Editing Abraham (section)

==Historical context==
===Historicity===
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 11347 Abrams well.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[Abraham's Well]] at [[Beersheba]], Israel]]

In the early and middle 20th century, leading archaeologists such as [[William F. Albright]] and [[G. Ernest Wright]] and biblical scholars such as [[Albrecht Alt]] and [[John Bright (biblical scholar)|John Bright]] believed that the patriarchs and matriarchs were either real individuals or believable composites of people who lived in the "[[patriarchal age]]", the 2nd millennium BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bright|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VG67yLs-LAC&q=Abraham|title=A History of Israel|date=1959|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22068-6|page=93|language=en}}</ref> But, in the 1970s, new arguments concerning Israel's past and the biblical texts challenged these views; these arguments can be found in [[Thomas L. Thompson]]'s ''[[The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives]]'' (1974),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Thomas L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o91vmgEACAAJ&q=The+Historicity+of+the+Patriarchal+Narratives:+The+Quest+for+the+Historical+Abraham|title=The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham|date=1974|publisher=Gruyter, Walter de, & Company |isbn=9783110040968 |language=en}}</ref> and [[John Van Seters]]' ''[[Abraham in History and Tradition]]'' (1975).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Seters|first=John Van|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MySUQgAACAAJ&q=Abraham+in+history+and+tradition|title=Abraham in History and Tradition|date=1975|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-01792-2|archive-date=7 December 2024|access-date=13 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207061533/https://books.google.com/books?id=MySUQgAACAAJ&q=Abraham+in+history+and+tradition|url-status=live}}</ref> Thompson, a literary scholar, based his argument on archaeology and ancient texts. His thesis centered on the lack of compelling evidence that the patriarchs lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, and noted how certain biblical texts reflected first millennium conditions and concerns. Van Seters examined the patriarchal stories and argued that their names, social milieu, and messages strongly suggested that they were [[Iron Age]] creations.{{sfn|Moore|Kelle|2011|pp=18–19}} Van Seters' and Thompson's works were a [[paradigm shift]] in biblical scholarship and archaeology, which gradually led scholars to no longer consider the patriarchal narratives as historical.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moorey|first=Peter Roger Stuart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e1x9Rs_zdG8C&q=A+Century+of+Biblical+Archaeology|title=A Century of Biblical Archaeology|date=1991|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-25392-9|pages=153–154}}</ref> Some conservative scholars attempted to defend the Patriarchal narratives in the following years, but this has not found acceptance among scholars.<ref>{{harvnb|Dever|2001|p=98}}: "There are a few sporadic attempts by conservative scholars to "save" the patriarchal narratives as history, such as [[Kenneth Kitchen]] [...] By and large, however, the minimalist view of Thompson's pioneering work, ''The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives'', prevails."</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Grabbe|first=Lester L.|editor1-first=H. G. M|editor1-last=Williamson|title=Understanding the History of Ancient Israel|url=https://britishacademy.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.001.0001/upso-9780197264010-chapter-5|chapter=Some Recent Issues in the Study of the History of Israel|publisher=British Academy|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-173494-6|language=en-US|doi=10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.001.0001|quote=The fact is that we are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. When I began my PhD studies more than three decades ago in the USA, the 'substantial historicity' of the patriarchs was widely accepted as was the unified conquest of the land. These days it is quite difficult to find anyone who takes this view.|archive-date=28 March 2022|access-date=12 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328134917/https://britishacademy.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5871/bacad/9780197264010.001.0001/upso-9780197264010-chapter-5|url-status=live}}</ref> By the beginning of the 21st century, archaeologists had stopped trying to recover any context that would make Abraham, Isaac or Jacob credible historical figures.{{sfn|Dever|2001|p=98 and fn.2}}

==={{anchor|Renaming}} Origins of the narrative===
[[File:Abraham's Gate.jpg|thumb|[[Abraham's Gate|Abraham's Gate, Tel Dan, Israel]]]]
Abraham's story, like those of the other patriarchs, most likely had a substantial oral prehistory{{sfn|Pitard|2001|p=27}} (he is mentioned in the [[Book of Ezekiel]]<ref>{{Bibleverse|Ezekiel|33:24|kjv}}</ref> and the [[Book of Isaiah]]<ref>{{Bibleverse|Isaiah|63:16|kjv}}</ref>). As with [[Moses]], Abraham's name is apparently very ancient, as the tradition found in the [[Book of Genesis]] no longer understands its original meaning (probably "Father is exalted" – the meaning offered in {{Bibleverse|Genesis|17:5|KJV}}, "Father of a multitude", is a [[folk etymology]]).{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=23–24}} At some stage the [[oral tradition]]s became part of the written tradition of the [[Pentateuch]]; a majority of scholars believe this stage belongs to the Persian period, roughly 520–320 BCE.{{sfn|Ska|2009|p=260}} The mechanisms by which this came about remain unknown,{{sfn|Enns|2012|p=26}} but there are currently at least two hypotheses.{{sfn|Ska|2006|pp=217, 227–28}} The first, called Persian Imperial authorisation, is that the post-Exilic community devised the Torah as a legal basis on which to function within the Persian Imperial system; the second is that the Pentateuch was written to provide the criteria for determining who would belong to the post-Exilic Jewish community and to establish the power structures and relative positions of its various groups, notably the priesthood and the lay "elders".{{sfn|Ska|2006|pp=217, 227–28}}

