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The Historical Figure of Abraham

Research By Kerry A. Shirts

These are musings concerning the scholars' attitudes on the historical Abraham. It is not very complete, and I'll add to it as I can, but there is enough here to indicate that the case against Abraham ever existing is not an open and shut one. This is of interest to students of the Book of Abraham.

Genesis 12 - 17 is the main biblical information we have concerning the Covenant of Abraham. Abraham is essentially promised that his posterity will be as innumerable as the stars. Through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. G. Ernest Wright noted that "God's law in the covenant was not conceived as a penal burden to be borne. It was God's gracious gift to Israel that the nation... Totalitarianism was lifted from the earthly to the heavenly sphere. The law thus envisaged a security and a freedom for the individual, who was not to be unrighteously oppressed by human power."[1] He further noted that "...the relationship of God to man was conceived under these forms of covenant as possessing an eternal and universal character." In fact, "Covenant created the community which gave meaning to the individual,"[2] a concept not missed by Eugene England's recent sharp insightful book, Why the Church is as True as the Gospel.[3]

Various biblical scholars used to postulate that the items in these chapters, Genesis 12-17, were the invention of later writers, and added into the narrative much later than the actual occurrences were supposed to have happened.[4] Many scholars claimed that Abraham is merely an historical myth with no basis in reality. While Anton Jirku acknowledges that Abraham is neither pure poem (Dichtung) nor pure truth (Wahrheit), Walter Beltz simply dismisses him as fictional myth (eine mythische Person... Die Gestalt Abrahams ist eine mythische Schopfung.)[5] Other scholars have not argued so much against his historicity as to the fact that the biblical account of his life "is an inextricable tangle of history and myth."[6] We will assume, for the sake of this paper, as well as the evidence of the Book of Abraham itself, that Abraham was a real historical person in an authentic historical time, though even his dating has proven difficult.[7] Many historians and Bible scholars today, as opposed to many in the 1960's, admit that historical situations and peoples are really what the ancient authors were trying to portray or remember, rather than merely inventing them for didactic purposes.[8]

This waxing and waning of scholars' attitude to history verses myth is an interesting phenomenon. This "higher criticism" of historicity of many areas, Homer, Christ, Shakespeare, and even Abraham comes and goes as George Steiner acknowledged. He noted that "the higher criticism assumed that if a text was very ancient or had been often reproduced, it would necessarily be corrupt. We are no longer so sure."[9] The criticism against Homer, Christ and Abraham dealt with the lack of evidence as proof of the mythological aspect of these stories. Yet, for all the talk, it turns out that Troy was very real.[10] In fact, the search for Troy inevitably led to the further serious, scientific investigation that Atlantis (of all things!)was Troy with Eberhard Zangger's excellent work.[11] Granted this is a most interesting twist, the idea here is that historic reality may be behind the myths all along after all. New attitudes to ancient ideas, usually pawned off as just old myths or stories, are now determining that many ancient areas once thought of as old wives tales are actually historic verities, such as Abraham, Enoch, Moses and the Patriarchal Histories and even Jesus. Erich Auerbach's famous comparison of Homer and Abraham revealed that the Biblical narrative was based on solid historical reality with Abraham in fact, being a real individual.[12] This interplay of myth verses historic reality is an ever ongoing discussion, and there is enough new material to justify itemizing in a footnote.[13]

Endnotes

1. G. Ernest Wright, "The Faith of Israel," in The Interpreter's Bible, Abingdon Press, 1952, vol. 1, p. 382.

3. Wright, Ibid., pp. 356f, 354. See also George A. Horton, Jr., "Insights into the Book of Genesis," in Monte S. Nyman, Robert L. Millet, eds., The Joseph Smith Translation: The Restoration of Plain and Precious Things, Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1985, pp. 60-63, discussing the covenants including tithing, priesthood, and baptism, which covenants were handed down through the patriarchal lineage, from Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, and Abraham (JST Genesis 7:58, etc.

