ContradictionsReading order 535Bible context 2 min read
Did God call Abraham before or after he moved to Haran?
Acts explicitly dates the call before Haran, while the Genesis excerpts describe settlement and departure without dating the instruction itself.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
Leaving Haran as commanded does not date the first command after arrival there.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
God calls Abraham before he lives in Haran
And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Acts 7:2-3
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Acts 7
Abraham leaves Haran in obedience to God's instruction
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 Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Genesis 11:31
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)