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Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen? The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor. "It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down." The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association. The program says...

Old Testament Challenge 5 - The Most Famous Story of the Old Testament From a book By John Ortberg with Kevin & Sherry Harney On line links: Northwoods Community Church http://www.nwoods.org/storyWithChart.asp?storyid=393 Willow Creek Church http://www.willowcreek.com/resources/courses/otc/ 10/6/07 Old Testament Challenge -

Old Testament Challenge 3 – Covenants From a book By John Ortberg with Kevin & Sherry Harney On line links: Northwoods Community Church http://www.nwoods.org/storyWithChart.asp?storyid=393 Willow Creek Church http://www.willowcreek.com/resources/courses/otc/ Genesis 12 Abram begins a covenant with God. There are a variety of covenants in the Bible. There is a bilateral covenant; that is one made between equals. An example is between David and Jonathan. There are marriage covenants. There are unilateral covenants. These are made between unequal parties, between a king and his subjects. Covenants occur 285 times in the Old Testament. Genesis 15:18 The Lord cut a covenant. When people...

Nathaniel Abraham left India and moved to the United States in 1997 to pursue science. He studied biology at St. John's University in New York, where he earned his master's degree and doctorate. He developed expertise in toxicology and developmental biology pertaining to zebrafish. His academic rigor and top-notch research skills advanced his career quickly, landing him a job in 2004 at the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. By every indication, Abraham had realized his American dream: a job in the field he loved, an employer eager to sponsor a new visa, a sense of financial security, and...

“The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: From Abraham to David” (Matthew 1:1-6a)Thirty years ago, all of America was watching a television mini-series called, “Roots.” “Roots” was the story of author Alex Haley’s family, his ancestors, the generations that led up to his own life. Basically, it was a genealogy fleshed out. And it made for fascinating viewing. We humans are naturally interested in “roots,” in family histories and genealogies. A person’s family history will tell us a lot about that person--where he came from, who he is. Today we begin a series on the “roots,” the family history, of our Lord...

Foxman and Sharpton Issue Joint Statement on Symbols of Hate New York, NY, November 1, 2007….Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network, today issued the following statement regarding the series of recent displays of nooses and swastikas in our community: The recent epidemic of nooses and swastikas appearing in various places in our communities are acts of hate and are intended to intimidate and instill fear. Such acts are despicable, and we call upon all people of good will – of all races, religions and ethnicities – to...

Showing Forth the Power and Knowledge of Zion: The Wisdom of Heaven and Earth Chapter 5, part 2 of The Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People Ironically, to preserve his own life, the righteous Abraham was now being commanded to violate one of his fundamental principles, that of perfect honesty in his dealings with his fellow men, by asking Sarah to represent herself as his sister. Or was it a violation? If Jubilees is correct, which seems to be vindicated by a later statement in Genesis, Sarah was in fact his sister, the daughter of his father but through...

A lot of people are atwitter over this addition to the Thompson advisory team of former Senator Spencer Abraham. But, it is starting to look to me like a story incorrectly reported by the MSM and rolling off track from there. It just seems that there are too many conflicting reports on Abraham's role with the AP reporting that he is a new "campaign manager" but others saying Randy Enwright is. The website IsraelToday, for instance, has posted a story full of alarm over the addition of Spence to the team. Their reaction is similar to many Israel supporters here...

As a Senator, he took marching orders from James Zogby of the pan-Islamist Arab American Institute, opposing profiling of Arabs, the use of secret evidence against Muslims (at the behest of Muslim groups), attempting to repeal the Clinton counterterrorism package, refusing to fund computer tracking of student and other foreign aliens, giving millions in our tax money right to Hezbollah, and putting CAIR on the map on Capitol Hill (taking the group's officials around to meet other Senators and Members of Congress). He took campaign contributions from the relatives of Hezbollah-backed top Lebanese officials after he got the group millions...

Israeli government authorities are building a ramp to allow non-Muslims to reach the enormous platform atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The old access ramp was condemned as unsafe and torn down several years ago. The interim ramp that replaced it was designed for short-term service only. (Muslims control the Temple Mount and therefore have their own private access routes.) The new ramp is controversial. Some ramp must be built or non-Muslims will have no way to reach the Mount; but leading Israeli archaeologists say that the ramp under construction is badly placed and ought to be someplace else. This...

