Abraham (אַבְרָהָם "Father/Leader of many", Standard Hebrew Avraham, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇrāhām; Arabic ابراهيم Ibrāhīm) is the patriarch of Judaism, recognized by Christianity, and the crucial prophet in Islam. A story of his life is told in the Book of Genesis and in the Quran.

Judaism, Christianity, & Islam come occasionally known as a "Abrahamic religions", because of the role Abraham plays in their holy books and beliefs. In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Abraham is described as a patriarch blessed by God (the Jewish people called him "Father Abraham"), and promised great things, father of the People of Israel through his son Isaac; the Qur'an further claims Ishmael as the father of the Arabs. Within Islam, Abraham is considered to become one of a first of the numbers of prophets sent by God. Within Christian belief, Abraham occurs as model of faith, & his intention to obey God by offer Isaac is seen as a adumbration of God's offering of his boy, Jesus.

His original title was Abram (אַבְרָם "High/Exalted father/leader", Standard Hebrew Avram, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇrām); he was the first of the Biblical patriarchs. Late inside life he went per title Abraham. there are no contemporary mention of his life, & no source sooner than Genesis mentions him, then these are hard to understand whenever he was the historical figure. Whenever he was, he probably lived between 2166 BC and 1991 BC.

Abraham in Judaism
A account of his life is encountered in the Book of Genesis, beginning in Chapter 11, at the close of a genealogy of the sons of Shem (which includes among its members Eber, the eponym of the Hebrews).

His father Terah came from Ur of the Chaldees, popularly identified only since 1927 (thanks to Sir Charles Wooley) sustaining a ancient city within southern Mesopotamia which was under the rule of the Chaldeans — although Josephus, Islamic tradition & Jewish authorities such as Maimonides wholly concur that Ur-Of-The-Khaldis was in Northern Mesopotamia (Identified by having Urartu, Urfa, and Kutha respectively). This is inside keeping using a local tradition that Abraham was born around Urfa; or even by using a nearby Urkesh, which others identify with "Ur of the Chaldees". It likewise say "Chaldees" refers to the class action of gods known as Khaldis. Abram migrated to Harran, apparently the authoritative Carrhae, on the branch of the Habor. Thence, fallowing the short stay, he, his married woman Sarai, Lot (the son of Abram's brother Haran), and everthing their followers, departed for Canaan. There are deuce conceivable Ur cities shortly from either Haran; Urthe & Urfa, a northern Ur too existence mentioned around tablets at Ugarit, Nuzi, and Ebla. These even refer to Ur, URA, & Urau (Watch BAR January 2000, web page Sixteen). Furthermore, a list of Abram's forefathers Peleg, Serug, Nahor, and Terah, entirely pop up when list of cities in the vicinity of Haran (''Harpist's Bible Lexicon'', document 373). Yahweh called Abram to go to "the land I will show you", & promised to bless him & produce him (though up to now childless) a great united states. Trusting this promise, Abram journeyed down to Shechem, and at a sacred tree (compare Gen. 25:4, Joshua 24:26, Judges 9:6) received a newly promise that a land would become given unto his seed (descendent or even descendent). With built an altar to commemorate the theophany, he removed to the spot between Bethel and Ai, where he built an additional altar & required (we.e. invoked) a title of Yahweh (Gen. 12:1-9).

On this button he dwelt for a few instance, until strife arose between his herdsmen & victims of Lot. Abram therewith proposed to Lot that it should separate, & allowed his nephew a number one guide. Lot favorite a fertile land fabrication east of the Jordan River, while Abram, when getting an additional promise from either Yahweh, moved down to the oaks of Mamre in Hebron and built an altar.

In a subsequent history of Lot & the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram appears prominently inside a passage in which he intercedes by using Yahweh in behalf of Sodom, & is promised that whenever x righteous men may become incurred in this, the city shall be preserved (18:16-33).

Caused by the famine to take refuge inside Egypt (26:11, 41:57, 42:1), Abram feared lest his married woman's beauty should wake up a evil designs of the Egyptians & thus endanger his have safety, and alleged that Sarai was his sister. This did non save her from either a Pharaoh, who took her into a royal harem & enriched Abram with herds and servants. However whilst Yahweh "plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues" Abram and Sarai left Egypt.

