http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=4800
Abraham’s Camels
A
fairly common charge against the Bible is that the Patriarchal
narratives contain a number of anachronistic details, the domestication
of camels being one of them. Based on the findings of two archaeologists
at Tel Aviv University, Israel (Sapir-Hen and Ben-Yosef, 2013), a
flurry of recent articles have claimed that camels mentioned in the
patriarchal narratives constitute an anachronism, and that domesticated
camels did not appear in ancient Israel until around the 10
th
century B.C. It should be quickly pointed out, however, that the
archaeologists do not state explicitly their discovery contradicts the
Bible. The popular media, however, has done quite a job—perhaps
predictably so—in sensationalizing the issue.
The views of camel domestication in the ancient Near East range from
the early third millennium B.C. to the ninth century B.C. Those
skeptical of the historicity of the biblical narratives generally
believe that camels were domesticated far too late to have made an
appearance during the time of the patriarchs. Egyptologist Donald
Redford states: “[C]amels do not appear in the Near East as domesticated
beasts of burden until the ninth century B.C.” (1992, p. 277).
Archaeologists Israel Finklestein and Neil Asher Silberman state: “We
now know through archaeological research that camels were not
domesticates as beasts of burden earlier than the late second millennium
and were not widely used in that capacity in the ancient Near East
until well after 1000 B.C.E.” (2001, p. 37). Even W.F. Albright, who was
a staunch defender of the Bible, stated, “the domestication of the
camel cannot antedate the end of the 12
th century B.C.” (1951, p. 207).
The later use of camels is well attested. The Assyrian monarch
Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.) mentions kings of Arabia giving him camels to
carry water for a military incursion into Egypt in 671 B.C. Likewise,
the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (c. 825 B.C.)—which depicts Jehu of
Israel giving tribute to the Assyrians—indicates that the Assyrians
received “two-humped camels” from Egypt. Furthermore, scholars have long
known that merchants preferred camels to donkeys for traversing arid
regions in the first millennium. The question is whether any evidence of
the domesticated camel exists to support their appearance in the book
of Genesis.
EVIDENCE OF CAMEL DOMESTICATION IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
Evidence shows that camels were known as early as the 4
th
millennium B.C., and domesticated before the beginning of the second.
Biblical scholar Joseph Free surveyed the available evidence and
concluded that the camel was well known in Egypt from earliest times, as
early as the Fourth Dynasty (Free, 1944). Michael Ripinsky notes that
excavations carried out over a century ago established the presence of
camels in Egypt dating back at least to the First Dynasty (3100-2850
B.C.) with additional evidence indicating they were known in
Pre-Dynastic times (prior to 3100 B.C.) (1985, 71:136-137). Although the
domestication of the camel may have come much later, it nevertheless
preceded the age of the patriarchs.
Ancient texts mention the camel in passing, but do so in ways that
indicate they had been domesticated early in Mesopotamian history. A
lexical text found at Nippur known as HAR.
ra-bullum, alludes to
camel milk (Archer, 1970, 127[505]:17). To risk stating the obvious,
one does not simply milk a wild animal. Another text from the ancient
city of Ugarit mentions the camel “in a list of domesticated animals
during the Old Babylonian period (1950-1600)”, suggesting that it, too,
was domesticated (Davis, 1986, p. 145). A fodder-list from Alalakh (18
th century B.C.) includes the line
1 SA.GAL ANSE.GAM.MAL
(269:59), translated as “one (measure of) fodder—camel” (Wiseman, 1959,
13:29; translation in Hamilton 1990, p. 384). Animals in the wild do
not need feeding; they forage for themselves.
A cylinder seal from Syria (c. 1800 B.C.) depicts two short figures
riding a camel. Gordon and Rendsburg state, “The mention of camels here
[in Genesis 24] and elsewhere in the patriarchal narratives often is
considered anachronistic. However, the correctness of the Bible is
supported by the representation of camel riding on seal cylinders of
precisely this period from northern Mesopotamia (1997, p. 121). While
the riders on the seal seem to be deities, it nevertheless demonstrates
the concept of camel riding (for illustration and discussion, see
Gordon, 1939, 6[1]:21; Collon, 2000, Fig. 8).
