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Once established in Canaan, Nicolaus of Damascus tells us that

Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land
above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldees (cited in Antiquities of the Jews, book I,
chapter VII, verse 2).

The Move to Egypt

In Canaan, Abraham and his family continued to keep God's Sabbath and holy days, a fact
brought out by Hutton Webster in Rest Days, "...the [early] Hebrews employed LUNAR SEVEN-
DAY WEEKS...which ended with special observances on the seventh day but none the less were
TIED TO THE MOON'S COURSE" (page 254).

Indeed they were!

Of this time The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia records --

The association of sabbath rest with the account of creation must have been very ancient
among the Hebrews, and it is noteworthy that no other Semitic peoples, even the Babylo-
nians, have any tradition of the creation in six days. It would appear that the primitive
Semites had FOUR CHIEF MOON DAYS, probably the first, eighth, fifteenth, and
twenty-second of each month, CALLED SABBATHS from the fact that there was a ten-
dency to end work before them so that they might be celebrated joyfully. Among the
Babylonians these seventh days through astrological conceptions became ill-omened,
while the sabbath in the middle of the month [15th] was made a day of propitiation, and
its name was construed as meaning "the day for ending the wrath of the gods." The Israel-
ites, on the other hand, made the sabbath the feasts of a living and holy God. The work of
man became symbolic of the work of God, and human rest of divine rest, so that the sab-
baths became preeminently days of rest. Since, moreover, the LUNAR MONTH had 29
or 30 days, the normal lapse of time between sabbaths was six days, although sometimes
seven or eight; and six working days were accordingly assigned to the creation, which
was to furnish a prototype for human life. THE CONNECTION OF THE SABBATH
WITH LUNAR PHASES, however, WAS [LATER] DISCARDED BY THE ISRAEL
ITES..." (pp. 135-136).

In time a severe famine ravaged the land of Canaan, compelling Abraham and his house-
hold to move temporarily to Egypt. Josephus describes for us Abraham's reputation and stature in
Egyptian society during his sojourn in the land -- an account drawn from numerous ancient
authorities:

[The Pharaoh] gave him [Abraham] leave to enter into conversation with the most learned
among the Egyptians; from which conversation his virtue and reputation became more
conspicuous than they had been before....For whereas the Egyptians were formerly ad-
dicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred rites, and were very angry
with one another on that account, Abram conferred with each one of them, and confuting
the reasons they made use of, every one for his own practices, demonstrated that such rea-

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