America’s 5th largest city, Philadelphia, ended 2006 with 406 homicides. That was the most for the “city of brotherly love” since 1997. During a December 30, 2006 press conference, District Attorney Lynne Abraham (D) vigorously complained that Mayor John Street (D) wasn’t doing anything to reduce the murder rate. Abraham accused Street of “sadly lacking” the “vision and courage” needed to effectively address Philadelphia’s soaring murder rate. Mayor Street, a few days later, retorted that if Abraham had any good ideas about how to reduce violent crime, she was welcome to advance them. The Mayor’s office opined that Abraham’s attack...

BAY CITY, Mich. -- A man who was 11 years old when he gunned down an 18-year-old man outside a Pontiac store is moving into a Bay City halfway house on Friday. Nathaniel Abraham, now 20 years old, has been in juvenile custody since his arrest nine years ago.

Alamance dealer plans to sell 13th Amendment originalThe Associated Press BURLINGTON, N.C. Published on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 An Alamance County dealer plans to auction one of 13 known original versions of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States, at the end of the month. The document will be displayed at the Times-News building this week and will be in an online auction March 30, according to Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions. Bob Raynor, president of the company, said the document has a potential value of $750,000 to $1 million. The amendment was approved Feb. 1, 1865, by...

A quiz for Catholics: What language are we speaking when we say "Amen" and "Alleluia"? (A) English. (B) Greek. (C) Latin. (D) Hebrew. The answer is (D). As St. Paul taught long ago, the gentile followers of Christ have been grafted onto the Hebraic root (see Rom. 11). Christ is the vine and we are the branches, and the vine has roots in the rich soil of the Judaic covenant and Israelite history. In one of the most inspired phrases of the 20th century, Pope Pius XI, in the course of condemning anti-Semitism, said that Christians are "spiritual Semites."...

It took Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) only a few hours to condemn Pat Robertson’s disparaging remark about Ariel Sharon, but no such rebuke was directed at Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who made an even more despicable comment about Sharon. “Yet again, Pat Robertson has made a completely outrageous, insulting and inappropriate comment,” Reid said in a statement sent to reporters at 8:24 p.m. “Prime Minister Sharon is fighting for his life. He and his family deserve our thoughts and prayers, and I hope Mr. Robertson will offer them after he apologizes." News about Robertson’s remark broke late Thursday...

NORFOLK, Va. - Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land." "God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says `This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, `No, this is mine.'" Sharon, who ordered Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year, suffered a severe stroke on Wednesday. In Robertson's broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network in...

The Reverend Pat Robertson says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke could be God's punishment for giving up Israeli territory. The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network told viewers of "The 700 Club" that Sharon was "dividing God's land," even though the Bible says doing so invites "God's enmity." Robertson added, "I would say woe to any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course." He noted that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Robertson said God's message is, "This land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone."

NORFOLK, Va. Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today, connecting Sharon's stroke to Israeli policies. Robertson said Sharon divided Israel and ... quote ... "woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU (European Nation), the United Nations, or the United States of America." The comments came on "The 700 Club," broadcast from Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach. Robertson said he considers Sharon a good friend, and that he was sad to see him so ill. Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts did not immediately return a telephone call...

The Rev. Pat Robertson said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being punished by God for dividing the Land of Israel. Robertson, speaking on the “700 Club” on Thursday, suggested Sharon, who is currently in an induced coma, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by an Israeli extremist in 1995, were being treated with enmity by God for dividing Israel. “He was dividing God’s land,” Robertson said. “And I would say, Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations or the United States of America. God says,...

As car fires (and nursery school fires, hospital fires and parish fires) still blaze in France, I’m reminded that recently, Pope Benedict XVI asked Muslim leaders to do something that many in the West have been clamoring for Muslim leaders to do: Make it very publicly clear that the kind of violence so prominent in the Islamic world is to be condemned and repudiated. One person to respond to the Pope’s call was King Abdullah of Jordan, who issued a strong statement condemning the Bronze-Age fanaticism of so many of his co-religionists, and calling for Muslims of good will to...

