The Destiny Project: Episode #15 Camels and Philistines

In this episode, Rabbi Reinman defends the authenticity of the biblical narratives and investigates the identity and origin of the Philistines.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Camels and Philistines
In this chapter, we will focus on the first fifty years of Abraham’s presence in Canaan and its environs and examine some of the arguments of the Bibliophobes against the authenticity of the narrative. I refer to these academics as Bibliophobes. A bibliophobe is someone who fears and hates books. A capitalized Bibliophobe fears and hates the Bible. Before we present the arguments and their refutation, we will summarize briefly the events of that period.
Shortly after Abraham first arrived in Canaan, there was a famine, and Abraham and Sarah headed down to Egypt, which had abundant food. The rapacious kings in ancient times, and in modern times as well, had roving eyes and often took women that caught their attention. If those women happened to be married, they were likely to kill the husband to avoid complications.
Sarah was an extraordinary woman, exceedingly beautiful, gracious and personable, and Abraham feared that the Pharaoh, as the Egyptian kings were called, would kill him and take Sarah. He therefore asked her to present herself as his sister rather then his wife. As expected, Pharoah took Sarah, but things did not go as expected. Eventually, he discovered the subterfuge and sent husband and wife away with lavish royal gifts, including sheep, cattle, donkeys and camels.
Upon the family’s return to Canaan, Abraham and Lot parted ways. Abraham to Bethel and Lot to the Sodom area. Lot was carried off in captivity when the Babylonian kings sacked Sodom, and Abraham came to his rescue, as described in the previous chapter.
Abraham and Sarah were childless for many years. Ten years after they arrived in Canaan, Sarah presented her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to Abraham and said, “God has prevented me from giving birth. Take my maidservant. Maybe I will be built up through her.” Abraham took Hagar as a concubine, and she him a son named Yishmael, who would become the patriarch of the Arab world. Incidentally, it is interesting that Sarah gave her servant to Abraham so that “perhaps she would be built up through her.” Jacob’s wives did the same. This was a very ancient Mesopotamian custom, only recently discovered in buried cuneiform tablets. How would a later writer have known about it? This is just one of many proofs that places the time writing exactly when it claims to be…
Read full chapter and earlier chapters at www.rabbireinman.com.