Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/50

 recent discoveries that it is no longer possible to doubt the essential historicity of the patriarchal tradition. It is admitted that no externa evidence has come to light of the existence of such persons as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, or even (with the partial exception of Joseph) of men playing parts at all corresponding to theirs. But it is maintained that contemporary documents reveal a set of conditions into which the patriarchal narratives fit perfectly, and which are so different from those prevailing under the monarchy that the situation could not possibly have been imagined by an Israelite of that later age. Now, that recent archæology has thrown a flood of light on the period in question, is beyond all doubt. It has proved that Palestinian culture and religion were saturated by Babylonian influences long before the supposed date of Abraham; that from that date downwards intercourse with Egypt was frequent and easy; and that the country was more than once subjected to Egyptian conquest and authority. It has given us a most interesting glimpse from about 2000 of the natural products of Canaan, and the manner of life of its inhabitants (Tale of Sinuhe). At a later time (Tell-Amarna letters) it shows the Egyptian dominion threatened by the advance of Hittites from the north, and by the incursion of a body of nomadic marauders called Ḫabiri (see p. 218). It tells us that Jakob-el (and Joseph-el?) was the name of a place in Canaan in the first half of the 15th cent. (pp. 360, 389 f.), and that Israel was a tribe living in Palestine about 1200 ; also that Hebrews ('Apriw) were a foreign population in Egypt from the time of Ramses to that of Ramses  (Heyes, Bib. u. Aeg. 146 ff.; Eerdmans, l.c. 52 ff.; Exp. l.c. 197). All this is of the utmost value; and if the patriarchs lived in this age, then this is the background against which we have to set their biographies. But the real question is whether there is such a correspondence between the bio-