Abraham in History - The BAS Library

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Fitting the “Patriarchal Age” into a historical framework is a formidable task. The issues are complex and our ignorance profound. There is no known synchronism between a single patriarchal Biblical event and a datable occurrence recorded in extra-Biblical sources.a Egyptian dynastic lists are of no help because the Bible designates the king of Egypt simply as “Pharaoh”; this was, unfortunately, the title of all Egyptian kings—at least from the New Kingdom (16th century B.C.). Conversely, no external document has turned up that mentions any of the patriarchs or members of their family by name. True, the passage of time […]

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Footnotes

Genesis 14 is only an apparent exception since the royal names have not yet been identified with any certainty.

J. Wellhausen, Prolegomenon to the History of Ancient Israel, English translation, Meridian Library, 1957, p. 318.

Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 36 (1973), p. 10.

New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1975, $15.

Albright’s approach was honed to a fine edge in E. A. Speiser’s Genesis in the Anchor Bible series. Cyrus H. Gordon has independently insisted on the authenticity of the patriarchal traditions.

BAR, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1976, p. 42 (“The Promise of Ebla,” BAR 02:04); cf. C. H. Gordon, BAR, Vol. 3, No. 2, June 1977, p. 20 (“Where Is Abraham’s Ur?” BAR 03:02).

Horses were widely used in the Near East by the 16th century B.C.

S. Yeivin, Beth Mikra, XV (1963), pp. 15f.