Boundaries of the Land Promised to Abraham

Genesis Apocryphon 20:33–21:22

3rd–1st Century BCE

Column 20

33Now I, Abram, grew tremendously in many flocks and also in silver and gold. I went up from Egy[p]‌t, [and] my brother’s son 34[Lot wen]t with me. Lot had also acquired for himself many flocks, and took a wife for himself from the daughters of Egy[p]t. I was encamping [with him]

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This excerpt from the Genesis Apocryphon is an expansion of Genesis 13:14–18, wherein God tells Abraham (at this point named Abram) to walk through the promised land. This provides the author the impetus to define the boundaries of this land, which, according to him, include Syria and the Arabian peninsula, where Abraham sojourned. The geography on which the author relies seems to be similar to the description of the world map in Jubilees’ account of the division of the earth between Noah’s sons.

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Ancient Jewish Literature

4th Century BCE–6th Century CE
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Biblical Narratives in Early Jewish Imagination

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