later stages of the hero’s progress, his assumption of power, successful wars, and eventual tragic death, are equally constant. The myth represents a dramatic ritual in honour of the Divine Child, the fertile Spirit of the New Year. His ‘advent’, which gave its name to the rites at Eleusis near Athens, was celebrated in a sacred cave, where shepherds and cattlemen carried him by torchlight. The Spirit of the New Year, in fact, defeats the Spirit of the Old Year, marries the Earth-princess, becomes King, and is himself superseded at the close of his reign.

  4. Abraham, however, like all succeeding patriarchs who obeyed God, was spared the disgraceful end of Romulus (torn in pieces by his fellow-shepherds); of Cyrus (impaled by a Scythian queen); of Paris (killed in the fall of Troy); of Oedipus, Jason and Theseus (all dethroned and exiled). Moses, though forbidden to enter the Promised Land for his sin of smiting the rock at Marah, died nobly, earned a splendid funeral and an interment by God Himself.

  5. The only Israelite for whom almost the entire mythic sequence has been claimed was Jesus of Nazareth; yet his own people repudiated the divine parentage awarded him by Greek-speaking Christians. The Gospels make Jesus come of royal stock, his putative father being a close kinsman of his mother; shepherds worshipped him in the cave, he lay cradled in the usual winnowing-basket, astrologers saw his star in the East, King Herod murdered the infants of Bethlehem. Jesus was then spirited away across the desert, and returned incognito to Israel years later. The Apocryphal Gospels also celebrate his precocity as a child.

  6. Certain elements in the two Abraham nativity myths may be borrowed from Christian sources, though that of Cyrus told by Herodotus comes close enough to the first version—wicked king, astrologers and substituted victim. Moreover, Cyrus had been praised in Isaiah XL–XLVIII as God’s servant chosen for the destruction of Babylon and the freeing of Nebuchadrezzar’s Judaean captives; and remained a national hero in Israel even after he failed to fulfill all Isaiah’s prophecies.

  7. In the second version, Gabriel’s lacteous finger recalls the beasts—wolves, bears, mares, goats, bitches—divinely sent to suckle such heroes as Oedipus, Romulus, Hippothous, Pelias, Paris and Aegisthus; the riverside, and the murder of innocents, recall the story of Moses.

  8. A child who walks, talks and grows up soon after birth occurs in the Greek myths of Hermes and Achilles, and in the Hanes Taliesin, a Welsh Divine Child myth.

  9. That Amitlai wrapped Abraham in her own garment is understood by Near Eastern Jews as the still prevalent custom of dressing infant sons as daughters, to ward off ill-luck. In the original story, however, this garment is more likely to have been a token by which she afterwards recognized Abraham. Her qolsani ailment may stand for calcinaccio—a fever burning like a lime-kiln.

  10. The mention of Abram’s brother Haran seems to be a gloss on the text identifying him with Nahor, King of Harran (see 23. 1 and 36. 5).

  25

  ABRAHAM AND THE IDOLS

  (a) Some say that Gabriel raised the boy Abram on his shoulders and, in the twinkling of an eye, flew through the air from Ur to Babel. In the market place, Abram met his father Terah, who had fled there with Nimrod. Terah at once warned the King that his wonderworking son had pursued them to the city; and Nimrod, though greatly afraid, sent for him. Abram entered the palace, testified in a loud voice to the Living God before the whole court and, shaking Nimrod’s throne, named him a blasphemer. At this, the royal idols ranged all about fell flat on their faces, and so did the King himself. After two hours and a half, he dared raise his head and inquire faintly: ‘Was that the voice of your ever-living God?’ Abram answered: ‘No, Abram spoke, the least of His creatures.’ Nimrod then acknowledged God’s power, and let Terah depart in peace. Terah accordingly went to Harran, accompanied by Abram, Sarai and Lot.240

  (b) Others say that Abram returned to Babel full of wisdom from studying under Noah. He found his father Terah still commanding King Nimrod’s armies, and still bowing down to idols of wood and stone—twelve great ones and many lesse
r. Abram thereupon asked his mother Amitlai to kill and dress a lamb. Having set the dish before these idols, he watched whether any of them would eat. When they never moved a finger, he mocked, and said to Amitlai: ‘Could it be that the dish is too small, or the lamb lacking in savour? Pray kill three other lambs, and season them more delicately!’ She did so, and he offered this dish also to the idols; but again they never stirred.

  The Spirit of God came upon Abram. He took an axe and hacked them in pieces, leaving untouched only the largest; then put the axe into its hand and went away. Terah had heard the noise and, running into the hall, saw what destruction his son had made. He sent for Abram and cried angrily: ‘What is this?’

  Abram answered: ‘I offered food to your idols; doubtless they have quarrelled over it. Has not the largest of them hacked the lesser ones in pieces?’

  Terah said: ‘Do not deceive me! These are images of wood and stone, fashioned by the hand of man.’

  Abram asked: ‘If so, how can they eat the food that you offer them daily? Or how can they answer your prayers?’ He then preached the Living God, reminding Terah of the Deluge, God’s punishment for wickedness. While Terah doubted what answer to make, Abram caught up the axe, and hacked the surviving idol in pieces.

  Terah thereupon denounced Abram to King Nimrod, who at once imprisoned him. Afterwards, when the astrologers recognized Abram as the destined Emperor, Nimrod ordered him and Haran, his brother, to be thrown bound into a fiery furnace. Flames soon consumed the twelve men chosen for this task, and also Haran, who was an unbeliever; but Abram stood unhurt with his garments unsinged, though fire had scorched away the ropes that bound him. Nimrod cried to his remaining guards: ‘Cast this felon into the furnace, or you shall all die!’ But they lamented, crying: ‘Would the King condemn us to be burned, as were our comrades?’