CHAPTER III

ABRAHAM IN EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

For centuries students have been taught that Europe was one of late areas of the world to become civilized. Educational tradition would have us believe that Egyptians were erecting mighty temples of stone, had wide astronomical knowledge, knew how to write, thousands of years before Western Europe came to the threshold of civilization.

While Egyptians and Babylonians were arrayed in gorgeous robes and painted with cosmetics, historians would have Europe's forests sparcely populated with naked white savages. Europe's dominant place in world affairs is, we are told, a relatively new phenomenon.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

EUROPE'S EARLY HISTORY SUPPRESSED

European civilization -- and its history -- is as old as Egypt's. But it has been suppressed. Not since the close of the seventeenth century has it been allowed to be taught publicly.

It did not happen in a day. It took centuries of calculated plotting and ridicule to wipe from the pages of history the record of early Europe. Historians and theologians have conspired together to label Europe's early history as 'myth.'

Their motive is plain. If theologians and historians had allowed the early history of Europe to be taught in schools and universities, they would have had to admit the authenticity and the authority of the Bible. THAT they did not want to do.

Had they not expunged the early events of Europe every one today would be reading of the journeys of Noah, Shem, Heber, Asshur and many other Biblical heroes into Europe. Children would be reading in schools today of the early settlement of Assyrians and Chaldeans in Western Europe. They would know where the 'Ten Lost Tribes' of the House of Israel migrated.

All this has been purposely hidden. But it has not all been lost. Scattered through the writings of scholars of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are fragmentary records which unveil what really happened in Europe. In museums and libraries, in state archives are still to be found documents of hoary antiquity corroborating the Biblical record.

This chapter contains the account of one of those documents. It is a history of the Danubian Valley -- the area of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria and neighboring regions. The document is the 'Oesterreichische Chronik' -- the Austrian Chronicle. It has never before been rendered into modern English. A number of copies of the Chronicle are scattered throughout Europe. The last entry in the Chronicle is of the year 1404.

ABRAHAM IN THE AUSTRIAN CHRONICLE

The Austrian Chronicle begins its consecutive history with a man of princely birth -- none other than the patriarch Abraham! But what has Abraham to do with the history of the Danubian Valley in Europe? Very much.

The most ancient Greek name for the Danube River was the River Noe. Noe is the Greek form of the Hebrew Noah.

Noah was the patriarch of the whole human family following the flood. His patriarchal authority passed on to Shem, who superseded his older brother Japheth. In each succeeding generation the hereditary right of the firstborn was passed on from father to son. Terah was eighth in descent from Shem (Genesis 11:10-26), and the heir to Noah and Shem. Terah had, according to the Biblical record, three sons. The oldest, Haran, was born when Terah was 70 years old (Gen. 11:26). He died before his father Terah did (Gen 11:28). 'And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.' Why Haran died young will be made plain shortly from the Austrian Chronicle.

Replacing Haran as heir was Terah's second son, Abram (whose name was later changed to Abraham).

In the year 1941 God called Abraham to forsake his kindred, his country -- everything. 'Now the Lord said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee. And I will bless thee, and make thy name great ...'' (Gen. 12:1-2).

Abram had to give up his hereditary privileges. Though he was a 'mighty prince' (Gen. 23:6), he willingly forsook his inherited rights. 'So Abram went, 'declares verse 4.

Now consider the Austrian Chronicle. It begins with the birth of Abram (he is called Abraham throughout the Chronicle) under the Assyrian Count Sattan of Aligem (sect 41). (Several of the earliest geographic names in the Chronicle are otherwise unknown from contemporary records.) Abram 'took to wife Susanna from the land of Samam, the daughter of Terromant and his wife Sanyet.'

Of this union we read in Scripture: 'And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country' -- Assyria (Gen. 25:5-6).

From the Austrian Chronicle we learn that 'Abraham and Susanna had a son Achaim.' Then 'Abraham of Temonaria and Count Sattan of Aligemorum had war with each other, till Abraham was driven from the land in poverty.' It was in this war that Haran, Abram's older brother, was slain. Abram was driven out of Count Sattan's realm and fled to the Danube River Valley in 1945, according to the Chronicle. There he built a home and settled until the death of Count Sattan.

It was now 1942 -- three years after Abram fled. Abram, according to the Chronicle, took Achaim and Susanna and went to the land of Judeisapta -- 'the Jews' land' -- Palestine, according to the Bible. (The later scribes who copied the Austrian Chronicle assumed it was the Danube Valley because Jews were later settled there also.) From Palestine Abraham sent away eastward to Assyria Susanna and Achaim (in Isaac's second year). From there they journeyed to the Danubian settlement Abram made years before. The previous chapter revealed that the Danubian Valley was then under Assyrian hegemony.

The following sequence of landgraves and dukes is taken from the standard text of the 'Oesterreichische Chronik' -- the Austrian Chronicle. Variations in spelling are at times included. The lengths of reign and dates are in every case those of the Chronicle, which correctly preserves the chronology beginning three years before the call of Abram.

After the death of Peyman and Lanna, who had both been heathen, the 'Oesterreichische Chronik' records that the whole country accepted the Jewish faith! The next chapter reveals how and why it happened!