There is the parallel text describing a similar event at Gerar with the Philistine king Abimelech.

When Sarai was unfertile, God's promise that Abram's seed would inherit a land seemed incapable of fulfillment. His resole heir was his servant, world health organization was across his home, the certain Eliezer of Damascus (15:2). Abraham is at present promised when heir one of his have flesh. A passage recording a confirmation of the promise is remarkably solemn (understand Genesis 15).

Sarai, within accordance by owning custom, gave to Abram her Egyptian handmaid Hagar, who, whilst she noticed she was sustaining kid, presumed upon her position to a extent that Sarai, unable to survive the reproach of barrenness (cf. a story of Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:6), dealt harshly with her & forced her to flee (16:1-14). Hagar is promised that her descendent is as well many to count, & she comes back. Her boy Ishmael thus was Abram's firstborn (and Islamic doctrine holds that he was a rightful heir). Hagar & Ishmael were in time caused for good out of Abram by Sarah (chapter Twenty-one).

A title Abraham was given to Abram (& a title Sarah to Sarai) at a equivalent period when the covenant of circumcision (chapter 17), which is expert within Judaism and Islam to this day. At this instance Abraham wwhen promised non simply numbers of descendent, however descendent across Sarah specifically, likewise as a land in which he was dwelling, which was to belong to his descendent. A covenant was to exist as fulfilled across Isaac, though God promised that Ishmael would become a great united states too. A covenant of circumcision (unlike a earliest promise) was both-bilateral & mislead: in case Abraham & his descendent fulfilled their section of a covenant, Yahweh would become their God & give the children the land.

the promise of a boy to Sarah mass produced Abraham "laugh," which became a title of the boy of promise, Isaac. Sarah herself "laughs" atA idea, while Yahweh appears to Abraham at Mamre (18:1-15) &, whilst a toddler is innate, cries "God hath made me laugh; every one that heareth will laugh at me" (21:6).

Inside Genesis 18, Abraham pleads by owning God does'nt to kill Sodom, and God agrees that he would non kill a city inside case there were Fifty righteous humans in it, or possibly even 45, or Thirty, Twenty, even Decade righteous population. (Abraham's nephew Lot had been living in Sodom.)

A select few period when a birth of Isaac, Abraham was commanded by God to offer his boy higher as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah. Proceeding to obey, he was prevented by an angel as he was about to sacrifice his boy, & slew the ram which he found on the spot. As the reward for his obedience he received a second promise of a many seed & abundant prosperity (Xxii). So he returned to Beersheba. A near sacrifice of Isaac is one of the virtually all challenging, & maybe ethically troublesome, parts of the Bible.

Based on data from Josephus, Isaac is 25 years old at a period of the sacrifice or even Akedah, spell a Talmudic sages teach that Isaac is 37. Around either example, Isaac occurs as grown human, old plenty to stop a senior even Abraham (world health organization is 125 or 137 years old) from either ligature him higher experienced he wanted to resist.

A primary interest of the story okay, turns to Isaac. To his "only son" (22:2, Xii) Abraham gave entirely he got, & dismissed a sons of his odalisque to the lands outside Canaan; they were so esteem less intimately related to Isaac and his descendants (25:1-6). Understand as well: Midianites, Sheba.

Sarah died at an eld, & was buried in the Cave of Machpelah near Hebron, which Abraham had purchased, along sustaining a contiguous field, from either Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23). On this button Abraham himself was buried. Centuries in the future the grave became a place of pilgrimage and Muslims later built an Islamic mosque inside the places.

Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish united states, when their number one Patriarch, & getting a boy (Isaac), world health organization successively begat Jacob, and from either there a Twelve Tribes. To father a united states, God "tested" Abraham by having x tests, a greatest existence his willingness to sacrifice his boy Isaac. God promised a l& of Israel to his tikes, and that is the foremost claim of the Jews to Israel.

Judaism ascribes the favorite trait to every Patriarch. Abraham's was kindness. Because of this, Judaism considers kindness to become an inherent Jewish trait.

Jewish tradition teaches a origins of Abraham's monotheism. His father Terah owned the store that sold idols. Abraham, at a age of iii, began to wonder their genuineness. This culminated within Abraham destroying a few idols.