NEWARK, New Jersey - An American Jew was among three suspects nabbed for allegedly attempting to smuggle a missile to terror groups operating inside the United States in order to down commercial aircraft. But the smuggling attempt was in fact a sting operation orchestrated over the past 18 months by U.S., Russian and British authorities. Terrorism-related charges were leveled on Wednesday against a British arms dealer who praised Osama bin Laden and thought he was smuggling into the United States missiles, federal prosecutors announced. Two other suspected accomplices to the plot, inlcuding Yehuda Abraham, who is Jewish, face conspiracy charges,...

(AP) — Some highlights from an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in New Jersey, outlining the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States: _Investigation began in December 2001, when a "cooperating witness" or informant under federal law enforcement control began talking with the alleged arms dealer, Hemant Lakhani, about obtaining anti-aircraft guns and missiles. The witness told Lakhani he was representing a Somali group that wanted to buy one missile initially "with a purchase of a greater number of missiles to follow." _Between Dec. 2001 and Aug. 13, 2003, more than 150 conversations between Lakhani...

Copperheads "Peace Democrats" Republican Abraham Lincoln was able to win the 1860 presidential election largely because the Democratic party had torn itself into several factions and could offer no united opposition. In the North the Democrats divided into two factions- the War Democrats and the Peace Democrats. Neither group agreed with the way the Republican administration conducted the war, but the War Democrats at least supported the fight for the Union. The Peace Democrats were opposed to the war and would have accepted a negotiated peace resulting in an independent Confederacy. Most Peace Democrats were from the midwestern states of...

UR, Iraq (AFP) - Dhia Mhesen rattles off fact after fact about this ancient mud brick city, the site of a giant ziggurat and the reputed birthplace of Abraham -- the prophet revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike. "The ziggurat was the temple of the moon god," said Mhesen. "And over there is the house of Abraham. The bible calls this place Ur of the Chaldeans." Mhesen, 46, is the third generation caretaker at Ur, a 4,000 year-old city located near Nasiriyah, 375 kilometers (235 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital. The site is also known as Tell Muqayyar....

Contents IntroductionWhat is the PSM/ISM?ISM Rewriting History ACT NOW! - OPPOSE GOOGLE'S PLAN Automatically send emails opposing Google's planSign a petition Introduction According to Lee Kaplan, writing for FrontPageMagazine.com: The Internet giant Google will give news agency status to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to an anonymous source at Google. If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. … The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) are related and interconnected organizations that have one goal: the...

NOW THAT CONGRESS HAS PASSED an energy bill with incentives for the development of more nuclear power, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to robust investment in nuclear energy and a new generation of nuclear plants. Results will depend on the response of some key players, specifically Congress, the investment markets, the environmental community, and the nuclear energy industry itself.Congress included liability limitations, tax incentives, loan guarantees, and risk insurance in the recent energy bill, and these should help reduce or remove some of the biggest obstacles to new nuclear plants. Congress deserves credit, but its job...

AP Exclusive: Jane Abraham decides not to run for U.S. Senate 7/13/2005, 6:26 p.m. ET By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Jane Abraham has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, avoiding a possible showdown with the woman who defeated her husband for the seat five years ago. Abraham, 43, has talked to party officials and traveled to Michigan to meet with party activists to discuss a possible run in past months. But she told The Associated Press on Wednesday that family considerations made her decide to stay out of the race. "It is...

The July issue of Time Magazine, a "Special Issue" as they are selling it, has several segments on President Abraham Lincoln one of which is penned by the Junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. In this issue the articles ruminate on how Lincoln has been understood or misunderstood by the "ages" to which Secretary of War and one time Lincoln rival, Edwin M. Stanton, remanded him upon the President's assassination. There are 5 articles on the Civil War leader, one superfluous one on Lincoln impersonators and Obama's piece, which is termed a "viewpoint". Along with an excellent chart called "Slavery...

Poll says Stabenow holds big lead over GOP rivals 6/2/2005, 12:59 a.m. ET The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow held big leads over three declared Republican challengers and one possible rival in the 2006 election, according to a recent poll of likely Michigan voters. The first-term senator held leads of 27 percent to 29 percent in the poll of 600 people conducted May 22-26 by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA. The results have a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points either way. Michigan Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis told The Detroit News that "it is very,...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about "Father Abraham." I realized something about him that I never fully appreciated before: the incredible simplicity of his faith and relationship with God. Theologians and scholars have taken apart poor Abraham and have examined every aspect of his life minute, technical detail, wringing every last drop of meaning from every single word of his story in Genesis. While it is very important to understand and appreciate what Abraham represents in terms of our knowledge of the workings of God, we lose sight of the simplicity of his relationship with the LORD. Here is...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW) Police and prosecutors concerned with a spate of killings in the city begged the public Monday for more help identifying murderers. District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham vowed that her office will protect witnesses, even if it means sending a moving van to their home to take them to safety the day they come forward. “We cannot only move you out of the city, we can move you out of the state; we can move you across the country,” Abraham said. Within the past eight days there have been 21 homicides in Philadelphia, including three in the late-night and...

