[Elsie]

I'm not undermining the Bible. I believe that it's absolutely true from a moral standpoint, and it provides great cultural/ anthropological insight into the lifestyle of semi-nomadic peoples in the Near East during the 9th/ 8th century B.C. However, it is not a history book, and anyone making that assumption is reading it wrong. The Hebrew Bible is an amalgam of works written at different times in the Israelites history. And most of the writings were shaped by the geopolitical/social situation occurring during the author's era more than they were an accurate representation of what happened in the past.

Ok.....

[Accygirl]

Two different ideas... The Hebrew Bible accurately reflects the life and times of the authors, but it doesn't accurately reflect the events. A scribe in Jerusalem during the late 8th century BCE wouldn't know anything about Abraham's life, but he likely thought to himself that Abraham must have lived alot like my nomadic constituents and therefore wrote Abraham's character as if he would be at home in "contemporary" Israelite surroundings.