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Haran, being 75 years old, as the scripture says again that “And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.” If therefore Abraham was born in the 70th year of Terah, which is, as stated before, the 3312th year of the world, and in the 75th year after he was born he departed from Haran by divine call, it is clear that he departed from Haran in the 145th year of Terah, which amounts to the year 3387 from Adam. For the scripture is not seen to state clearly that after the death of Terah the patriarch Abraham departed from Haran, even if it places the account of Terah's death first and then brings in that of Abraham's departure, with the sequence of the account so ordering it, and with the God-seer Moses, as He who communicated with him knows, so wisely speaking in a way better than human. Since if we were to be pedantic about this, the scripture will be found in many places to be in error, by hyperbaton saying first things last and last things first, just as in the blessings of the three sons of Noah, beginning from his middle son Japheth, and coming to the first son Shem through Ham, who was the last; and again, before speaking about the confusion of tongues and the building of the tower, at which time it was properly called Babylon because of the confusion, having said concerning Nimrod that “and the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon”; and in many other instances of hyperbaton you will find the scripture making use of them and nowhere being in error. 106 For indeed that which is proposed to us by some as a difficulty, having been said by the divine Luke as from the protomartyr Stephen to the Jews, that “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him: ‘Depart from your country and from your kindred, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, after his father died, He removed him to this land in which you now dwell,” and that according to this account it must be one of two things, either Abraham was born according to the divine Moses in the 70th year of Terah, so as to be 135 years old at his death before the journey to the land of Canaan, or being 75 years old according to the scripture, and after the death of Terah, having journeyed from Haran to the land of Canaan according to the unerring scripture of Acts and the word of the great protomartyr and apostle Stephen, he was not 75 years old, but 135, if indeed Terah died at 205 years old; and in both ways, whether Genesis or Acts, as they say, is in error. And they add the solution to the difficulty, which has nothing true or plausible, that for the sake of brevity and not accuracy it is said in the scripture that Abraham and Nahor and Haran were born in the 70th year of Terah, as Terah began to beget then, since we do not even know them to be triplets. And these things, they, having supposedly raised the difficulty well, but having solved it without resource and foreign to a necessary and possible proof; and necessary, on the one hand, because both divine scriptures must be true as God-breathed, and one must confess that the patriarch Abraham was born in the 70th year of Terah and was 75 at the sojourn from Haran to the land of Canaan, necessarily and fixedly. And the possible is also contained in the necessary. Therefore, even “after the death of Terah” it is possible for it to be so, clearly, for those wishing to hunt for the scriptural meaning set before them and who understand the spiritual death, that he had died before the physical one because of his gaping towards idolatry and sordid gain, being an idol-maker, and not journeying with Abraham, but having set out for this purpose, as it is written that “And Terah took 107 Abraham and Nahor and Lot and Sarai and brought them out of the country of the Chaldeans to go to the land of the Canaanites; and he came to Haran and dwelt there”; but having changed his mind, he stayed in Haran, which was full of idols, until the 205th year of his life, in which he also died

