Tanakh and Archaeology

The stories of the forefathers in and of themselves cannot be proved or disproved from an archaeological point of view. The main discussion in this regard therefore centers on the surrounding reality depicted in these narratives. The theme common to those who deny the reliability of the Torah's account of the era of the forefathers is that the Torah's description displays elements of anachronism, the projection of various phenomena dating from a later period to the period of the forefathers. Their claim is that these accounts in the Torah use facts and information which do not belong to the era that is described.

Anachronistic claims regarding the domestication of camels, names of locations in the narratives and the appearance of ethnic groups are examined and refuted.