Abraham was so bring back the king, & sentenced to dying, along by owning his brother Haran, unless it recanted their position. Abraham did does'nt, & was thrown into the fire. Whenever Abraham exited unhurt, Haran likewise would does'nt recant, & was thrown into a fire. Haran, world health organization did does'nt truly imagine, died in the fire. This is hinted at inside Genesis 11:28.

Abraham so went to the city of Haran by having his father & brother. His father died there. God spoke to Abraham first, & told him of swell items He would give him in case he would leave Haran. Abraham did. He was seventy-5 when you took this period.

Abraham began a school for teaching his beliefs within God, & occasionally say he wrote the Sefer Yetzirah.

Abraham in Christianity
Abraham stands out conspicuously when a recipient of the promises (Gen. 12:2-7, 13:14-Xvii, Xv, 17, 18:17-19, 22:17-18, 24:7). In the New Testament Abraham is mentioned prominently as a human of faith (see e.g., Hebrews 11), and a apostle Paul uses him as an example of salvation by faith (in e.g. Galatians 3).

Authors of the Future Testament cite Abraham to trend lines belief in the resurrection of the dead. "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, "We are a God of Abraham, a God of Isaac, & a God of Jacob?" He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken." (Mark 12:26-27) "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "Within Isaac the seed shall become known as," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." (Hebrews 11:17-19)

A Orthodox view within Christianity is that a main promise manufactured to Abraham in Genesis 12 is that across Abraham's seed, all the population of globecome would be blessed. This promise was fulfilled across Abraham's seed, Jesus. These are as well the symptom of this promise that Christianity is open to population of completely races & non limited to the Jews.

A Roman Catholic Church calls Abraham "our father in Faith," in the Eucharistic prayer called Roman Canon, recited during Mass.

Christian tradition understands Abraham as a figure of God, & Abraham's attempt to offer Isaac is a foreshadowing of God's offering of his Son, Jesus (Gen. 22:1-14; Heb. 11:17-19). Even as Isaac carried wood for a sacrifice higher the mountain & volitionally submitted to existence offered, and so Jesus carried his Cross up the hill & allowed himself to exist as crucified.

Abraham in Islam
Abraham (knhave when Ibrahim around Islam) is very crucial to Islam, two around his own perfect when prophet & as a father of the prophet Ismail (Ishmael), his firstborn boy, world health organization is considered a Father of the Arabs. Abraham is considered one of a number one & first prophets of Islam, & is usually termed Khalil Ullah, Friend of God. (Islam regards virtually all of the Old Testament "patriarchs" as prophets of God, and hence when Muslims.) When virtually all Muslims imagine that Adam, the number one human, was the 1st Muslim (submitter to God), it always agree that Abraham was a prophet of God.

the single must assume him as a prophet to exist as a confessedly believer around Islam. a counsel where Muslims face while praying is towards a structure Prophet Ibrahim built by using his boy Ismail; the Kabaa of the Holy Mosque in Mecca. Abraham too requires an crucial role in a one of the Pillars of Islam, the Hajj, which is is a pilgrim's journey to the Holy Mosque. The a portion of the Hadj occurs as commemoration of the sacrifice of the married woman of Abraham, Hagar, for her boy Ismail, whilst Abraham got settled his married woman & boy in the vale of Mecca by God's choose to pioneer the civilization. (It was from either this civilization that a final prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was later natural)

Muslims have a specific dua that (inside occasionally traditions) it recite every day which asks God to bless each Abraham & Muhammad. Islamic prayer, Salat, that occurs five days the day, likewise includes many area that ask God for his blessings upon Abraham. Based on data from Islamic tradition, he is buried within Hebron. In the Masjid al Haram in Mecca, there is an front yard called a "station of Ibrahim" (Maqam Ibrahim مقام), which bears an impression of his footprints.