4. Eugene England, Why the Church is as True as the Gospel, Bookcraft, 1986, especially chapter 1, wherein England notes that though individuals err, and display weaknesses, living, moving, and being involved in a covenant community brings the truth through experience, nay the church (covenant community) confronts all kinds of people with the process of salvation (p. 9). What a covenant community does for people is teach how to be more open, vulnerable, gracious, and persistent, turning to each other for love, in love, rather than in judgment (p. 12). "We must be active, thoughtful, faithful, believing, truth-seeking, struggling, unified members of the body of Christ. To do so we must accept the church in two very important senses" He then notes that the church must be seen as having the authority to perform the necessary saving ordinances, which motivates to serve each other, a "redemptive schooling." (p. 14f) And see the church (the covenant community) as the instrument to help us poor bungling folks become like God. It gives us the essential schooling, "experiences with each other that can bind us together in an honest but loving community, which is the essential nurturing place for salvation." (p. 15.)

5. William F. Albright, The Biblical Period From Abraham to Ezra, Harper Torchbooks, 4th printing, 1965, p. 1. He considers that archaeological evidence brings up authenticating background to the historical narratives. "We may never be able to fix the date of Terah's migration from Ur to Harran, but there can be no doubt that a date of about the third quarter of the twentieth century B.C. would suit historical indications remarkably well," p. 2. See John H. Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology, Zondervan, 1995, p. 187-188 where he summarizes the accumulative aspect of Old Testament theology, meaning that new material and themes are constantly being rejuvinated because "it is also being added to by new revelation." (p. 187) Again, new elements were added "which draw new themes and theological movements into the larger message...the addition of the Mosaic law alongside the Abrahamic-Davidic-promise" is one such example he uses. "Each biblical writer were participants in a long line of revelation, true, but they were also recipients of additional revelation par excellence." (p. 188.) The same theme is indicated from the historical side from Baruch Halpern, The First Historians:The Hebrew Bible and History, Harper & Row, 1988, p. 3, where he claims the ancient historian/writers of the Bible, "those who wrote works recognizably historical - had authentic antiquarian intentions. They meant to furnish fair and accurate representations of Israelite antiquity."

6. Anton Jirku, Geschichte Palästina-Syriens Im Orientalischen Altertum, Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1963, p. 136; Walter Beltz, Gott und die Götter: Biblische Mythologie, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin und Weimar, 1975, p. 109, where he simply compares Abraham to Aneas both as the mythological fathers of their nations, not as historical people. Cf. Sabatino Moscati, The Face of the Ancient Orient, Anchor Books, 1962, p. 237-238 arguing for a rough historical aspect in ancient Near Eastern terms, of the biblical patriarchs. See T.R. Glover, The Ancient World, Penguin Books, reprint, 1964, pp. 184-191 for his efforts to understand how and why things happened to Moses, Abraham and others if they were not real historical persons.

7. Manfred Barthel, Was Wirklich in der Bibel Steht, translated by Mark Howson, What the Bible Really Says, Wings Books, 1992, p. 63. He also says the wealth of inconclusive archaeological evidence concerning Abraham have only deepened the historical mystery of Abraham, p. 65. The Mitanni tablets demonstrate some historical patterns that are also in the Abraham story in Genesis however, pp. 71f. Cyrus Gordon has noted the same thing with the Nuzu tablets in his "Biblical Customs and the Nuzu Tablets," in David Noel Freedman, Edward F. Campbell, eds., The Biblical Archaeological Reader, 2, Doubleday, 1964, pp. 21-33. Also Bruce Metzger, Michael D. Coogan, eds., The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 557 for historical background and patterns of cities and rulerships of Mesopotamian and Assyrian rulers.

8. Harper's Bible Dictionary, Paul J. Achtemeier, ed., Harper & Row, 1985, p. 7. Also see the discussion in Joseph Campbell, Occidental Mythology, Penguin Books, 1964, pp. 115-125. See Bruce Metzger, Michael D. Coogan, eds., The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993, pp. 4-5, for discussion of historically similar situations with other ancient nations, showing "more insistent claims of historicity..." See also G. Ernest Wright's excellent analysis, Biblical Archaeology, Westminster Press, 1957, p. 40-52. Also David Noel Freedman, Jonas C. Greenfield, eds., New Directions in Biblical Archaeology, Doubleday & Co., 1969, for impact on the history involving the ancient biblical lands via archaeology.