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Χαρρὰν οεʹ ἔτος ἄγων, ὥς φησι πάλιν ἡ γραφὴ ὅτι «Ἀβραὰμ δὲ ἦν ἐτῶν οεʹ, ὅτε ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ Χαρράν.» εἰ τοίνυν τῷ οʹ ἔτει τοῦ Θάρα ἐγεννήθη ὁ Ἀβραάμ, ὅπερ ἐστίν, ὡς πρόκειται, γτιβʹ τοῦ κόσμου ἔτει, καὶ τῷ οεʹ ἔτει μετὰ τὸ γεννηθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ Χαρρὰν θείᾳ προσκλήσει, φανερόν ἐστιν ὅτι τῷ ρμεʹ ἔτει τοῦ Θάρα ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ Χαρράν, ὅπερ συνάγεται ἔτος ἀπὸ Ἀδὰμ γτπζʹ. οὐ γὰρ φαί νεται ἡ γραφὴ τρανῶς φάσκουσα ὅτι μετὰ θάνατον τοῦ Θάρα ἐξῆλθεν ὁ πατριάρχης Ἀβραὰμ ἐκ Χαρράν, εἰ καὶ τὸν περὶ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ Θάρα λόγον προτάττει καὶ οὕτως ἐπάγει τὸ περὶ τῆς ἐξόδου τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, οὕτω τῆς συνεχείας ἀπαιδευτούσης τοῦ λόγου καὶ τοῦ θεόπτου Μωυσέως, ὡς οἶδεν ὁ χρηματίζων πρὸς αὐτόν, οὕτω σοφῶς φθεγγομένου κρείττω ἢ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον. Ἐπεὶ κατὰ τοῦτο περιεργούντων ἡμῶν εὑρεθήσεται ἐν πολλοῖς ἡ γραφὴ σφαλλομένη ὑπερβατικῶς λέγουσα τὰ πρῶτα ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἔσχατα πρῶ τα, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν ταῖς εὐλογίαις τῶν τριῶν υἱῶν τοῦ Νῶε, ἀρξαμένη μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ μέσου υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰάφεθ, ἐλθοῦσα δὲ εἰς τὸν πρῶτον υἱὸν Σὴμ διὰ μέσου τοῦ Χάμ, ὃς ἦν ὕστατος· καὶ αὖθις πρὸ τοῦ εἰπεῖν περὶ τῆς συγ χύσεως τῶν γλωσσῶν καὶ τῆς οἰκοδομῆς τοῦ πύργου, ἡνίκα καὶ Βαβυ λὼν κυρίως ἐκλήθη διὰ τὴν σύγχυσιν, εἰρηκυῖα περὶ τοῦ Νεβρὼδ ὅτι «καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ Βαβυλών»· καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις δὲ πλείοσιν ὑπερβατοῖς εὑρήσεις τὴν γραφὴν χρησαμένην καὶ μηδαμοῦ σφαλλομένην. 106 τὸ γάρ τοι παρά τινων ὡς ἄπορον ἡμῖν προτεινόμενον εἰρῆσθαι τῷ θείῳ Λουκᾷ ὡς ἐκ τοῦ πρωτομάρτυρος Στεφάνου πρὸς τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ὅτι «ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης ὤφθη τῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν Ἀβραὰμ ὄντι ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίᾳ πρὶν ἢ κατοικῆσαι αὐτὸν ἐν Χαρράν, καὶ εἶπε πρὸς αὐτόν· ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς γῆν ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω. τότε ἐξελθὼν ἐκ γῆς Χαλδαίων κατῴκησεν ἐν Χαρράν. κἀκεῖθεν μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ μετῴκισεν αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν γῆν ταύτην, εἰς ἣν ὑμεῖς νῦν κατοικεῖτε», καὶ ὅτι κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον δυοῖν θάτερον ἀνάγκη εἶναι, ἢ τὸν Ἀβραὰμ γεννηθέντα κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Μωυσῆν τῷ οʹ ἔτει τοῦ Θάρα, ὡς ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτοῦ εἶναι ἐτῶν ρλεʹ πρὸ τῆς εἰς τὴν Χανανίτιδα γῆν πορείας, ἢ οεʹ ἔτος ἄγοντα κατὰ τὴν γραφήν, καὶ μετὰ θάνατον Θάρα, πορευθέντα ἐκ Χαρρὰν εἰς γῆν Χαναναίαν κατὰ τὴν τῶν πράξεων ἀψευδῆ γραφὴν καὶ τὸν λόγον τοῦ μεγάλου πρωτομάρτυρος καὶ ἀποστόλου Στε φάνου μὴ εἶναι οεʹ ἐτῶν, ἀλλ' ρλεʹ, εἴπερ σεʹ ἐτῶν τέθνηκεν ὁ Θάρα· καὶ κατ' ἄμφω τοὺς τρόπους, εἴτε τὴν Γένεσιν εἴτε τὰς πράξεις, ὥς φασιν ἐκεῖνοι, σφάλλεσθαι. προστιθέασι δὲ καὶ τὴν λύσιν τῆς ἀπορίας μηδὲν ἔχουσαν ἀληθὲς ἢ πιθανόν, ὅτι συντομίας χάριν καὶ οὐκ ἀκριβείας εἴρηται τῇ γραφῇ τῷ οʹ ἔτει τοῦ Θάρα γεγεννῆσθαι τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τὸν Ναχὼρ καὶ τὸν Ἀρράν, ὡς τότε ἀρξαμένου γεννᾶν τοῦ Θάρα, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ τριδιδύ μους αὐτοὺς ἴσμεν. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐκεῖνοι καλῶς δῆθεν ἐπαπορήσαντες, ἀπόρως δὲ ἐπιλύ σαντες καὶ ἀλλοτρίως ἀναγκαίας καὶ ἐνδεχομένης ἀποδείξεως· καὶ ἀναγ καίας μὲν ὅτι δεῖ τὰς ἄμφω θείας γραφὰς ὡς θεοπνεύστους ἀληθεύειν καὶ τῷ οʹ ἔτει τοῦ Θάρα τὸν πατριάρχην Ἀβραὰμ ὁμολογεῖν γεγεννῆσθαι καὶ οεʹ ἄγειν ἐν τῇ ἀπὸ Χαρρὰν εἰς τὴν Χαναναίαν γῆν παροικίᾳ ἀναγκαίως καὶ ἀραρότως. τῷ δ' ἀναγκαίῳ συμπεριέχεται καὶ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον. οὐκοῦν καὶ μετὰ θάνατον τοῦ Θάρα οὕτως ἔχειν ἐνδέχεται σαφῶς τοῖς βουλομένοις τὸν γραφικὸν νοῦν θηρᾶσαι προκειμένου καὶ τὸν ψυχικὸν θάνατον νοοῦσι τεθνάναι πρὸ τοῦ φυσικοῦ διὰ τὸ πρὸς εἰδωλολατρείαν κεχηνέναι καὶ αἰσχροκερδίαν, εἰδωλοποιὸν ὄντα, καὶ μὴ συμπορεύεσθαι τῷ Ἀβραάμ, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τούτῳ μὲν ἐξελθόντα, καθὼς γέγραπται ὅτι «καὶ ἔλαβε Θάρα τὸν 107 Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τὸν Ναχὼρ καὶ τὸν Λὼτ καὶ τὴν Σάρραν καὶ ἐξήγαγεν αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῆς χώρας τῶν Χαλδαίων τοῦ πορευθῆναι εἰς τὴν τῶν Χαναναίων γῆν· καὶ ἦλθεν ἕως Χαρρὰν καὶ κατῴκησεν ἐκεῖ»· μεταμεληθέντα δὲ στῆναι ἐν Χαρρὰν τῇ κατειδώλῳ ἕως τοῦ σεʹ ἔτους τῆς ζωῆς αὐτοῦ, ἐν ᾧ καὶ τέθνη