There are many information to Abraham in the Qur'an. Based on data from Quran, Abraham is the spritual father of all the believers. He is mentioned as an vertical individual world health organization was neither the polytheist nor even the Christian or the Jew (Quran 3:67). An case is such as a of these in the image below:

O , ye world health organization imagine! Bow down & prostrate yourselves , & worship a Lord , & benefit , that by chance ye could prosper & strive for Allah using the endeavor which is His best . He hath chosen the family & hath non placed upon professional people around religion any severity ; a faith of your father Abraham ( is yours ) . He hath known as smart shoppers Muslims of old period & therein ( Scripture ) , that the courier can be a witness against that you , & that ye can be witnesses against humankind . Then establish worship , pay a unfortunate due , & stick to Allah . He is your computers Protecting Friend . The blest Patron & the blest Helper. (Qur'an Twenty-two.78)

Based on data from a Qur'an, Abraham reached the guide that anything subject to disappearance may not exist as worthy of worship, & so became a monotheist (Quran 6:76-83). When within Jewish belief, Abraham's father (known as Azar within Islam) was an idol-maker, & Abraham broke his idols, turn his community to worship God instead. It so cast him into the fire, which miraculously failed to burn him (Quran 37:83-98). A easily-known however whole non-canonical Qisas al-Anbiya (Ibn Kathir) records considerably additional detail all about his life, which are then unremarkably referred to around Islamic accounts of his life[http://iisca.org/knowledge/biographies/ibrahim_1.htm].

Traditionally, Muslims imagine that it was Ishmael rather than Isaac whom Abraham was told to sacrifice. Inside trend lines of this, Muslims note that a text of Genesis, despite specifying Isaac, appears to state that Abraham was told to sacrifice his only boy ("Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac," [http://www.breslov.com/bible/ Jewish Publication Society] translation, Genesis/Bereshit 22:2) to God. Since Isaac was Abraham's 2nd boy, these are arguable there was there are no period at which he would stand been Abraham's "only son", & that this supports a Muslim belief that there wwhen an original text that must develop known as Ishmael like than Isaac as a meant sacrifice. A Qur'an itself does not specify by name which son Abraham nearly sacrificed saying only that it was his only son (Quran 37:99-111).

Likewise, unlike Jewish belief, Muslims too note that nowhere in the Qur'an does God say that it was He who told Abraham to sacrifice his son nor does God say He gave Abraham the dream of the sacrifice. A Qur'an teaches that God never advocates evil. So, these are said that for the father to slaughter his boy, is an evil that may't exist as from either either God; it can single came from Satan. What is more, Muslims state that God would non contradict Himself &, so, would non choose Abraham to commit what he prohibited, just as a end line text. Since Abraham thought a dream was from either God & he proceeded to sacrifice his boy Ismail, God sent him a lamb to become sacrificed instead, & to save Ismail & a father-boy sacred relationship. What is more, Muslims suppose that God promised to protect His righteous believers from either Satan's tricks, & he economized Abraham & his boy, Ismail, from either this precise trial. These are believed that Ibrahim's dream occurs as trial from either God. & whenever Ibrahim told his dream to Ismail, these are Ismail world health organization convinced Ibrahim to fulfill God's the correct sequence. & so this is trial for each Ibrahim, which experienced longed for the boy for good-by period, and unto Ismail. Whenever devil teased a children prior to sacrifice, Ibrahim & Ismail throw stone at the devils. This reincarnated when jumrah, one of rite in Hadj.

This entire episode of the sacrifice is look on a test that Abraham experienced to face from either God. These are celebrated by Muslims on the day of Eid ul-Adha. Muslims too guess that Abraham, along by having his boy Ishmael, rebuilt a Kaaba in Mecca (Quran 2:125).

Abraham in philosophy
Abraham, as a human communicating by having God, inspired philosophers, like a existentialists, such as Kierkegaard and Sartre. A "stress of Abraham" was the conception invented by Kierkegaard and later made by Sartre like this: God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only boy. How else does Abraham underst& that the voice he hears is really a voice of his God and non of soul else or a product of a mental affliction? So, Sartre concludes, possibly whenever there are check within the globe, these are to u.s.a., homo, to decide training interpret the babies so i am abandoned in my freedom, which is the core of existentialism. This course add up inside a context of rationalism but not inside mysticism, the foundation of each religion.

Abraham and his descendants (Biblical Perspective)
For the fully account of the historicity of Abrahamic stories in the book of Genesis, see Historicity of the Patriarchs.

Biblical tale represent Abraham as the affluent, right & supremely virgin human, however humanly flawed, & whilst afraid for himself, miscalculating, & a periodically slicker & an unconsidered married man. However his central importance in the genesis, & his portrait as a human favorite by God, is definitive. Abraham's generations (Hebrew: toledoth, translated to Greek: "Genesis") are presented when a portion of a crowning explanation of how else the world has been fashioned per h& of God, you said it the boundaries and relationships of peoples were established by him.

