3) I never claimed 3rd or 2nd millennia BCE Hebrew scriptures. Moses would have lived about 14 centuries before Christ.
There are no Hebrew writing at that time. And not a single Bronze Age passage of the Torah or OT that might even hint that such belief (Moses’ religion) existing at that time.
The earliest literary evidences discovered, points to the Torah or Pentateuch, the 5 books “traditionally” attributed the authorship to Moses was written in the 1st millennium Iron Age to the time of King Josiah in Judah.
Fragments of the Silver Scrolls, found in the Ketef Hinnom cave that served as tomb, containing very small passage from Numbers 6, relating to the Priestly Blessings. This Sivler Scrolls have been dated between late 7th century BCE (so possibly as early as Josiah’s reign) or early 6th century BCE (before the fall of Jerusalem in 587 or 586 BCE).
No other OT passages found predated this fragment of the Silver Scrolls.
All other fragments found have all been dated later than the Silver Scrolls.
All this tell us, that no one wrote the Genesis and Exodus in the late Bronze Age, supposedly the time of Moses and Joshua.
If you are going anyone that Genesis and Exodus are truly as old as Christians, Jews and Muslims say about Moses, then you would have found such writings by now, whether written on walls, stones, clay tablets, papyri or parchments, by now.
Note that clay tablets were the most popular form of writings outside of Egypt, during the 2nd millennium BCE, like late Bronze Age clay tablets were found Babylonia and Assyria, in Levantine Syria (Mari and Ugarit) and Canaan (eg Megiddo), in the Hittite empire.
The Gezer Calendar and the inscriptions found on Zayit Stone are two oldest artifacts found containing early palaeo-Hebrew alphabets, but neither of these related to Genesis or Exodus.
At the site of Megiddo, some clay tablet fragments were found, some are written in Middle Babylonian, that traced back to the Epic of Gilgamesh and other Babylonian myths, just show popular and how far Gilgamesh myth have reached the west. And yet all these founds of fragments found at Megiddo, nothing contemporarily related to Moses or Joshua, or later in the times of the judges, or Saul and David.
The stories within Genesis may be and mostly set in the time of 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE, but Genesis was certainly not written or composed originally during these time.
Anyone can write stories of the distant past, but it doesn’t mean they are historical records or historically accurate. Genesis 10, regarding to Egypt, Uruk/Erech and Assur are examples that the authors to Genesis knew very little about archaeological origins of these kingdoms and cities.
4) There are literally thousands of proofs of the Bible in modern archaeology, so why are we not starting there? You've already said you feel the Flood story may be a metaphor, so why not start with concrete proofs of the Bible? What is your agenda here?
Agenda, BilliardsBall?
This is a debate forum. You are the one who claimed that there “...are literally thousands of proofs of the Bible in modern archaeology”, I have provided several examples (Genesis 10, regarding to Egypt and Nimrod With Erech/Uruk, and Exodus 1 with regarding to city called Ramesses) that showed that your argument is not true.
Isn’t that how debate works. Claims and counters.
I gave you several examples why Genesis 10 don’t provide historical or archaeological accuracy. You have yet to provide any example, where you show your “proof”.
If you bother to look up the history of Egypt, you would know that Egyptian cultures (eg Faiyum culture in Lower Egypt and Naqada culture in Upper Egypt) are dated earlier than the Bronze Age. Look up these cultures or look up Predynastic Egypt, and then you would understand how wrong Genesis 10 is regarding to Egypt/Mizraim.
The 4th millennium BCE, is known as the Chalcolithic period in Mesopotamia, Levantine and Egypt, where people discovered how to make copper tools, but still used stone tools for other tasks. And in Egypt the Chalcolithic period have different Egyptian cultures (known as proto-dynastic or predynastic period) that survived to the Bronze Age (eg 1st dynasty, started around 3050 BCE).
Likewise, in Uruk, Uruk flourished in the Chalcolithic period, throughout the 4th millennium BCE, and by mid-4th millennium BCE (3600-3400 bce), the earliest temples to the sky goddess Inanna, in the Enanna district of Uruk. The earliest cuneiform inscriptions were found in this area, predating the Sumerian civilization of the 3rd millennium BCE. Uruk around this time, was the largest city in the world, which is why archeologists called the period from 4000 to 3050 BCE - the “Uruk period”.
You can look them all yourself, about Uruk and Ur and Eridu, which all predated the Bronze Age Sumer civilization (3rd millennium BCE). Uruk is example of how wrong Genesis 10 is, claiming this city was built by Nimrod is.
Yes, I believed that the whole Genesis narrative to the creation and the Flood, and of course, the post-Flood, are allegory, not history. But my point is not about allegory vs literal of Genesis, but ABOUT YOUR CLAIMS OF PROOFS OF THE BIBLE TO ARCHAEOLOGY.
I am still waiting for your one example of that archaeological proof.
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