Abraham — Restorer of the Ancient Order

After the earth was washed clean in 2348 B.C., Noah’s righteous family began to multiply and replenish the earth once more (Genesis 8:20). Yet over the next approximately four hundred years, the posterity of Noah gradually turned again to the ways of the men before the Flood (Joshua 24:2), (Genesis 11:4), (Genesis 11:6). The covenant faded from memory, and the world slipped once more toward corruption and idolatry. (Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3 Whiston translation).

Into this declining age Abram was born—in 1996 B.C. (Genesis 11:26). The world into which he entered was ruled by Nimrod, a man whose dominion embodied the spirit of rebellion against God (Genesis 10:8–10). It was a time of idolatry, tyranny, child sacrifice, and state-enforced worship(Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3 Whiston translation). Abraham came into mortality by divine design, appointed for an age when the faith of the fathers had nearly vanished from the earth(Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3 Whiston translation).

Although the biblical timeline provides fixed anchor points—from the Flood in 2348 B.C. through the lifetime of Abraham (1996–1821 B.C.)—archaeologists describe this same era using cultural periods such as the Early Dynastic (ca. 2900–2350 B.C.), the Akkadian Empire (ca. 2334–2154 B.C.), and the Ur III Dynasty (ca. 2112–2004 B.C.). These archaeological ranges do not align with the biblical chronology in every detail, yet they describe the very world in which Abraham lived: an age of temple-centered cities, ritual warfare, expanding empires, divine kingship, and increasing apostasy. For clarity, these cultural period dates will not be repeated throughout this section; subsequent references will cite the historians and archaeological sources directly, with this general alignment understood.

Archaeology confirms the nature of this world. The royal tombs of Ur reveal the practice of human sacrifice, containing clear evidence of mass human sacrifice associated with elite burials. The war-steles of Lagash depict ritualized conquest and the glory of slaughter. The temple complexes of Shinar show daily incense offerings to sun, moon, and star gods. Excavations at Ur record mass human sacrifice (Harriet Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, 2004). Historians describe the Akkadian Empire as a kingdom built on relentless warfare (Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). Scholars show that Mesopotamian cities offered incense daily to celestial deities (Jerrold S. Cooper, The Sumerian Temple City, Johns Hopkins University, 1993). By Abraham’s lifetime, rulers of the Ur III Dynasty were treated as gods and received offerings within their temples (Piotr Steinkeller, “The Administrative and Economic Organization of the Ur III State,” in The Sumerian World, Routledge, 2013). The world of the patriarchs was marked by ritual warfare (Samuel Noah Kramer, History Begins at Sumer, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981) and even child sacrifice among Canaanite cults, as confirmed by archaeological studies (William Dever, Did God Have a Wife?, Eerdmans, 2005).

In such a world, Abram was chosen to restore the faith of the fathers(Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.7.1 Whiston translation).. He did not invent a new religion; he recovered an ancient one—the Ancient Order, the divine family structure taught by Adam, preserved by Noah and Shem(Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1 Whiston translation)., and threatened by the rising empires of Shinar. Through Abraham, the original priesthood, covenant, and family order re-entered the world in power. The promises of God concerning posterity, priesthood, and property began again their appointed course (Book: Book of Jasher. Publisher: J.H. Parry & Company. Year: 1887. Chapter: 9, Verses: 6–7.).

Abraham’s greatness does not rest merely in founding nations or becoming the ancestral figure of the world’s largest faiths. It rests in this: he restored the first religion, the household order established in Eden and transmitted through the patriarchal line—Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, and Shem. This is the “blessing of the fathers” Abraham sought: the eternal pattern of divine family government entrusted to the righteous since the beginning (Genesis 12:1–4), (Book of Jubilees 12:1–4 R.H. Charles translation), (Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.7.1 Whiston translation).

Seeking Truth Through the Spirit

From the beginning, the people of God were commanded to seek truth through the Spirit who first revealed it. Paul taught that the gospel is understood not through “man’s wisdom,” but through the Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians 2:13. Peter added that, “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” 2 Peter 1:21. Because revelation came by the Spirit, it must likewise be interpreted by the Spirit. For this reason, the Abrahamic Family project uses the Bible as well as other credible ancient witnesses—apocryphal writings, Jewish traditions, early Christian commentaries, historical accounts, and Near Eastern records—while recognizing that every text must be judged by the Spirit, not by age alone.

For corruption in sacred writings began early. From the days of Cain onward, men altered ordinances, mingled truth with falsehood, and reshaped divine teachings to fit culture or ambition Jubilees 4:2–5. Even well-meaning scribes and teachers throughout history have sometimes presented texts according to what they saw, or what they believed others needed to hear. The task of the seeker is to discern, by the Spirit, which teachings carry the voice of God and reflect the order He established from the beginning.

Across centuries, every religious tradition has experienced division, reinterpretation, and reform. This is not a reason to abandon faith; it is part of the mortal test. In recent decades, for example, some Christians have embraced Torah observance and some from among them have restored patriarchal polygyny—concluding that churches may have misunderstood or discarded aspects of the ancient way. Such developments illustrate a simple principle: if people can be mistaken about one truth, they may also be mistaken about another. This should not shake faith; rather, it should encourage humble, Spirit-guided investigation.

