Do the Ebla Tablets confirm the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Answer 1

Of course the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed confirmed by these tablets.

The fact that they are set in an earlier time cannot be at all relevant logically to the later time of Abraham as they cannot possibly speak of an event which had not yet occurred when they were written viz. the destruction of these cities which is also confirmed by other data.

Nor can any logical deduction be made nor any need be to 'shift' Abraham to an earlier time since the tablets make no reference to Abraham but only to the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time when they were written.

Answer 2

The Ebla Tablets were found in 1975 by two archaeologists, Pettinato and Matthiae, in Syria and are reliably dated to the middle of the third millennium BCE. They are still being translated, but there appears to be reference to two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. If confirmed, this may indicate the former existence of these cities.

Controversy arose as to whether the Ebla texts refer to specific places or people in The Bible, and thus confirmed the existence of Abraham, David and Sodom and Gomorrah among other Biblical references. These preliminary guesses and speculations by Pettinato and others, are now widely deplored as "exceptional and unsubstantiated claims" and "great amounts of disinformation that leaked to the public".

Wikipedia says the present consensus of scholars is that Ebla's role in biblical Archaeology is minimal.

Answer 3

Yes, they do; and this has been known for some time. Interestingly, this is one of the many hundreds of cases in which the Hebrew Bible was doubted by secular critics, who were then forced to concede its accuracy. See also:

Debunking the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

Archaeology