Is there any evidence supporting the existence of Jacob, Joseph, Abraham or the other patriarchs of the Old Testament?
Answer: Although we might not expect to find personal references to such men in the archaeological records we can verify that the political, historical and social conditions fit their life and times in history.
Other specific evidence supporting the accounts of Abraham includes:
Kenneth Kitchen refutes the modern claim that the patriarchs were legendary: “We are compelled, once and for all, to throw out Wellhausen’s bold claim that the patriarchs were merely a glorified mirage of/from the Hebrew monarchy period. For such a view there is not a particle of supporting factual evidence.”[12]
See Chapter Six of The Bible Can Be Proven, entitled “The Shovel Doesn’t Lie” for these and other solid archaeological evidences for the Bible’s history.
[1] Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003, 344-345.
[2] Ibid., 348-350.
[3] Ibid., 323-324.
[4] Ibid., 337-338.
[5] Ibid., 325.
[6] Ibid., 325-326.
[7] Ibid., 338-339.
[8] Ibid., 341-343.
[9] Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 177.
[10] Ibid., 177-178; also Price, The Stones Cry Out, 100-102; also Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 319-323.
[11] Price, The Stones Cry Out, 97.
[12] Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 371-372.