Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

Dating the Pentateuch: Abraham, Gerar and Beer-Sheba

De Vries understands that Abraham was born ca. 2167 BCE. According to the
Bible's chronology, he died at the age of 175 yrs.(Ge.25:7), making his date
of death ca. 1992 BCE (Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1.582 "Chronology Old
Testament," S.J. De Vries, 1992). This approximate date places Abraham in
the period known to archaeologists as Middle Bronze I, ca. 2200-2000 (p.931,
Vol.3, "Chronological Tables," Michael Avi-Yonah & Ephraim Stern,
Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1977).

We are told that Abraham had dealings with Abimelech, the king of Gerar, who
happened to be a Philistine (Ge.20:1-18; 21:22-34). Later Abimelech's men
attempt to claim the well of Beer-sheba, which we are given to believe was a
creation of Abraham and his sons.

Gerar is currently identified with Tel Haror. Excavations reveal that it was
founded during  Middle Bronze II-III, ca. 18th-16th centuries BCE. There is
no evidence suggesting that it existed in the Middle Bronze I, understood to
be Abraham's world (ABD 2.988, Eliezer D. Oren, "Gerar," 1992).

Oren noted that the Late Bronze Age town of Gerar was destroyed and
re-settled early in the Iron Age and that great quantities of Philistine
ceramics appear in this strata, suggesting it is a Philistine town in the
Early Iron period:

"Earlier occupational strata in the 12th- 11th centuries BCE
included...MASSES OF early and late types of beautifully decorated
PHILISTINE POTTERY...The rich Iron Age settlement at Tel Haror testifies to
the dynamic eastward expansion of Philistine culture from the South Coast
into the Judean Shephelah." (ABD 2.990 "Gerar")

As noted by May, Beersheba was excavated and found not to have existed in
the Patriarch's time:

"The Patriarchs...Excavations at Beersheba show no city there in their
time." (p. 108, "Archaeology and the Bible-Patriarchs," Herbert G. May, Ed.,
Oxford Bible Atlas, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, New York, [1962],
1983)

Manor noted that the earliest occupational levels at two different sites,
Bir es-Seba and Tell es-Seba (further to the east) were no older than the
Iron Age. He also noted the presence of Philistine pottery in the earliest
levels at Tell es-Seba:

"Tell es-Seba. Stratum IX. The earliest strata...The ceramic collection
associated with this level (including some shards of PHILISTINE POTTERY, and
red-slipped and hand-burnished wares) implies a date at then end of the 12th
century or early 11th century BCE." (ABD 1.642, Dale W. Manor, "Beer-Sheba")

It would appear that the archaeological evidence contradicts the notion that
Gerar and Beer-Sheba existed in Abraham's time, the Middle Bronze I (ca.
2200-2000 BCE). I am of the opinion based on the archaeological findings
that Abraham's feuds with the king of Gerar, ca. 21st century BCE, are
fairy-tales or myths created centuries after the arrival of the Philistines
(who arrived ca. 1188 BCE).

Yet, I share with Dr. Jonathan D. Safren, the notion that behind all myths
there are "kernels of truth or historicity" that can be teased out of these
stories. I understand that the "kernels of truth/historicity" underlying
Abraham and the king of Gerar are as follows:

The Israelite notion that Beersheba was founded by one of their founding
fathers (Abraham), who had to contend with Philistines, is based on the
archaeological evidence that suggests that Beer-Sheba is in fact an
Israelite creation, of the Early Iron Age. The existence of Philistine
pottery at Gerar and Beer-sheba in the earliest Iron Age levels, attests to
some kind of a Philistine presence in the area just when Beer-sheba was
being founded. So, it appears that "a real historical event is being
remembered" in the Patriarchal narrative, i.e., the presence of Philistines
at Gerar and Beer-Sheba when the latter city was founded. The Pentateuchal
narrator, evidently, transformed this "12th century BCE historical reality"
into a make-believe confrontation in the 21st century BCE and the world of
Abraham.

I thus understand that the Abraham narratives are a creation hundreds of
years after the 12th century BCE arrival of the Philistines (when memories
had forgotten just when the Philistines had arrived). As Abraham is known to
the Pre-Exilic prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, the traditions are not
later than the 8th-6th centuries BCE, but probably arose even earlier,
perhaps the Solomonic period. So, the stories about Abraham and the king of
Gerar are fiction, but they are a Pre-Exilic fiction.

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany