Page 118 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

....... . ■*—b ^bb^ yy,,w lvj dvidiuuie up me ziggurat
steps of faraway Ur of the Chaldees.

Abraham is—let us admit it—not a historical character at
all, insofar as he is not named in any contemporary document

and is first mentioned in a book admittedly written down many
hundreds of years after his time. Yet, knowing the careful way in

which genealogical and tribal-historical tradition is transmitted
by word of mouth among nonliterate peoples, we can assume
with considerable certainty that he did in fact exist and that the

main events of his life are as recorded. His date is a more diffi­
cult question. He is clearly an Amorite prince, and his life and

movements must be fitted into (or at least not be allowed to
clash with) the main stream of Amorite history. It has thus
seemed reasonable to make him a contemporary of the estab­

lishment of Amorite kingdoms along the Euphrates and of the
appearance of nomads in strength in Palestine, both of which can
be dated to the period of this chapter. (See W. F. Albright:

The Archaeology of Palestine). A later date has been suggested,
on an assumption of the complete historicity of his war with
Amraphael and an identification of Amraphael of Shinar

(Sumer) with Hammurabi of Babylon, 1792-50 b.c. (see Chap­
ter 8). This does, however, run us into quite considerable diffi­

culties of later chronology.