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Dateline: Washington Several unnamed, high level sources, who recently resigned from the CIA, have just provided classified audio tapes that may shock many in the conservative community. Their spokesman read a communique, which stated, in part, "...there are just some things more important than National Security. We've spent quite some time on this project, in the last few years, before that Goss character came over to mess everything up." These tapes have been authenticated by experts, as the original message cassettes from the Lincoln Administration's answering machine. While the tapes are scratchy due to extreme age, the audio is still...

Date Added:Nov 24 2004Inscribed Bricks Unearthed South of Iran Iran-11/23/2004 In the latest round of archeological excavations at the historical site of Enshan, Fars province, Iranian and American archeologists have unearthed several inscribed bricks and a seal dating back to the mid-Elamite era (1100 BC).Enshan is regarded as one of the capitals of the Elamites and is rich in cultural heritage artifacts ranging from the Elamite to the Achamenid era (3500 BC to 500 AD). Dr. Kamyar Abdi, an instructor of Dartmouth College in the United States told Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency that in the course of excavations in...

All manner of essays from the Left and Right, presented for your reading (and quoting) pleasure.. All EssaysQuotations Links to Related Topics

TEHRAN (AFP) -- One of Iran's main historical sites, the ancient Elamite capital of Susa, has been used for the secret nightly dumping of rubbish by the local municipality, a culture official in the area told AFP Tuesday. "We have filed several complaints against the municipality, but it firmly denies its workers have ever done such a thing -- even though they have been frequently spotted by our guards," said the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization in Shush, the modern name for Susa. But the official, Mahdi Qanbari, also complained that the municipality was also planning to build a...

TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND PLO: Charter denies Israel's right to exist Never changed, declares official who notes Arafat means 'armed' when he says 'struggle' Posted: April 22, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Despite claims to the contrary, the Palestinian Liberation Organization has never changed its charter declaring Israel has no right to exist, the PLO's "foreign minister" Farouk Kaddoumi said in an interview today. Speaking to the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab, the PLO official also said when Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat talks about the need to pursue the "struggle" against Israel, he is referring to the "armed...

The Administration’s talk of suspending clean air rules in three states drops crude oil and wholesale gasoline prices. Markets move slightly higher as the Dow Jones average is shuffled. Have gasoline prices peaked? Maybe. But the fact is oil and wholesale gasoline prices dropped abruptly this afternoon as the Bush Administration said it was considering suspending clean air rules for three states -- California, New York and Connecticut. The comments by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham before a Congressional hearing today knocked crude oil prices down nearly 4.1% to $34.30 and wholesale gasoline futures to $1.07, down 5.5%. Crude ended the...

Muslims publish 'Jesus' ad Campaign seeks to change hearts and minds of Americans Posted: March 24, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A controversial Islamic lobby group has published an ad in California newspapers seeking to win acceptance with the message that Muslims "respect and revere Jesus" as do Christians. The ad by the Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is headlined "More In Common Than You Think," with a photograph of the old city of Jerusalem. CAIR has launched an advertising campaign called "Islam in America," which in the wake of tensions resulting...

Christian History Corner: Why some Jews fear The PassionMel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ gives Christians the chance to disavow a shameful history of anti-Semitism.By Collin Hansen | posted 02/20/2004 The Passion of the Christ scares Abraham Foxman. The Anti-Defamation League's national director, currently cast in the role of reluctant film critic, has spent months warning anyone and everyone that The Passion will dramatically strain Christian-Jewish relations and revive age-old Christian hatred for Jews. While most Christians in the West balk at this suggestion, Foxman cannot be dissuaded. He knows the grim history. "For almost 2,000 years in Western...

President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended Remarks by the President from the USS Abraham Lincoln At Sea Off the Coast of San Diego, California THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the...