Historians confirm this interpretive pattern. Leopold von Ranke noted that history is never simply recorded “as it really happened,” but shaped in the telling (Selections from History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations (1824), Universal History Lectures, Historical Essays and Studies, and On the Characters of Historical Epochs). Hayden White observed that every narrative is “emplotted” into a chosen story form, influenced by the storyteller’s worldview Tropics of Discourse, 1978. James Deetz added that historians “construct rather than reconstruct the past… and such constructions invariably reflect the values and biases” of their age (The Times of Their Lives, Anchor Books, 2000). These insights remind us that religious history, like all history, must be approached with spiritual discernment rather than blind trust in tradition.

The purpose of this project is therefore not to defend later denominations or to impose a new religious structure, but to rediscover the Ancient Order—the original covenant pattern given to Adam and preserved through the patriarchs. This order did not revolve around institutional temples, political priesthoods, or centralized church authority. It was a family order: agrarian, covenantal, patriarchal, grounded in stewardship, posterity, and priesthood passed from father to son—or, when necessary, to adopted sons Genesis 18:19. Abraham lived this pattern. Though he recognized the superior priesthood of Melchizedek, he did not join an institutional church nor submit to a human hierarchy Genesis 14:18–20; Hebrews 7:1–3. He governed his household in righteousness, lived apart from the corrupt systems of Egypt and Shinar, and built his family according to the original law of God.

For this reason, the Abrahamic Family project draws upon all credible witnesses of the earliest faith: the Bible, the Septuagint, ancient Jewish writings such as Jubilees and Jasher, early Christian authors including Josephus and Philo, and the archaeological record of Sumer, Akkad, Egypt, Canaan, and the broader Ancient Near East. These sources, though diverse and sometimes imperfect, collectively illuminate a consistent and ancient pattern: the family order of Adam, preserved through Noah and Shem, restored through Abraham, and prophesied to return in the last days Malachi 4:5–6, Acts 3:19–21, Isaiah 2:2–3.

Our purpose is simple: to rediscover that Ancient Order so that modern seekers may recognize its pattern, discern truth from tradition, and walk—as Abraham walked—in covenant, in righteousness, and in the light of the Spirit Isaiah 51:1–2.

