And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
All Commentaries on Genesis 11:31 Go To Genesis 11
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Since, however, I have made mention of the patriarch, let us put before your good selves today’s reading, if you do not mind, so as to explain it and thus see the extraordinary degree of the good man’s virtue. “Thara [Thera],” the text says, “took his sons Abraham and Nachor, his son’s son Lot, and his daughterinlaw Sarah, his son Abram’s wife, and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran [Haran] and settled there. Thara lived two hundred and five years in Charran, and died in Charran.” Let us attend precisely to the reading, I beseech you, so as to manage to grasp the plain sense of the writings. Note, in fact, right in the beginning there seems to be a question in the words used. This blessed author—Moses, I mean—says, “Thara took Abraham and Nachor and led them from the land of Chaldea to journey into the land of the Canaanites. He went as far as Charran and settled there.” The blessed Stephen would later use the following words in praising the Jews: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Charran … and after his father died he led him there to settle.” So what does that mean? Is sacred Scripture inconsistent with itself? Not at all; rather, you need to understand from this that since the son was Godfearing, God appeared to him and called upon him to move there. His father Thara, though he happened to be a heathen, nevertheless for the affection he had for his son agreed to accompany him in his migration. He went to Charran, settled there and thus ended his life. Then it was that the patriarch moved to Canaan at God’s bidding. Of course, God did not transfer him from there until Thara passed on.
