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to do at least a reasonably good job of getting good scholarship. The Chedorlaomer Tablets are
thought to be from the 6th or 7th century BC, well after the time of Hammurabi, at roughly the
time when Gen. through Deu. are thought to have come into their present form (e.g. see the
Documentary Hypothesis). While Astour's identifications of the figures these tablets refer to is
certainly open to question, he does cautiously support a link between them and Gen. 14:1.
Hammurabi is never known to have campaigned near the Dead Sea at all, although his son had.
Writes Astour, "This identification, once widely accepted, was later virtually abandoned, mainly
because Hammurabi was never active in the West." The Chedorlaomer Tablets, then, appear to
still be the closest archaeological parallel to the kings of the Eastern coalition mentioned in Gen.
14:1. The only problem is, that in all probability, they refer to kings that were from widely
separated times, having conquered Babylon in different eras. Linguistically, it seems, there is little
reason to reject the identification of Hammurabi with Amraphel, but the narrative does not make
sense in light of modern archeology when it is made. A number of scholars also say that the
connection does not make sense on chronological grounds, since it would place Abram later than
the traditional date, but on this, see the section on chronology below.
If Gen. ch. 14 is a historical romance (cf., e.g., the Book of Judith), it is possible that a writer who
lived in an exilic or post-exilic age (i.e. during or after the Babylonian Captivity), and who was
acquainted with Babylonian history, decided to enhance the greatness of Abraham by claiming his
military success against the monarchs of the Tigris and Euphrates, the high esteem he enjoyed in
Canaan, and the practical character displayed in his brief exchange with Melchizedek. The
historical section of the article Tithe deals more extensively with the historicity of the meeting
with Melchizedek.
Many scholars claim, on the basis of archaeological and philological evidence, that many stories in
the Pentateuch, including the accounts about Abraham and Moses, were written under King Josiah
(7th century BC) or King Hezekiah (8th century BC) in order to provide a historical framework for
the monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Some scholars point out that the archives of neighboring
countries with written records that survive, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., show no trace of the
stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in "Who Were
the Early Israelites?" by William G. Dever (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids,
MI, 2003). Another similar book by Neil A. Silberman and Israel Finkelstein is "The Bible
Unearthed" (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001). Even so, the Moabite Stele mentions king
Omri of Israel, and many scholars draw parallels between the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I and
the Shishaq of the Bible (1 Ki. 11:40; 14:25; and 2 Chr. 12:2-9), and between the king David of
the Bible and a stone inscription from 835 BC that appears to refer to "house of David"--although
some would dispute the last two correspondences.
Dating and historicity
Traditional dating
According to calculations directly derived from the Masoretic Hebrew Torah, Abraham was born
1,948 years after biblical creation and lived for 175 years (Genesis 25:7), which would correspond
to a life spanning from 1812 BC to 1637 BC by Jewish dating. The figures in the Book of Jubilees
have Abraham born 1,876 years after creation, and 534 years before the Exodus; the ages provided
in the Samaritan version of Genesis agree closely with those of Jubilees before the Deluge, but
after the Deluge, they add roughly 100 years to each of the ages of the Patriarchs in the Masoretic
Text, resulting in the figure of 2,247 years after creation for Abraham's birth. The Greek
Septuagint version adds around 100 years to nearly all of the patriarchs' births, producing the even
higher figure of 3,312 years after creation for Abraham's birth.
Other interpretations of Biblical chronology place Abraham's birth at 2008 AM (Anno Mundi). In
Genesis 11:32 : Abraham was the youngest son of Terah who died in Haran aged 205, in year