When a father of Isaac & Ishmael, Abraham is finally a most common ascendent of the Israelites and their neighbours. When a father of Ishmael, whose twelve sons became godforsaken princes (virtually all conspicuously, Nebaioth and Kedar), along with Midian, Sheba and other Arabian tribes (25:1-4), the genesis gives a portrait of Isaac's descendant when existence surrounded by kindred peoples, world health organization come likewise oft-days enemies. It seems that a select few degree of kinship was felt per Hebrews with a denizen of a extra distant south, & these are characteristic of the genealogies that the moms (Sarah, the Egyptian Hagar, & Keturah) are in the descending shell, mayhap of purity of blood, or even even when of purity of relationship, or of connectedness to Sarah: Sarah, her servant, her hubby's more married woman (or even paramour). A Bible says of the Hebrew humans: "Your father was a wandering Syrian".

When declared above, Abraham come from either Ur inside Babylonia to Haran and thence to Canaan. Late tradition supposed that a migration was to escape Babylonian idolatry (Judith 5, Jubilees 12; cf. Joshua 24:2), and knew of Abraham's miraculous throw off demise (an obscure information to occasionally work of rescue inside Isaiah 29:22). A route along a banks of the Euphrates from south to north was thus ofttimes taken by migrating tribes that a tradition has nothing unlikely inside itself. It was thence that Jacob, a father of the tribes of Israel, come, & the route to Shechem and Bethel is precisely the equivalent within each. The two times migration is doubted by occasionally, however from either what is known of the situation around Canaan in the 15th century BC, not in the least impossible.

Farther, there exists however a second parallel in the story of the conquest by Joshua, partially implied & partially actually detailed (cf. likewise Joshua 8:9 using Gen. 12:8, 13:3), whence it would come out that bay importance must non become placed upon any ethnological interpretation which fails to account for the three versions. That similar traditional elements keep close at hand influenced the children is non unbelievable; however to heal verity historical foundation is hard. A invasion or even immigration of certain tribes from either a east of the Jordan; the presence of Aramean blood among a Israelites; the origin of the holiness of venerable web sites — these & more considerations could readily become encountered to account for the traditions.

Noteworthy coincidences in the experiences of Abraham & Isaac, found above, point to the fluctuating state of traditions in the oral phase, or even indicate that Abraham's life has been built higher by borrowing from either a common shares of popular traditional knowledge. Extra original is the parting of Lot & Abraham at Bethel. A territory was a scene of contests between Moab and the Hebrews (cf. perchance Judges 3), and in case this explains a portion of a story, the physical configuration of the Dead Sea may have led to the legend of the destruction of inhospitable & vicious cities.

Arab connection
Although historiographer use there is no non-religious grounds to believe for Abraham's connection to a Arabs, & the historicity of Biblical accounts is questioned by faculty member (watch The Bible and history), some guess that a front yard outlined when a final destination of Ishmael & his descendent (from either Havilah to Assyria) refers to Northern Arabia. A earliest known record of the connection of Abrahams boy, Ishmael, to the Arabs is per Jewish historian Josephus, who some 2000 years when such cases, asserted that Ishmael was a father of the "Arab nation" [http://www.blessedquietness.com/alhaj/append-1.htm]. Little more tools lives to realize a basis for Josephus' statement or even his understanding of what he intended by "Arab nation", although of these line in the Book of Jubilees (20:13) also mentions a tradition.

This hwhen led to a notion of identifying Abraham as the father of the Arabs across Ishmael. Additionally, Abraham's next married woman, Keturah, is said to have borne him the boy known as Midian who became father of the Midianites[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/midian.htm]. A Midianites come besides identified by using a Arabs when it is said to stand settled east of the Jordan River.In recent days a bit of Christian polemic writers own insisted these claims come spurious & completely manufactured higher by Muslims, although, it existed yearn prior to Islam arrived. Occasionally use claimed that a lot of Ishmael's descendent in point of fact died out; & that virtually all Arabs come descended from either Joktan. the subject continues to exist as a source of contention.