References

Genesis 8:20
“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”
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Joshua 24:2
“Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.”
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Genesis 11:4
“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name…”
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Genesis 11:6
“And the LORD said… this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them…”
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3 Whiston translation
“After the Deluge, the earth was again filled with iniquity… they fell into the same course of wickedness which they had followed before.”
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Genesis 11:26
“And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.”
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Genesis 10:8–10
“And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel…”
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.9.1 Whiston translation
“The kings of Mesopotamia grew proud… and made war continually, imagining that God had given them power to rule all men.”
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.2.3 Whiston translation
“But God, being unwilling to destroy them utterly, foresaw that they would not mend their ways; and so He resolved to renew the world.”
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Harriet Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
“The Royal Cemetery at Ur provides clear evidence of mass human sacrifice associated with elite burials during the Early Dynastic III period.” — p. 68.
“The presence of retainers, soldiers, musicians, and servants buried with the ruler suggests a ritual performance in which the entire court accompanied the king or queen into the afterlife.” — p. 70.
“The temples dominated both the physical and economic landscape, controlling agricultural production and organizing labor on a massive scale.” — p. 44.
“Religion permeated every aspect of Sumerian society, and the cult was central to the identity of the city as a political and ceremonial unit.” — p. 50.
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Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East, Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.
“The Akkadian kings used warfare to expand their rule over all of Mesopotamia, presenting themselves as conquerors favored by the gods.” — p. 63.
“Naram-Sin depicted himself as a divine warrior, trampling enemies and receiving the weapons of victory from the gods.” — p. 65.
“The empire relied on continuous military campaigns, and its ideology celebrated the king’s victories as demonstrations of divine support.” — p. 67.
“Texts and monuments of the period emphasize slaughter, subjugation, and the king’s absolute power over conquered peoples.” — p. 71.
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Jerrold S. Cooper, The Sumerian Temple City, Johns Hopkins University, 1993.
“The temple was not merely a religious structure; it was the central institution of the city, overseeing land, labor, and ritual.” — p. 12.
“Offerings of food, drink, and incense were presented daily to the gods, for the maintenance of divine order and the prosperity of the community.” — p. 28.
“In the Early Dynastic and Akkadian periods, the temple household dominated economic life, employing specialized workers and controlling extensive agricultural estates.” — p. 33.
“The rituals performed in the temple were understood to sustain the cosmos itself, binding the city to the divine realm.” — p. 41.
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Piotr Steinkeller, “The Administrative and Economic Organization of the Ur III State,” in The Sumerian World, Routledge, 2013.
“In the Ur III period the king was not only the head of the state but also the supreme religious authority, receiving offerings alongside the gods.” — p. 123.
“The monarchy had assumed a sacral dimension: royal inscriptions describe the king as chosen by the gods and entrusted with maintaining cosmic order.” — p. 124.
“The great temples functioned as administrative centers, coordinating labor, land, and production for both economic and cultic purposes.” — p. 128.
“Ritual offerings presented to the king and to the gods in the same institutional context illustrate the semi-divine status of the rulers.” — p. 130.
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Samuel Noah Kramer, History Begins at Sumer, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.
“The Stele of the Vultures presents a vivid and brutal picture of Early Dynastic warfare, with decapitated enemies and vultures feeding on the slain.” — p. 75.
“Kings boasted of their victories and celebrated them in inscriptions and reliefs, emphasizing the slaughter of their foes as proof of divine favor.” — p. 77.
“Religion and warfare were closely intertwined; battles were fought under the patronage of the gods, and victory was seen as the fulfillment of divine will.” — p. 81.
“The Sumerian city-state was both a political and religious institution, ruled by a priest-king whose authority rested on his sacred office.” — p. 89.
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William Dever, Did God Have a Wife?, Eerdmans, 2005.
“Archaeology has revealed that Canaanite religion regularly included child sacrifice, practiced at open-air shrines and temple complexes.” — p. 174.
“In the Middle Bronze Age, cultic installations show clear evidence of offerings to astral deities—sun, moon, and stars—central to Canaanite worship.” — p. 182.
“The ritual objects and altars uncovered throughout Canaan demonstrate a religion saturated with incense offerings, divination practices, and ancestor veneration.” — p. 189.
“The picture that emerges is of a vibrant but often brutal religious world, one in which sacrifice, fertility rites, and magic played a dominant role.” — p. 196.
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.7.1 Whiston translation
“He (Abraham) was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God… Abram was the first to revive and reestablish it.”
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.3.1 Whiston translation
“Noah displeased with their deeds, exhorted them to reform their lives…”
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Book of Jasher. Publisher: J.H. Parry & Company. Year: 1887. Chapter: 9
6-7 “And Abram went to Noah and Shem, and he remained with them to learn the instruction of the Lord and His ways; and no man knew where Abram was, and Abram served Noah and Shem his son for many days.”
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Genesis 12:1–4
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation… 3 And I will bless them that bless thee… 4 So Abram departed… and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
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Book of Jubilees 12:1–4 R.H. Charles translation
12:1 And it came to pass in the sixth week, in the seventh year thereof… 12:2 “What help and profit have we from those idols…?” 12:3 “For there is no spirit in them… Worship them not.” 12:4 “Worship the God of heaven, who causes the rain and the dew to descend…”
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Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 1.7.1 Whiston translation
“He was a person of great sagacity…for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God, the Creator of the universe…Abram was the first to revive and reestablish it.”
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1 Corinthians 2:13
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
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2 Peter 1:21
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
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Jubilees 4:2–5 (R.H. Charles Translation)
Describes early corruption of ordinances, apostasy among the children of Adam, and the beginning of altered teachings.
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Leopold von Ranke - History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations, Preface (1824).
“History has been assigned the office of judging the past… The present work does not presume to judge the past; it narrates it as it actually happened.”
Leopold von Ranke - Universal History (Lectures).
“Every generation is equidistant from the Divinity.”
Leopold von Ranke - Historical Essays and Studies.
“The historian must be able to embrace and penetrate an age, and to understand it as it understood itself.”
Leopold von Ranke - World History (Lectures).
“Every epoch is immediate to God.”
Leopold von Ranke - On the Characters of Historical Epochs.
“History is not made by individuals alone, but by the spirit of the age.”
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Hayden White, Tropics of Discourse, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978 p 82, 83, 84, 85.
p82 “The historian arranges the events in order to disclose the arc of meaning within them.”
p83 “Every historical narrative has as its latent or manifest purpose the desire to moralize the events of which it treats. This moralizing is effected by the choice of a plot structure.”
p84 “The issue of ideology points to the fact that there is no value-neutral mode of emplotment, explanation, or even description of any field of events…”
p85 “Different conceptions of what are to count as real events are implied by different modes of emplotment.”
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James Deetz & Patricia Scott Deetz, The Times of Their Lives, Anchor Books, 2000
“History is not the past itself, but a reconstruction of the past created from the surviving evidence.” — p. 5.
“We do not reconstruct the past so much as construct it… and in doing so we inevitably reflect the values and assumptions of our own time.” — p. 6.
“All interpretation is filtered through the cultural lenses of the interpreter.” — p. 7.
“Archaeology reminds us that the record is always incomplete, and the historian must fill the gaps, consciously or not, with narrative.” — p. 10.
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Genesis 18:19
“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him…”
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Genesis 14:18–20
18 “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.”
Hebrews 7:1–3
1 “For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.”
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Malachi 4:5–6
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Acts 3:19–21
19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”
Isaiah 2:2–3
2 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” 3 “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”
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Isaiah 51:1–2
1 “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.”
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