RELG 433 - Biblical Archaeology
Course Notes
Abraham and the Patriarchs
The Middle Bronze Age seems the most likely setting for the time of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel.
As you read Genesis, chapters 12-36, try to picture how that account would fit with what you now know of the archaeology of Canaan at this period.
Some archaeologists argue that the "Patriarchs" are mythological figures rather than real people; others argue that the account in Genesis does not fit with any Archaeological period.
Two of the arguments used against the Biblical account are :
- "The Land of the Philistines" is mentioned several times in Genesis, eg. Genesis 21:32, 26:2-18. However, the Philistines probably did not settle in the coastal strip of Canaan until shortly before the Israelites entered Canaan, ie. during Iron Age I.
One explanation might be that when the account in Genesis was edited, after the Israelites entered Canaan, the previous name for the coastal region was no longer in use, and people just called it the land of the Philistines, or Philistia, even though it was anachronistic. The name of the kings mentioned in Genesis, "Abimelech" - meaning "My father - King" is Semitic rather than Philistine. - Camels are mentioned, Genesis 24:10-22, 24:61-65, 31:17, 32:7, 13:15, although there is no evidence that the camel had been domesticated until later. Again, this might be an anachronism - some editor who just assumed that "flocks and herds" would include camels; or it might be that the camel had indeed been domesticated by that time, and we just haven't found the evidence yet.
I incline to the latter explanation - the Biblical account is quite precise as to the number of camels in Genesis 24:10. Camels would be more likely to be kept by nomads - who leave fewer archaeological remains - than by town dwellers, which is where most of the archaeological evidence for this period originates.
Looking back on the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages, and the civilizations of Mesopotamia, including Abraham's home town of Ur, will help us to realize that when Abraham was called to leave his "father's house" and follow where God led him, Abraham was not leaving some primitive pastoralist or nomadic society, but left a civilization which had been developing for hundreds of years, and which had reached a high level of sophistication and wealth.
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Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
