theosis
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What evidence outside of Genesis is there for the existence of a historical Abraham? What are the implications for theology of the Abrahamic religions if he did not exist?
A scholarly view:
"In Part I part Van Seters argues that there is no unambiguous evidence pointing to an origin for the stories in the 2nd millennium BC. "Arguments based on reconstructing the patriarch's nomadic way of life, the personal names in Genesis, the social customs reflected in the stories, and correlation of the traditions of Genesis with the archaeological data of the Middle Bronze Age have all been found, in Part One above, to be quite defective in demonstrating an origin for the Abraham tradition in the second millennium B.C."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_in_History_and_Tradition_(book)
A scholarly view:
"In Part I part Van Seters argues that there is no unambiguous evidence pointing to an origin for the stories in the 2nd millennium BC. "Arguments based on reconstructing the patriarch's nomadic way of life, the personal names in Genesis, the social customs reflected in the stories, and correlation of the traditions of Genesis with the archaeological data of the Middle Bronze Age have all been found, in Part One above, to be quite defective in demonstrating an origin for the Abraham tradition in the second millennium B.C."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_in_History_and_Tradition_(book)
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