KETURA - Abraham’s 3rd round of fatherhood

We can approximately determine when Abraham remarried after Sarah’s death and when he fathered   six more sons.

 

Remarriage: 

Abraham would not have remarried immediately on Sarah’s death for 2 reasons.

·         As her beloved husband, Abraham would have mourned her loss for some time.

 

·         Also, Isaac was still living with Abraham and continued to miss his mother until Rebecca arrived     and they wed when Isaac was age 40 (Gen.25:20) -- some 3 years after Sarah's death.

Rebecca even stayed in Sarah’s tent (Gen. 24: 67).

If Abraham had remarried during those 3 years, it would certainly have upset the still grieving Isaac (Gen. 24: 67) and led to hostility between Isaac and the new wife -- and even with Abraham: a repeat of the tense  years when Sarah and Hagar (+ Ishmael)  were rivals (Gen.16:5-9 and                  Gen 21:9-14).

So the earliest Abraham could have remarried would have been after Isaac's wedding and the young couple’s relocation to their own, new homestead.  An event that happened when Isaac was age 40      and Abraham age 140 (as Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born (Gen. 21:5)).

Consequently, Abraham would have been age 140 or 141 at the earliest for his marriage with Keturah.

Abraham fathers 6 more sons

We can also surmise the period during which the 6 sons by Keturah were born. 

Some time just before his death at age 175 (Gen.25: 7)  Abraham sent these sons of Keturah away eastward with gifts -- i.e., money and other valuables -- as their inheritance portions.

Each being left to make his own future far off elsewhere (Gen. 25:6).

As such the youngest, Shuah (Gen. 25: 2) would have had to be far older than 10 or even 15.

No responsible or caring father would have sent off Shuah unless he were a young adult, i.e., over age 20 as a minimum.

So, if Shuah were age 20 (or more) just before Abraham’s death and Abraham died at age 175, then Shuah would have been born when Abraham was 155 years old at the latest.

This means that Abraham and Keturah would have had at most 15 years (his age 140/1 to 155) to procreate six additional sons.

This is, on average, one birth every 2 ½ years or less.  A viable, if busy reproduction rate – taking into account the  9 months of pregnancy when she  would be infertile.

A testament to Abraham’s virility well past age 100: at which point he was already termed by the    Bible as in ‘old age’ (Gen. 18:11 and Gen. 21:2).

And a testament to the fecundity and biological youth of his new wife, the nubile Keturah.

 

Again, Keturah is not Hagar.