Polygamy
the impregnation of the servant by a married human too raises the wonder when to whether Abraham was a polygamist.

Slavery
Within Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), one of the characters states that the Bible approves bondage because Hagar was the bond servant of Sarah, and this fact is not condemned in the Bible.

Historical criticism
Writers use at times regarded a life of Abraham within various ways. He has been hold a chieftain of the Amorites, as a head of a great Semitic migration from Mesopotamia; or, since Ur & Haran were seats of Moon-worship, he has been identified with the moon-god. From either a character of a literary grounds to believe & the venue of the stories it has been held that Abraham was originally associated by using Hebron. A double title Abram/Abraham has possibly suggested that deuce personages keep around been combined in a Biblical story; although this doesn't teach you the vary from either Sarai to Sarah. However these are significant to remember that a tale are non coeval, & that a interesting discovery of the title Abi-ramu (Abram) in Babylonian contracts of astir 2000 BC does not prove a Abram of a Old Testament to exist as an historical human, just as the fact that there were Amorites in Babylonia at a equivalent time period doesn't produce it certain that the patriarch was one of their total. 1 remarkable chapter associates Abraham using kings of Elam and the east (Genesis 14). There are no protracted a peaceful arab chief however the warrior sustaining the little army of 318 followers, he overthrows the combination of right monarchs world health organization keep close at hand ravaged the land. A genuineness of the narration has been strenuously maintained, although upon deficient evidence.

On the assumption that the recollection of a bit of invasion around remote times will keep around been todays, considerable interest is connected to the list. One, Amraphel, king of Shinar (i.e., Babylonia, Genesis 10:10), has been it used to be that identified using Hammurabi, one of the greatest of the Babylonian kings (ca. 2000 BC), & since he claims to use ruled when far west when a Mediterranean Sea, the equation has encountered considerable favour. Apart from either either chronological difficulties, a identification of the king & his united states is far from certain, & at most may exclusively become esteem imaginable. Arioch, king of Ellasar, has been connected sustaining Eriaku of Larsa — the reading has been questioned — a coeval by owning Hammurabi. Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, bears what is doubtless the echt Elamite name, Kudur-Lagamer. Eventually, a title of Tid'al, king of Goiim, may be identical with a certain Tudhulu, the son of Gazza, a warrior, but apparently not a king, who is mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, and has been connected by others with Tudhaliya, a predynastic Hittite king. Goiim (a Hebrew for "gentiles" or even "nations") will as well could have for Gutim, a Guti being a population world health organization lived to the east of Kurdistan. Notwithstanding, there exists hitherto there are no monumental grounds to believe for the genuineness of the story, & the virtually all that may be said by owning certainty is that andy skinner (of whatever date) has derived his list from either the trusty source, & around representing an invasion of Canaan by Babylonian master, has given expression to a imaginable situation. It can be that merely a bcome outlines are historical. Whenever these are the historical romance (cf., e.g., the book of Judith), these are imaginable that a writer world health organization sleep in the post-exilic age, and was acquainted by having Babylonian history, desired to enhance a greatness of Abraham by exhibiting his military profits against a monarchs of the Tigris and Euphrates, a high esteem he enjoyed inside Canaan, & the practical character displayed inside his brief exchange using Melchizedek. A historical division of the article Tithe provides more grounds to believe on the historicity of the meeting by using Melchizedek.

numbers of minimalist prof of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including significant history all about Abraham, Moses, and others, were actually processed higher by scribes hired by King Josiah (7th century BC) around order to rationalize monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Mimimalists claim that a neighboring countries that saved several written records, like Egypt, Assyria, etc., keep close at hand there is no writings just about a stories of the Bible or even its independent characters prior to 650 BC, and vehemently dispute a validity any grounds to believe on the contrary. Such claims come detailed around "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by William G. Dever, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003). The second such book by Neil A. Silberman & colleagues is "The Bible Unearthed," (Simon & Schuster, Future York, 2001). Naturally, a historical annals & tributes to "great kings" come non easily-served by preserving nifty defeats by their enemies (therein example, a Hebrews), & so, such records are clearly spare. Too, numbers of wonderful kings did shortly live outstanding defeats, when it was the sign to their followers that these "great leaders" got wasted a favor of their God, gods & goddesses, & a kings were quickly assassinated & replaced.