G. E. Wright: “One of the remarkable results of archaeological research during the period between the two Wars was the sudden emergency of the Patriarchal Age of Biblical History as one which could be fitted within an actually discernable period in the history of Western Asia.” (Expository Times 71:292)
A. Parrot: “One-hundred years ago in Mesopotamia it was discovered that history lies behind the O.T.... Today the Old Testament itself is being discovered. Who would deny today that one can understand the Canaanitish background without the Ras Shamra texts? (Discovered 1928ff.) The story of Abraham’s migration is literally supported by the Mari Tablettes.” The Nuzi tablets make frequent mention of the Habiri” and the Ben-yamia people and the Dawidus. The Benjaminites are described as first using fire-signals from towers. (Revue Histoire et Phil. Relig. 1950: 1-9.)
T. L. Woolley: “... we had been accustomed to think of Abraham as a simple dweller in tents, and find him a possible occupant of a sophisticated brick house in a city... we had really learned something about him which, as a matter of fact, literature did not tell us and we should never have guessed.” (Digging Up the Past, pp. 64-66.) “To most people this picture of the elaborate conditions of domestic life at Ur will come as a surprise and must seriously affect their conception of the patriarch.” (Excavations at Ur and the Hebrew Records, pp. 43f.)
C. H. Gordon: “The contracts from Kirkuk and nearby Nuzu confront us with biblical parallels that cluster around the Patriarchs... Abraham was of Mesopotamian origin, and his son and grandson married girls from their kin in Mitanni. At the same time, Egyptian blood was in the Patriarchal household; Hagar was an Egyptian... Canaan itself was a melting pot... The Patriarchal Hebrews enjoyed the ideal spot and the ideal time to fall heir to the rich and varied heritage of the entire ancient Near East, when Egypt and Babylonia were nearly spent, the pastoral and semi-nomadic purity of Patriarchal life saved the Hebrews from the decadence of that cosmopolitan age.” (Journal of Near Eastern Studies 13:56-59)
M. Glueck: Discovered the main road between Canaan and Sinai in 1958; the road had been lined with settlements and camp-sites in Abraham’s day, but “all of these cities were destroyed at the end of the Abra(ha)mitic period, and for the most part were not reoccupied ever again... After having discovered these Abra(ma)mitic period sites, the chapters in the Bible describing the journeys of Abraham and his people and of Chedorlaomer and his confederates across the Negeb became clear to us. It is remarkable that the Bible retained a clear memory of the existence of the Abra(ha)mitic sites in the Negeb.” (Gen. 12 & 13). In Gen. 14 when Chedorlaomer crossed the Negeb, “they destroyed all the Middle Bronze I cities in the Negeb, just as they had destroyed them along the entire length of central Transjordan... Our archaeological discoveries in the Negeb are in harmony with the general historical background of the accounts in Genesis 12, 13 & 14 dealing with Abram’s journeys into the Wilderness of Zin from Palestine to Egypt and back again, and with biblical accounts of an unsuccessful part of the Exodus described in Num. 13 and Dt. 1.” (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 100:150-5)
Though the milieu of the Patriarchal stories is completely accurate, the stories themselves are unique. G. von Rad: “The stories of the patriarchs tell of happenings which are completely without analogy.” (Expository Times 72:216.) They are unique historical events.
H.H. Rowley: “It now appears that the documents have correctly preserved the memory of customs long obsolete when they were written down,” therefore “if traditions are credible where they can be tested, there is reason to treat them with respect where they can not.” (Expository Times 71:97.)
C. H. Gordon: “The beginnings of Israel are rooted in a highly cultural Canaan where the contributions of several talented peoples (including the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and branches of the Indo-Europeans) had converged and blended. The notion that early Israelite religion and society were primitive is completely false.” (Christianity Today, Nov. 23, 1959, 133-4.)
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