9. Baruch Halpern, Ibid., Frank Moore Cross, "Israelite Origins," An Interview, Bible Review, Vol. 8, #4 (Aug. 1992): 20-33; Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, Schocken Books, 1995, Preface.

10. George Steiner, "Introduction: Homer and the Scholars," in George Steiner, Robert Fagles, eds., Homer, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1962, p. 2.

11. M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus, Penguin Books, reprint, 1991 for general historicity of Homer's world; Steiner, Ibid. for various treatments and comparisons of Homer with other aspects of ancient and modern literature; Michael Grant, The Visible Past, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990, for archaeological aspects of Homer's world and how the picture is changing; Frederick M. Combellack, translated & editor, The War at Troy: What Homer Didn't Tell, by Quintus of Smyrna, University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. Tim Severin, The Ulysses Voyage, E.P. Dutton, 1987.

12. Eberhard Zangger, The Flood From Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis Legend, William Morrow & Co., 1992.

13. Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, Doubleday, 1957, "Odysseus' Scar," pp. 11f.

14. On King Arthur and the Holy Grail, Norma Lorre Goodrich, King Arthur, Harper & Row, 1986; Merlin, Harper & Row, 1988; The Holy Grail, HarperCollins, 1992; Nicolai Tolstoy, The Quest For Merlin, Little, Brown, & Co., 1986; Andrew Sinclair, The Sword and the Grail, Crown Publishers, 1992; Jean Markale, The Celts: Uncovering the Mythic and Historic Origins of Western Culture, Inner Traditions International, 1993, introduction for interplay of myth and history; On the Greek myths having an historical background, Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, 2 vols., Penguin Books, 1960, Vol. 1, Introduction; Jane Harrison, Prologomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Princeton University Press, 1991; Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Folk Religion, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972; R.B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1988 for general historical background to many puzzling things that used to be written off as just old wives tales; For serious scientific as well as musical reality behind many ancient myths of the Rig Veda, Plato, the Bible, etc., see Ernest G. McClain, The Myth of Invariance, Nicolas Hays Inc., 1976; For astronomical and historical reality behind many of the ancient myths, Giorgio Santilliana & Hertha von Derchend, Hamlet's Mill, Nonpareil Books, 1977; For excellent discussion of difference in myths as opposed to legends and stories, see Joseph Campbell, The Flight of the Wild Gander, HarperPerennial, 1990, discussing the significance of the Brothers Grimm and their lifes' work. For an approach to the Egyptian myths and the historic realities behind them, Robert Bauval, Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery, Crown Publishers, 1994; Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx, Crown Publishers, 1996; also see Paul A. Laviolette, Beyond the Big Bang: Ancient Myth and the Science of Continuous Creation, Park Street Press, 1995. Four excellent texts of Mercea Eliade discuss in detailed analysis the interplay with contemporary faith, ancient myth and historic reality, i.e., Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, Harper Torchbooks, 1975; The Myth of the Eternal Return: or Cosmos and History, Princeton University Press, 2nd paperback, 1974; Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Princeton University Press, 2nd printing, 1974; Myth and Reality, Harper Torchbooks, 1975. The literature on Jesus' historicity is simply gigantic, though we recommend for excellent reading of the issues the following: James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism, Doubleday, 1988; John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, HarperSanFrancisco, 1st paperback, 1992; Gerald O'Collins, Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus, Oxford University Press, 1995; E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus, Penguin Books, 1993; James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Messiah, The first Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins, Fortress Press, 1992; James H. Charleworth, ed., Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1992; John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, Vols. 1 & 2, Doubleday, 1994; Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus, Yale University Press, 1988; John J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Ancient Literature, Doubleday, 1995; Robert Eisenman, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians, Element Books, 1996; Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus, Viking, 1996.