According to History Channel show Bible Unearthed Abraham is not a historical figure but only a traditional symbol for the birth of a new nation Israel True or False?

Answer 1

As with all questions of faith, this is open to multiple interpretations.

Answer 1

False.

Assigning allegory to different historical biblical figures is a frequent ploy for those who don't know what to do with such people. It is also a frequent method of discounting the historical reality of one in whom such people do not believe. While The Bible does indeed point to Abraham as an example of faith, it does so precisely because Abraham was a real flesh and blood individual. Mere allegories cannot serve as examples since they do not exist as historical realities and so we cannot identify with them nor do they thus have any symbolic value either, since the whole alleged history surrounding them is fraudulent.

Abraham's value is from the reality of his actual physical existence and from this actual existence in space and time comes his value as the actual physical progenitor of the Jewish nation. Fictions cannot really inspire since we know they are not like us in that they did not really exist no matter how well they are drawn. Abraham also had his faults, which only points to his reality as a human and his enduring greatness as an example of faith.

Even further to this, the historical details surrounding the setting of the time of Abraham have been verified in a number of points. Such would not and could not be the case for a historical fiction, since the author of such fiction, writing at a much later time would not know of customs and places which had ceased to exist for centuries. And so, such an author could not possibly write into their fictional account such details which have been discovered by later archaeological research.

Answer 2

True.

Any legendary character from the past is only as historically accurate as the evidence that they leave behind. There is no evidence of Abraham having lived, which makes him a non-historical figure. This is not to say that it is not possible that he may have lived, but any belief that this is the case is a belief, not a historical view.