[ComtedeMaistre]

It may be possible that the "chosen-ness" of the Jews did not begin with Abraham, but with Abraham's ancestors. The ancestors of Abraham could have been chosen to give civilization and the written word to humanity.

[Claud]

It’s worth noting that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent, the homeland of very ancient Semitic languages like Akkadian. Akkadian was with Sumerian one of the two main languages of Mesopotamia.

Genesis really does read like a book of a people who were plugged in to civilization from the beginning—and the correlations like Eden/Edin and Noah/Utnapishtim seem to reinforce that.

[matthew fuller]

Thanks for posting this.

[cdcdawg]

“It may be possible that, Abraham’s ancestors could have created the world’s first civilization”

That’s not exactly a revelation, is it? If Sumer was the first, and he came from there, it sort of follows.

[BenLurkin]

The first post-diluvian civilization, probably.

[Red Badger]

Abraham, the first Jew,?........................

[Bobalu]

[Terry L Smith]

In response, to put a thumb in the eye of A-rabs, “of course they were!”

[Ben Ficklin]

Here's the video

[aimhigh]

Is the author implying that the original city of babylon wasn’t a civilization?

[Cronos]

Well Abraham was Semitic, Amorite in origin, the second wave of Semitic people from Yemen who came to Mesopotamia after the Akkadians (ancestors of the Assyrians and Babylonians). But the original Sumerians were not Semites but related to the Indus valley people and the elamites namely Dravidian Tamil peoples

[Sawdring]

Rumor has it that the Jews also domesticated the first pineapples on southern Brazil.

[ElkGroveDan]

Of course, genetic markers also exist for Irishmen, Chinese people, Indians, etc.

Not to mention penguins, earthworms, bacteria ...

[wardaddy]

The envy some Freepers have of Jews is very curious

Not something I share honestly.....

Lots of peoples sprang from Mesopotamia and not all Chaldeans took Abraham’s classic trek

This is frankly a silly hypothesis that likely has real Sephardic or Oriental Jews snickering

[BlueDragon]

Uh, nothing against Hebrews, but there is this from Ezekiel 16 ;

...Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

How much that may be figurative, or how much functional I don't know for any certainty.

[1010RD]

First, Abraham is not a Jew. A Jew is a descendant of the tribe of Judah and/or Manasseh. The other ten tribes are missing.