Numerous discoveries of figurines depicting domesticated camels have
been found from a wide range of locations in the ancient world. From the
territory of Bactria-Margiana near present-day northern Afghanistan
(late 3
rd to early 2
nd millennium) comes a copper
alloy figurine of a camel equipped with a harness, now housed in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Terracotta models of camel-drawn carts
(dating as early as c. 2200 B.C.) have been discovered at the city of
Altyn-Depe in present-day Turkmenistan (Kirtcho, 2009, 37[1]:25-33). A
bronze figurine of a kneeling camel found in Byblos (19
th-18
th
century B.C) is incomplete, with the hump (and its load) missing.
However, the figurine has a slot in its back where the hump could be
attached separately. Early in the 20th century, excavations conducted by
the British School of Archaeology at Rifeh, Egypt explored a tomb and
discovered a pottery figurine of a camel bearing a load of two water
jars. Based on the pottery in the tomb, William Flinders Petrie dated it
to the Nineteenth Dynasty (c. 1292-1187 B.C.) (Ripinsky, 1985,
71:139-140).
A rock inscription in hieratic (a type of Egyptian script) found near
Aswan has an accompanying petroglyph of a man leading a dromedary camel.
It is thought to date to the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2345-c. 2181 B.C.;
Ripinsky, p. 139). If interpreted correctly, this petroglyph gives
evidence of the domestication of the camel in Egypt roughly 2300-2200
B.C., centuries before the patriarchs ever visited. Additional
petroglyphs in the Wadi Nasib, Sinai include a depiction of a man
leading a dromedary. One author tentatively dates these petroglyphs to
1500 B.C. based on the presence of nearby inscriptions whose dates are
known (Younker, 1997).
Finally, a curious piece of evidence comes from the ancient city of
Mari. A camel burial (c. 2400-2200 B.C.) was discovered within a house.
Ancient people often buried their animals, and this could hardly be
explained away as a wild camel wandering into a home and subsequently
buried by the occupants.
CAMEL DOMESTICATION AND THE PATRIARCHS
In the final analysis, we can say that the evidence for the
domestication of the camel in patriarchal times is clear, but limited.
Clear, because the evidence indisputably points to the domestication of
the camel very early. Limited, because the camel does not appear to have
been widely used, and the few and rather brief allusions to camels in
texts seem to mirror the limited role they played in the ancient Near
East at that time. As regards the Bible,
the evidence suggests that the camel was indeed used for transportation, even if it was not the most popular choice of animals available to ancient travelers and workers.
The Bible records the existence of domesticated camels in the
patriarchal narratives, but their footprint is actually quite small.
They are listed among the very last items in the total wealth of both
Abraham (Genesis 12:16) and Jacob (30:43; 32:7,15). They are mentioned
as being used for travel by the patriarchs (Genesis 24:10-64; 31:17,34)
and by the Midianites (Genesis 37:25). The Egyptians used them for
transport as well (Exodus 9:3). Despite their use for transportation,
however, the donkey appears as the favored mode of transportation for
the patriarchs. In the ancient Near East as a whole, the same might be
said during the early second millennium B.C.—the camel was known and
domesticated, but not widely used until later.
Free makes an important observation that applies today just as much as
it did a half century ago: “Many who have rejected this reference to
Abraham’s camels seem to have assumed something which the text does not
state. It should be carefully noted that the biblical reference does not
necessarily indicate that the camel was common in Egypt at the time,
nor does it evidence that the Egyptians had made any great progress in
the breeding and domestication of the camel. It merely says that Abraham
had camels” (Free, 3:191). Kitchen sums up the matter: “[T]he camel was
for long a
marginal beast in most of the historic ancient Near East (including Egypt), but
it was not wholly unknown or anachronistic before or during 2000-1100” (2003, 339, italics in orig., emp. added).
