Abraham and the Patriarchs, c. 2100–1600 BC

Estimated positions, flagged as estimates — set against the anchored empires.

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The Master Timeline

2100 BC 2000 BC 1900 BC 1800 BC 1700 BC 1600 BC THE LINE — TRADITIONAL, ESTIMATED THE EMPIRES — ANCHORED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
The Line — every position estimated The Empires — anchored dates Error bar — the dating window
  1. 1c. 2000 BCAbraham born (traditional)
  2. 2c. 1925 BCThe call; Harran to Canaan
  3. 3c. 1920 BCEgypt sojourn
  4. 4c. 1910 BCIshmael born
  5. 5c. 1897 BCIsaac born
  6. 6c. 1880 BCThe binding of Isaac
  7. 7c. 1860 BCSarah dies; Machpelah bought
  8. 8c. 1825 BCAbraham dies
  9. 9c. 1800 BCJacob and Esau born
  10. 10c. 1690 BCThe descent into Egypt
  11. 112004 BCUr falls
  12. 12c. 1894 BCBabylon founded
  13. 131792 BCHammurabi takes Babylon
  14. 14c. 1650 BCHyksos rule Lower Egypt

Each numbered marker links to its row in the event register below. Line-lane positions follow the narrative’s internal sequence hung on traditional chronology — they are estimates, and each carries an error bar — the window between the traditional chronologies (Ussher high, Seder Olam low), shifted by the narrative’s internal ages. The overlap of the bars is the honest picture: the whole lane slides together. Empire-lane bars show the ±64-year spread of the rival Mesopotamian chronology schemes (±25 for the Hyksos). Event 10’s bar runs off the chart edge and is drawn open.

The Event Register

№DateLaneEventRefs
1c. 2000 BCTHE LINE Abraham born in Ur of the Chaldees. Traditional datings range from 1996 BC (Ussher) to 1812 BC (Seder Olam); position shown is estimated. 19.1.11
2c. 1925 BCTHE LINE The call: Abram leaves Harran for Canaan, aged 75 in the text. 19.1.12
3c. 1920 BCTHE LINE Famine drives the household down to Egypt, and back. 19.1.12
4c. 1910 BCTHE LINE Ishmael born to Hagar; Abram 86 in the text. 19.1.16
5c. 1897 BCTHE LINE Isaac born to Sarah; Abraham 100 in the text. 19.1.21
6c. 1880 BCTHE LINE The binding of Isaac on Moriah. 19.1.22
7c. 1860 BCTHE LINE Sarah dies; Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah at Hebron from Ephron the Hittite — the first recorded land purchase of the line, price stated: 400 shekels of silver. 19.1.23
8c. 1825 BCTHE LINE Abraham dies at 175 in the text; Isaac and Ishmael together bury him at Machpelah. 19.1.25
9c. 1800 BCTHE LINE Jacob and Esau born to Isaac and Rebekah. 19.1.25
10c. 1690 BCTHE LINE Jacob’s house descends into Egypt under Joseph — seventy persons in the text; the patriarchal period closes. 19.1.46
112004 BCEMPIRES Ur III falls to Elam; the last Sumerian state ends. The traditional Abraham is born into the generation of this collapse. 21.1
12c. 1894 BCEMPIRES First Dynasty of Babylon founded under Sumu-abum. 21.1
131792 BCEMPIRES Hammurabi takes the throne of Babylon (middle chronology; reigns to 1750). The law-stele empire rises east of Canaan. 21.1
14c. 1650 BCEMPIRES Hyksos rule Lower Egypt (to c. 1550) — Semitic-speaking dynasts on the Nile in the era the descent narrative describes. 22.1

Reference codes read source . work . passage against the master source register — 19.1.23 is source 19 (Genesis), work 1, chapter 23. Line-lane events state what the text says (“in the text”) and are dated by traditional chronology only; the machine layer carries them as inferred-traditional. The register cites the earliest attestation, not the most familiar one.

The Sources of This Period

Numbers are master register numbers — permanent across the whole timelines project; the full register lives at the master source register.

  1. 19 · Genesis — the primary text. Traditions older; composition and redaction generally placed in the first millennium BC, reaching final form around the 6th–5th centuries BC — a thousand years and more after the traditional patriarchal dates. Earliest surviving manuscripts: Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, ~2nd century BC onward.19.1 Genesis (cited by chapter)
  2. 20 · The traditional chronologies — the systems that produce the dates: rabbinic and later Christian reckonings built from the text’s internal ages. They disagree with each other by nearly two centuries on Abraham’s birth.20.1 Seder Olam Rabbah (~2nd century AD; Abraham born 1812 BC) · 20.2 Ussher, Annales (AD 1650; Abraham born 1996 BC)
  3. 21 · Mesopotamian chronology — king lists, date lists and synchronisms anchoring the fall of Ur (2004 BC) and Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC, middle chronology; rival schemes shift these by ~64 years, stated here once rather than per event).21.1 King lists and synchronisms (composite) — composite of scholarly editions; no single text to link
  4. 22 · Egyptian chronology — king lists and the Turin Canon for the Hyksos span (~1650–1550 BC).22.1 King lists and Turin Canon (composite) — composite of scholarly editions; no single text to link
  5. 23 · MISSING: any contemporary attestation of Abraham — no inscription, document, seal or monument naming Abraham exists in any archive of the period — not at Ur, Mari or Ebla. The earliest naming is the biblical text itself, over a millennium later. This absence is the controlling fact of the period’s dating, and it is entered here as a source-register entry like any other.

Memos for This Period

Held as references, per the stream rule — the arguments live in the memos; the timeline states only what is attested and by whom.

  1. Abraham: Three Lines from One Tent — the three covenant lines out of the patriarchal house
  2. The Man of the Open Country — Genesis 16:12 and Ishmael, read against the text (event 4)
  3. The Covenant Line: Ishmael to Muhammad to Today — the Ishmael line traced forward (events 4, 8)

A Note on the Dating

This period is dated differently from every other page in this stream, and says so plainly. No contemporary attestation of Abraham exists — no inscription, document or monument; the earliest source is the book of Genesis, written down more than a thousand years after the traditional dates, and the traditional chronologies themselves disagree by nearly two centuries. So this page runs two lanes: The Line — the patriarchal narrative in its own internal sequence, every marker dashed because every position is an estimate; and The Empires — the archaeologically anchored world around it (the fall of Ur, Hammurabi’s Babylon, the Hyksos on the Nile), the fixed ruler against which the estimated lane floats. The register cites the text and the chronologies for every claim; what is missing is entered in the master register like any other source.

Format — TIMELINE-FORMAT-SPEC v1.0

This page follows the period-page format, applied to estimated material: an anchored lane and an estimated lane, every estimated marker dashed, the dating basis cited per event, and the absence of contemporary attestation entered in the master source register as a first-class entry.

House rules: every event carries numbered references, linked to the master register · the register states no interpretation as an event · estimated means flagged, not resolved · the earliest attestation is cited.