Abraham's Camels

Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and set out, taking with him all the bounty of his master; and he made his way to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Na-hor.  (Genesis 24:10)


Alice C. Linsley


The total worldwide population of camels is thought to be about 18 million. The camel population is divided into 2 categories: approximately 16 million Dromedary (1 hump) and 2 million Bactrian (2 humps). Hybrids of the two species were once found in Asia. These crossbred camels had one extra-long hump and were larger and stronger than either of their parents.

Beja of Sudan (Horites until the 6th century)

Camels are the perfect pack animals for treks through deserts and arid regions since they can go up to 12 days without any water. They pick their own leader and always follow the "alpha camel" and they always file in the same order. 

A Dromedary camel's fur is short and protects its body from the heat. The longer fur of the Bactrian camel may grow to about 10 inches (approx. 25 centimetres) on the animal's head, neck, and humps. All camels lose their fur in spring and grow a new coat. Without its fur the camel looks slender but a thick coat of new fur grows by autumn.

We do not know if Abraham's camels were Dromedary or Bactrian, but it is likely that they were Dromedary camels as this is the breed of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Kushan likely used Bactrian camels. Domesticated Bactrian camels had spread into southern Russia by 1700 B.C. and were used in Western Siberia by the 10th century B.C.

Camel teams consisting of approximately 70 camels are able to travel between 20 to 25 miles (about 40 kilometres) a day in desert environments. They move at a speed of about 3 miles (5 kilometres) per hour. Teams carry up to 20 tons on their backs. A large bull camel can carry up to 1323 pounds (600 kg) and smaller camels up to 882 pounds (400 kg).

Given this information, we can estimate the weight of the "bounty" carried by Abraham's camels to Padan-Aram. If all ten camels were mature bulls carrying maximun loads, the total weight of the goods delivered would have been about 13,230 pounds or 6000 kilograms.

Some commentators maintain that the mention of camels in Genesis 24 is an anachronism because camels were not domesticated at the time Abraham lived. However, camels lived within human communities as is evidenced by mention of a camel in a list of domesticated animals during in a Sumerian Lexical Text from Ugarit (1950-1600 B.C.) and reference to camel’s milk in another Old Babylonian text. Pierre Montet found a 2nd millennium stone container in the form of a camel in Egypt. Parrot uncovered a picture of the hindquarters of a camel on a jar at Mari (2000 B.C.) and found camel bones dating from about 2400 B.C.

In August 2008, a very old camel jawbone was unearthed in Syria. According to Heba al-Sakhel, head of the Syrian National Museum, the fossil is one million years old.
 
Paleontologists have evidence that members of the camel family thrived in North America about 40 million years ago. The American camel, which went extinct at the end of the last ice age, once roamed alongside woolly mammoths, dire wolves, sabertooths, and giant ground sloths.

Camels developed into distinct species before the Ice Age and moved westward across Alaska into western Asia. The two kinds of camels known today likely emerged in Asia. Smaller members of the camel family include alpacas, guanacos, llamas, and vicunas.

Today wild camels still roam parts of Mongolia. Though wild herds no longer are found in Arabia, there would have been wild Arabian camels in Abraham's day. Today camels are milked at a camel dairy in Dubai and the vitamin C rich milk is being exported to Europe.


Related reading:  Archaeology and the Patriarchs; The Beja Metalworkers; Trees in Genesis, Noah's Birds