Those claiming the absence of domesticated camels during the
patriarchal age must deny a wealth of evidence to the contrary. Indeed,
the evidence is both early and spread over a large geographical area. It
includes figurines, models, petroglyphs, burials, seals, and texts.
While some of this evidence is relatively recent, some of it has been
known for over a century. Critics often claim that believers refuse to
consider any evidence that has a bearing on the validity of their faith.
It would appear that in the case of Abraham’s camels, the opposite is
true.
REFERENCES
Albright, William Foxwell (1951), The Archaeology of Palestine (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books).
Archer, Gleason (1970). “Old Testament History and Recent Archaeology from Abraham to Moses,” Bibliotheca Sacra, 127[505]:3-25.
Collon, Dominque (2000), “L’animal dans les échanges et les relations
diplomatiques,” Les animaux et les hommes dans le monde
syro-mésopotamien aux époques historiques, Topoi Supplement 2, Lyon.
Davis, John J. (1986), “The Camel in Biblical Narratives,” in A Tribute
to Gleason Archer: Essays on the Old Testament (Chicago, IL: Moody
Press), pp. 141-150.
Finkelstein, Israel and Neil Asher Silberman (2001), The Bible Unearthed (New York, NY: The Free Press).
Free, Joseph P. (1944), “Abraham’s Camels.” Journals of Near Eastern Studies, 3[3]:187-193.
Gordon, Cyrus H. (1939), “Western Asiatic Seals in the Walters Art Gallery,” Iraq, 6[1:3-34.
Gordon, Cyrus H. and Gary A. Rendsburg (1997), The Bible and the
Ancient Near East (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co.), fourth edition.
Hamilton, Victor P. (1990), The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Kirtcho, L. B. (2009), “The Earliest Wheeled Transport in Southwestern
Central Asia: New Finds from Alteyn-Depe,” Archaeology Ethnology and
Anthropology of Eurasia, 37[1]:25-33.
Kitchen, Kenneth A. (2003), On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Redford, Donald B. (1992), Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Ripinsky, Michael (1985), “The Camel in Dynastic Egypt,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 71:134-141.
Sapir-Hen, Lidar and Erez Ben-Yosef (2013), “The Introduction of
Domestic Camels to the Southern Levant: Evidence from the Aracah
Valley,” Tel Aviv, 40:277-285.
Wiseman, Donald J. (1959), “Ration Lists from Alalakh VII,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 13:19-33.
Younker, Randall W. (1997), “Late Bronze Age Camel Petroglyphs in the
Wadi Nasib, Sinai,” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, 42:47-54.
For
centuries, the bulk of the people in the West regarded the Bible as the
Word of God. They saw it as the inerrant and inspired revelation of God
to His creation. Beginning in the mid-1800s, some academicians began
rejecting the inspiration of the Bible. This came, in part, after the
discovery of ancient mythological texts. Upon examining the textual
evidence, skeptics highlighted the Bible’s similarities with other
literature and claimed it to be only one sacred book among a larger body
of myth. After studying the Bible’s differences from ancient mythology,
other scholars viewed these discoveries as confirmations of the Bible’s
uniqueness.
The
Christian religion has fallen prey to the pluralistic, multi-cultural
mindset of American culture. Religion is now fashioned according to the
prevailing mentality that citizens have a right to make their own
choices and “do their own thing.” “That’s the American way!” After all,
“I have my rights!” “My view is just as good as the other guy’s.”
Unfortunately, such self-centered arrogance does not prepare one for
humble submission to God (James 4:10). It only encourages compliance
with self-stylized religion, i.e., religion that is structured according
to one’s own desires. Paul referred to this approach as “self-imposed” or “will worship,” i.e., worshipping according to one’s own will (Colossians 2:23).
many
stories of “savior-gods” (outside of Judaism and Christianity) that
sound somewhat similar to the story of Jesus. Why would various
civilizations (e.g., Egyptians, Greeks, etc.) that existed centuries
before the time of Christ have “legends” about god-like characters who
worked miracles, conquered death, and were revered by their followers?
What logical answer can be given as to why stories similar in some ways
to the Gospel story existed hundreds or thousands of years before Jesus?