Lone Wolf and Cub - Abraham in the Ur of Chaldees - Part 6
Abraham leaves the Ur of of Chaldees
This is the sixth post in a series which outlines the structure of the story of the ancient prophet Abraham in the Ur of Chaldees. The first post in this series, which can be found here, outlines the six basic elements of this story, explains the nine sources from which these story elements were gathered, and introduces the idea of viewing this story, and its structure, as a type or model.
Up to this point, the story of Abraham in the Ur of Chaldees has been that Abraham becomes angry and frustrated with his fathers, and more specifically his immediate Father, Terah, for worshiping false idols. Abraham breaks these idols of wood, metal, and stone in a calculated act of destruction. The king of the Ur of Chaldees, and his idolatrous subjects, attempt to kill Abraham for his destruction of their idols, but he is saved by God through divine intervention. Abraham’s brother, Haran, then dies from the same destructive device from which Abraham was saved. The next, and fifth, element of this story, is that Abraham flees the Ur of Chaldees. This element also shifts the protagonist of our story, and causes me to reevaluate the entire narrative arc up to this point.
Three primary sources explain that Abraham left the Ur of Chaldees because Terah, his father, took him with him. They imply that Terah was the active agent in the exodus.
Genesis 11:31: “Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abrahm’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran and dwelt there.”
Jubilees 12:15: “Terah went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, he and his sons, to go into the land of Lebanon and into the land of Canaan.” [Jubilees, xii:15]
Jasher 13:1: “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram, and all the souls of his household and went with them from Ur Casdim to go to the land of Canaan. And when they came as far as the land of Haran they remained there, for it was exceedingly good land for pasture, and of sufficient extent for those who accompanied.”
The Book of Abraham does not say that Terah took Abraham, but that Abraham left, and his father followed him.
Abraham 2:4: “Therefore, I left the land of Ur, of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and I took Lot, my brother’s son, and his wife, and Sarai my wife; and also my father followed after me, unto the land which we denominated Haran.”
An interesting emotional note, in all of these accounts, is that Lot, the son of Abraham’s dead brother, is mentioned as a member of the party. And, that the name of the place the refugees settle, once they leave the Ur of Chaldees, they name after Lot’s dead father, Haran. I always love a place-name.
A father figure traveling into the wilderness with a child who is not his own is a popular trope in post apocalyptic and sci-fi stories. Popular, recent instances of this are: The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Logan, and God of War.
The website TV Tropes has this story element cataloged as Badass and Child Duo and explains it’s commonly referred to as the Lone Wolf and Cub trope, because of a Manga which popularized the relationship and story element.
Reading through this entry on the TV Tropes website, identifying Abraham as the Lone Wolf and Lot as the cub, provides a unique perspective to the story of Abraham in the Ur of Chaldees.
If this story we’ve been analyzing in these posts so far, were to be told in the narrative form, perhaps instead of Abraham being the main character, Lot would be the main character. In the Ur of Chaldees, Lot would watch all the things his magnificent, heroic, and stoic uncle is doing from afar with a mixture of fascination and disbelief. He would hear his parents talk disparagingly about his “crazy uncle.” He would see his uncle destroy his grandfather’s idols, get thrown in a fire, and then miraculously survive it, only to see his father die in that same fire. Lot would become lost and unsure of how to progress forward. Perhaps his parents were wrong, and his uncle was actually in the right this whole time. Abraham, in an act of kindness, would then take Lot, his dead brother’s son, with him as he flees into the wilderness.
Telling this story of Abraham from the perspective of Lot lessens the structural problem of Abraham being saved from sacrifice through divine intervention. That story point becomes less about Abraham surviving, and more about Lot’s father dying. The divine intervention then functions as a sort of talisman that Lot seeks after and moves towards in an attempt to prevent himself from finding the same fate of his father, and obtaining the same favor of protection as his uncle.
Lot becomes Percival from the Arthurian legends. He sees Abraham as Galahad having obtained a vision of the Holy Grail, and then desires it for himself. He goes on a quest to obtain this divine gift.
The realization of Lot’s quest would occur when, years in the future, Lot is warned by the Lord of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot is given the opportunity to save himself from the destruction of these two cities. Lot is saved from destruction, not by his own merits or talents, but by divine intervention. His hero’s arc is completed. He has obtained salvation by grace.
However, in a twist of irony, and in a repetition of the story cycle, his wife is incapable of not looking behind her during their moment of salvation to witness the annihilation of the two wicked cities. She turns around and is turned into a pillar of salt. Lot was ultimately able to obtain divine favor from the Lord as was his uncle, but his wife dies in the destruction of the wicked, as did his own father, Haran.
Lot thus becomes the new Lone Wolf figure with his two daughters surviving as the cub figures, and they venture into the wilderness, away from the now-destroyed metropolises. You would end story here, as this story cycle of Lot has officially ended, and this new Lone Wolf and Cub pairing does go on to take a dark turn.