Dating the Patriarchal Stories

In his review of my book, Abraham in History and Tradition, Nahum Sarna sets the context for his remarks with a brief but very helpful survey of the development of historical criticism of the Pentateuch, including literary and form criticism (see “Abraham in History,” BAR 03:04). However, he does not deal with my literary treatment of the stories of Abraham except to say that it is a return to the position of Wellhausen but “even more extreme”. Since I regard this part of the book as the most important aspect of my study, I am not entirely happy with […]