Presented at
2025 Abraham and His Family Conference
Saturday, May 3 and Saturday, May 10, 2025
Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Religious Education,
Scripture Central, and FAIR Latter-day Saints
Ur of the Chaldees (Ur Kasdim in Hebrew) is generally identified with the great Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq. And yet there is not a shred of evidence which suggests this, not in the biblical text and not in the archaeological record. By contrast, the confluence of the biblical text, Jewish tradition, and collateral evidence demonstrates that Abraham’s birthplace is to be identified with Urfa in southern Turkey.
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Gary Rendsburg
Gary A. Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History and holds the rank of Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. His wide-ranging scholarship covers the history, literature, and archaeology of ancient Israel, though he also has developed a second expertise in the medieval Hebrew manuscript tradition. Prof. Rendsburg has visited all the major archaeological sites in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, plus he has worked in the world’s leading libraries, including the Vatican Library, the Bodleian Library (Oxford), the Cambridge University Library, and the Library of Congress. He has held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome), and the Getty Villa (Los Angeles).
