Q&A: Biblical Criticism
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Biblical Criticism
Question
Hello Rabbi,
If you could help me with two questions that have been bothering me lately.
1. How do you reconcile the fact that we are told in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) about our forefather Abraham that in his time there were camels, which is estimated to have been about 3,800 years ago, whereas today we know from science that the camel was domesticated only about 3,200 years ago.
2. How do you reconcile the fact that on the one hand we are told about Philistines in the period of the Patriarchs, which was about 3,800 years ago, while on the other hand today we know that the Philistines arrived in the Gaza Strip only about 3,200 years ago?
Answer
- The camel question has been discussed extensively, and it turns out that we really do not "know" this. On the contrary, domesticated camels from that period have been found. This teaches you how archaeological assertions stated with certainty should be treated, especially ones based on "we haven't found any."
- I don't have information about that. It's worth asking experts who work on this. But see my comment in section 1.
Hello Joshua,
The Philistine issue can also be worked out in line with what is written in the Torah.
The Philistines mentioned in Abraham's time are not necessarily the Philistines of Saul and David (although maybe they came from the same region).
Take a look on Wikipedia at the entry "Philistines," for example the article by Professor Grintz, and from there you can explore further.
I think I also once read an article by Professor Gershon Galil that explains this issue (not sure it was him, but there was something interesting on the subject).
As for domesticated camels—they found evidence in the Mesopotamia region (the area Abraham came from with the camels) that domesticated camels were in use even long before Abraham's time. So it could be that Abraham brought that startup with him to Israel; that even fits the facts on the ground 🙂
They also found the use of domesticated camels in the Arabian deserts a very long time before Abraham, and that could explain the mention of Ishmaelites passing through the land with camels when they found Joseph in the pit. Totally plausible.