Bible Criticism
Hello Rabbi,
If you could help me with two questions that have been bothering me lately.
1. How do you reconcile the fact that the Bible tells us about our forefather Abraham that there were camels in his time, and this is estimated to have been about 3800 years ago, while we know today from science that the camel was domesticated only about 3200 years ago.
2. How do you reconcile the fact that on the one hand we are told about the Philistines during the patriarchal period, which was about 3800 years ago, and on the other hand we know today that the Philistines only reached the Gaza Strip about 3200 years ago?
- The camel question has been discussed extensively, and it turns out that we really don’t “know” it. On the contrary, we have found domesticated camels from that period. To teach you how to treat firm archaeological assertions, especially those based on ‘we didn’t find them.’
- I have no information about that. It’s worth asking experts who deal with this. But see my comment in section 1.
Hello Yehoshua,
The issue of the Philistines can also be sorted out with what is written in the Torah.
The Philistines mentioned in the time of Abraham are not necessarily the Philistines of Saul and David (although they may have come from the same area).
Check out the Wiki on the entry Philistines, for example the article by Professor Greentz, and you can expand from there.
I think I also once read an article by Professor Gershon Galil that explains this topic (I'm not sure it's him, but there was something interesting about it).
Regarding domesticated camels - in the Mesopotamian region (the area from which Abraham came with the camels), evidence was found that domesticated camels were used even long before the time of Abraham. So it's possible that Abraham brought this startup with him to Israel, it even fits with the facts on the ground 🙂
Domesticated camels were also found in the Arabian deserts long before Abraham, this could explain the mention of Ishmaelites traveling with camels in the land when they found Joseph in the pit. Completely reasonable.
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