The burial place of Abraham

The cave of Machpelah, ( or The burial place of Abraham), is a place-name mentioned in the bible. It is the cave where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are believed to be buried.

According to the Old Testament, (Genesis 23:1–20 KJV), this cave is in a place called: “Hebron”.

According to the New Testament, (Acts 7:16), this cave is in a place called: “Shechem”.

Hebron or Shechem?

Hebron is not Shechem.

Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, explain more:

“The relation of the story of the burial to the Old Testament traditions is complicated. According to (the New Testament), they were all buried at Shechem in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor. According to Genesis 49: 29–32; 50:13 Jacob was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite (Gn. 23). Joseph was buried at Shechem (Jos. 24:32) in land which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor (Gn. 33:18–20). Josephus states that Jacob’s other sons (and, by implication, Jacob himself) were buried at Hebron (Jos., Ant. 2:199), and this tradition is also found in Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. There was a local tradition at Shechem that the twelve sons of Jacob were buried there. It thus appears that Stephen, (in the New Testament), differs from the Old Testament account in that he locates the tomb which Abraham bought at Shechem, not Hebron, and in that he adds the detail about the brothers of Joseph being buried there also.”.

Genesis 23:1–20 KJV:

“1And Sarah was one hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2And Sarah died in Kirjath arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a burying place amongst you. 10And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. 13And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. 17And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 18Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth.”

The burial place of Abraham is said to be in “Kiryat Arba” (Town of the Four).

Another name of this place is: “the field of Machpelah” (or the cave of Machpelah).

Here we have four key words:

1- Arba
2- Field
3- Machpelah
4- Cave

Arba (ארבע): means: Four.
Machpelah (מכפלה): according to the Targumim and the Septuagint it means “the double/διπλοῦν”
In Rabbinical Literature: The name of “Machpelah” (= “the doubled one”).

At “Al Ahsa”, there is a place called “bar Arba/بر أربع”.

“Bar/بر” in Arabic means: “leveled land” or field. [11]

“Arba/أربع” in Arabic means: “Four (4)”.

Thus, “bar Arba” can be translated as: “Field of Four”…

.. Because there are Four distinguished rocky hills, in that field.

Two of these rock-formations are “conjoined hills”, or “double-peak hill”, and this is exactly the intended contextual meaning of: “Machpelah”.

The double-peak hill contains several burial caves.

As yet, no scholar has questioned the identification of Abraham burial site with Hebron, or suggested a different location. We suggest the following:

• The identification of biblical “Hebron” with “Hebron” of the West Bank, should not be taken for granted.
• “The burial place of Abraham” needs to be looked for, in some place else, this place is “Al-Hasa” (or ELHasa).

A well-known Secret

In September 1917, Lord Francis Bertie, British Ambassador to France, received an unusual proposal from Dr M L Rothstein, a Paris-based Russian Jew. Bertie explained to the Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, that Rothstein proposed the Entente Powers should equip and organize an army ‘for the conquest of the Turkish province of El Hassa [ Al Ahsa]’, an oasis region on the east coast of modern-day Saudi Arabia, for the ‘creation of a Jewish State on the Persian Gulf’.

Rothstein sets out his proposal thus: ‘I undertake to assemble, for next spring, a Jewish fighting troop, a force of 120,000 strong men’ which would double ‘in cooperation… with the troops of the Entente’. At first glance, he admits, his plan ‘may appear unrealistic’, but this would cease ‘as soon as the first thousand men have arrived on the scene’.

The troops would gather at Bahrain and, as soon they reached 30,000, a ‘coup de main’ (swift attack) would ensue, taking the ‘Turkish province of Al Hassa, near the Persian Gulf’, which ‘will become a Jewish State (un État juif)’. He predicts an ensuing ‘state of war’ with Turkey due to the invasion. Therefore, ‘the Jewish troops will immediately enter into a campaign… until the final victory of the Entente or until their destruction’.

Besides his self-description as a ‘Russian medical doctor’ and a 1938 description by Juda Tchernoff, little is known about Rothstein. He prefaces his proposal with his family’s ‘moral qualities’ and refers to Maurice Barrès who cites Rothstein’s son, Amédée, a young Russian Zionist, in his book Les Diverses familles spirituelles de la France. Although Barrès was a famous anti-Dreyfusard and popularised French nationalism, he considered Amédée as exemplifying Jewish loyalty to France due to his patriotic death at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

The British rejected Rothstein’s plan outright, dismissing it as ‘wholly inappropriate’. Balfour’s private secretary wrote to Bertie on 3 October 1917 requesting that he reply to Rothstein, informing him that the British government could not give effect to his proposal.

*From British Library Blog.

Now, the unavoidable question is: “Why?”
Why 120,000 Jewish soldiers were ready to die for Al Ahsa?
There must be a good REASON for that!