LAW OF THE LAND Decalogue dismantled Workers move Alabama monument to non-public part of judicial building Posted: August 27, 2003 10:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The fight over the Ten Commandments monument ordered removed from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building by a federal judge has come to a head as workers moved the two-ton Decalogue from its display area. It took little more than an hour for three workers and a security guard to hoist the washing machine-sized granite cube onto a dolly and scoot it out of view of television cameras to an undisclosed location. Seeking...

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."1 Avraham Avinu ("Our Father, Abraham") is terminology found frequently in Jewish and Rabbinic literature.2 It does not appear as such in the Tanakh (Old Testament). But the New Testament attests to it multiple times, in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles.3 This should not surprise us since the theological reflections, traditions and terminology of the sages and rabbis informed the Jewish views of Jesus and his first disciples.4 Abraham was considered the first proselyte to Judaism, and subsequently became the patriarch of the Jewish nation. He is esteemed...

LAW OF THE LAND 10 Commandments judge defies court order Alabama chief justice won't remove granite monument from state building Posted: July 3, 2003 3:30 p.m. Eastern By Jon Dougherty © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore vowed yesterday to keep a 2? ton granite monument depicting the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the judiciary building in Montgomery, in defiance of a federal appeals court order to have the testimonial removed. "We must defend our rights and preserve our constitution," Moore told reporters. "For the federal courts to adopt the agenda of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)...

ROME, JUNE 2, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The descendants of Abraham and the followers of Christ have much in common, notes a Vatican official. "'Mary' and 'Jesus' are expressions of the oldest Judaic biblical tradition," said Archbishop Francesco Gioia, president of the Pilgrimages to the See of Peter. "The common roots between the descendants of Abraham and the followers of Christ are greater than the differences and divergences." The archbishop was addressing the role of the Blessed Virgin in the dialogue with Judaism. He deals with the issue in the book "Mary, Mother of the Word, Model of Dialogue Between Religions," published...

In contrast to many scholars who, troubled by its contradictions and apparent errors, see the Bible as the work of a series of scribes and editors, Klinghoffer argues that the Bible should be viewed as an esoteric text that an only be comprehended in light of the oral tradition from which it emanated. Combining rigorous scholarship and interpretive ingenuity, he draws on biblical commentary and the Jewish oral tradition as preserved by sages from the Talmudic scholars to Maimonidies to explore and explain the miraculous origins of monotheism. One more thing. Klinghoffer himself is the son of Abraham -- literally....

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Illuminating the dark corners of the Bible Reading the biblical text with a liberal-democratic eye, as this Orthodox scholar has tried to do, is to adopt exactly the same tactic in reverse as those who use it to justify racism and hatred in our day Who was Abraham the Patriarch? Was he the father of monotheism, a seeker of peace and justice, the consummate man of faith? Or was he an unsavory fellow who abandoned his wife, turned his...

<p>UR, Iraq — Shortly after the 392nd U.S. Infantry Brigade captured this desolate flatland in southern Iraq, soldiers were dispatched to guard monuments and archeological sites older than the rocks themselves.</p> <p>The infantry surrounded the Ziggurat of Ur, a famous pyramid temple to the moon god Nanna, and the purported birthplace of Abraham. There was no disturbance in this sparsely populated area, but U.S. commanders decided to ensure that U.S. forces protected these sites — revered by major religions and cherished by the Iraqi people — from sabotage and vandals.</p>

UR, Iraq (AP) - This is the place where civilization arose, where an ingenious race of people irrigated fields, forged agricultural tools and devised the written word. Some 6,000 years after this glorious beginning, U.S. forces drove sophisticated machines of war through the cradle of mankind. But the fighting, which was heavy in the nearby city of Nasiriyah, spared the sand-swept ruins of Ur and the two families who remain the site's guardians and guides. "We are proud," said Dhief Nauos of his job as custodian of one of Iraq's greatest historic treasures. Five other men standing outside two humble...

Abraham and Sarah were childless. Sarah wanted a child so badly she asked Abraham to take her servant Hagar and have relations with her and thus, de facto, she could have a child that way. In the Middle East, a barren woman at that time might strip down and the newborn child would be placed on her to symbolize that she had "given birth". In this way, she would be honored by having a "child". This was apparently an attempt to practice this very thing. However, it backfired horribly. Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children,...