The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives:

The Quest for the Historical Abraham

Continuum International Publishing Group, Nov 1, 2002 - Religion - 404 pages

Archaeology seems to have become an active partner in the attempt to prove the historical truth of the Bible. Biblical archaeologists have gone to the field in search of Noah's ark or the walls of Jericho, as if the finding of these artifacts would make the events of scripture somehow more true or real. Thomas Thompson is one of the most vocal contemporary critics of biblical archaeology. His simple but powerful thesis is that archaeology cannot be used in the service of the Bible. Focusing on the patriarchal narratives—the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—he demonstrates that archaeological research simply cannot historically substantiate these stories. Going further, Thompson says that archaeological materials should never be dated or evaluated on the basis of written texts. Looking to the patriarchal narratives in Genesis, he concludes that these stories are neither historical nor were they intended to be historical. Instead, these narratives are written as expressions of Israel's relationship to God. Thomas L. Thompson is Professor of Old Testament, University of Copenhagen. His books include The Mythic Past and The Early History of the Israelite People.

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Selected pages

Introduction	1

The Names of the Patriarchs and the Patriarchal	17

Mari and the Patriarchs	52

The Early West Semites of Mesopotamia and	67

The Early West Semites in Palestine and Syria	89

End of the Twelfth Dynasty	113

EB IVMB I A Period of Amorite SemiNomadic	144

Abraham as a Caravaneer	172

The Problem of Historicity and Genesis 14	187

Nuzi and the Patriarchal Narratives	196

Genesis 1110 12 9 and the Wanderings of Abraham	298

Summary and Conclusions	315

Abbreviations	330

Bibliography	336

Index	379

Copyright

Other editions - View all

Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. Beihefte, Issue 133

Snippet view - 1974

The historicity of the patriarchal narratives: the quest for the historical ...

Thomas L. Thompson
Snippet view - 1974

Common terms and phrases

AASOR Abraham adoption ahdtuti contracts Akkadian Alalakh Amorites Amurru Ancient ANET Aramaeans Aramaic Archaeology basis BASOR Bible biblical traditions brother Byblos Canaanite century chronology clause culture cuneiform desert E. A. Speiser Early West Semitic East Eastern EB IV/MB Egypt Egyptian evidence Excavations Execration Texts Festschrift G. E. Wright Gadd 51 genealogy Genesis Glueck groups Hapiru Harran Hebrew heir historical HSS V 67 Huffmon Hyksos hypocoristic Ibid identified inheritance Inscriptions interpretation Israel IV/MB I Period Jacob JAOS Jericho Kohler Laban land MAR.TU Mari marriage MB IIA Mesopotamia Mirgissa Negev nomadic Nuzi Nuzi contracts Nuzi tablets Old Babylonian Old Testament Orientalia Palestine parallel patriarchal narratives Posener Posener texts pottery prince referred region reign seems Seters Sethe texts similar stories suggested Syria tombs Transjordan translation tribal tribes Twelfth Dynasty Ugarit Vaux W. F. Albright West Semitic names wife ZDPV

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References from web pages

JSTOR: The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest ...
The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham. Matitiahu Tsevat. Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 94, No. ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0021-9231(197512)94%3A4%3C588%3ATHOTPN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives - Wikipedia, the ...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Nwe York, ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ The_Historicity_of_the_Patriarchal_Narratives

The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: Information and ...
The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Nwe York, 1974) is a book by
www.answers.com/ topic/ the-historicity-of-the-patriarchal-narratives

Chapter 2. Bibliography
Bibliography. Ancestral Story Abraham and Jacob Cycles Joseph Cycle Unity of Genesis Special Studies. For recent translations and commentaries on Genesis, ...
www.hope.edu/ bandstra/ RTOT/ CH2/ CH2_BG.HTM

Rejection of Pascal's Wager: The Bible: A Collection of Myths and ...
A skeptic's guide to the rejection of Christian beliefs
www.geocities.com/ paulntobin/ bibleanalysis.html

REGENT COLLEGE Continuing Studies BIBL 610: BOOK STUDY: GENESIS ...
Thompson, tl, The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the. Historical Abraham. BZAW 133 (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1974). ...
www2.regent-college.edu/ cstudies_courses/ syllabi/ BIBL610.pdf

Introductions to the Old Testament
Introductions to the Old Testament: A Commentary. Ron Vince. Writing an introduction to the Old Testament is clearly an undertaking of considerable ...
www.mcmaster.ca/ mjtm/ 3-r1.htm

Abraham in History and Tradition: Part II: Abraham the Prince
Bibliotheca Sacra 135 (July-Sept. 1977) 228-37. Copyright © 1977 by Dallas Theological Seminary. Cited with permission. Abraham in. History and Tradition ...
faculty.gordon.edu/ hu/ bi/ ted_hildebrandt/ OTeSources/ 01-Genesis/ Text/ Articles-Books/ Wiseman-AbrahamPrince-BSac.pdf

The Copenhagen School: The Historiographical Issues
T. HE. C. OPENHAGEN. S. CHOOL:. T. HE. H. ISTORIOGRAPHICAL. I. SSUES*. by. Marc Brettler. A bit more than a quarter of a century has passed since the ...
journals.cambridge.org/ production/ action/ cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=287239

The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the ...
The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham. Archaeology seems to have become an active partner in the attempt to ...
www.uabooks.com/ The%20Historicity%20of%20the%20Patriarchal%20Narratives%20The%20Quest%20for%20the%20Historical%20Abr...

About the author (2002)

Thomas L. Thompson is Professor of Old Testament at the University of Copenhagen.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives

Title	The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham
Author	Thomas L. Thompson
Edition	reprint
Publisher	Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002
ISBN	1563383896, 9781563383892
Length	404 pages
Subjects	Religion › Biblical Criticism & Interpretation › Old Testament Religion / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / Old Testament

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