The completion of the Torah and its elevation to the centre of post-Exilic Judaism was as much or more about combining older texts as writing new ones – the final Pentateuch was based on existing traditions.{{sfn|Carr|Conway|2010|p=193}} In the [[Book of Ezekiel]],<ref>{{bibleverse-nb|Ezekiel|33:24|kjv}}</ref> written during the Exile (i.e., in the first half of the 6th century BCE), [[Ezekiel]], an exile in Babylon, tells how those who remained in Judah are claiming ownership of the land based on inheritance from Abraham; but the prophet tells them they have no claim because they do not observe Torah.{{sfn|Ska|2009|p=43}} The [[Book of Isaiah]]<ref>{{bibleverse-nb||Isaiah|63:16|kjv}}</ref> similarly testifies of tension between the people of Judah and the returning post-Exilic Jews (the "[[Golah|gôlâ]]"), stating that God is the father of Israel and that Israel's history begins with the Exodus and not with Abraham.{{sfn|Ska|2009|p=44}} The conclusion to be inferred from this and similar evidence (e.g., [[Ezra–Nehemiah]]), is that the figure of Abraham must have been preeminent among the great landowners of Judah at the time of the Exile and after, serving to support their claims to the land in opposition to those of the returning exiles.{{sfn|Ska|2009|p=44}}

=== Amorite origin hypothesis ===
According to [[Nissim Amzallag]], the Book of Genesis portrays Abraham as having an [[Amorites|Amorite]] origin, arguing that the patriarch's provenance from the region of [[Harran]] as described in {{Bibleverse|Genesis|11:31|KJV}} associates him with the territory of the Amorite homeland. He also notes parallels between the biblical narrative and the Amorite migration into the [[Southern Levant]] in the [[2nd millennium BCE]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel: Insights from the Archaeological Record |last=Amzallag |first=Nissim |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-009-31478-7 |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qee-EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA76}}</ref> Likewise, some scholars like [[Daniel E. Fleming]] and Alice Mandell have argued that the biblical portrayal of the Patriarchs' lifestyle appears to reflect the Amorite culture of the 2nd millennium BCE as attested in texts from the ancient city-state of [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], suggesting that the Genesis stories retain historical memories of the ancestral origins of some of the Israelites.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions |last=Fleming |first=Daniel E. |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8028-2173-7 |pages=193–232 |editor-last=Hoffmeier |editor-first=James K. |chapter=Genesis in History and Tradition: The Syrian Background of Israel's Ancestors, Reprise |editor-last2=Millard |editor-first2=Alan R. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUcs-FQv4uIC&pg=PA193 |archive-date=5 December 2024 |access-date=22 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205133533/https://books.google.com/books?id=PUcs-FQv4uIC&pg=PA193 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Genesis |last=Mandell |first=Alice |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-108-42375-5 |pages=143–46 |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=Bill T. |chapter=Genesis and its Ancient Literary Analogues |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EpgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |archive-date=8 June 2024 |access-date=22 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608142040/https://books.google.com/books?id=-EpgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Alan Millard]] argues that the name Abram is of [[Amorite language|Amorite]] origin and that it is attested in Mari as ''ʾabī-rām''. He also suggests that the Patriarch's name corresponds to a form typical of the Middle Bronze Age and not of later periods.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Patriarchal Names in Context |journal=Tyndale Bulletin |last=Millard |first=Alan |volume=75 |issue=December |pages=155–174 |year=2024 |doi=10.53751/001c.117657 |issn=2752-7042 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Palestinian origin hypothesis===
The earliest possible reference to Abraham may be the name of a town in the [[Negev]] listed in the [[Bubastite Portal]] inscription of Pharaoh [[Sheshonq I]] (biblical [[Shishak]]), which is referred as "the Fortress of Abraham", suggesting the possible existence of an Abraham tradition in the 10th century BCE.{{sfn|McCarter|2000|p=9}}{{sfn|Hendel|2005|pp=48–49}} The orientalist [[Mario Liverani]] has proposed to see in the name Abraham the eponymous ancestor of a 13th-century BCE [[Palestine (region)|Palestinian]] [[tribe]], the Raham, mentioned in a stele of [[Seti I]] found at [[Beth-Shean]] and dating back to around 1289 BCE. The tribe probably lived in the area surrounding or close to Beth-Shean, in [[Galilee]] (the stele in fact refers to battles that took place in the area). Liverani hypothesized that the members of the tribe of Raham called themselves "sons of Raham" (''*Banu-Raham''), so that the name of their eponymous ancestor would have been "father of Raham" (''*Abu-Raham''), that being the name of the patriarch Abraham.<ref>{{cite book |title=Israel's History and the History of Israel |last=Liverani |first=Mario |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-317-48893-4 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1zfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA25}}</ref> [[Israel Finkelstein]] and [[Thomas Römer]] suggested that the oldest Abraham traditions originated in the Iron Age (monarchic period) and that they contained an [[wikt:autochthonous|autochthonous]] hero story, as the oldest biblical references to Abraham outside the book of Genesis ({{Bibleverse|Ezekiel|33|KJV}} and {{Bibleverse|Isaiah|51|KJV}}) do not have an indication of a Mesopotamian origin of Abraham and present only two main themes of the Abraham narrative in Genesis—land and offspring.<ref name=":82">{{cite journal |title=Comments on the Historical Background of the Abraham Narrative: Between "Realia" and "Exegetica" |journal=Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel |url=https://www.academia.edu/29972948 |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |issue=1 |volume=3 |pages=3–23 |last2=Römer |first2=Thomas |year=2014 |doi=10.1628/219222714x13994465496820 |archive-date=29 February 2024 |access-date=23 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229190528/https://www.academia.edu/29972948 |url-status=live }}</ref> Finkelstein and Römer considered Abraham as ancestor who was worshiped in Hebron, with the oldest tradition of him possibly being about the altar he built in Hebron.<ref name=":82" />