A recent journal article by Tel Aviv archeologists argues that camels were not domesticated until about 800 BC. If that is true, then the Genesis account of domesticated camels in the days of Abraham is wrong. One of the things that bothers me about modern-day theological liberals is that they are anything but: they tend to be very narrow-minded, truncating the evidence, and cherry-picking the data to support their agenda. This piece seems to be of that ilk. In a recent online Christianity Today post, this article is discussed by two biblical scholars, one of whom is Todd Bolen. Todd lived in Israel for over a decade and has conducted scores of tours to Israel. I was with him in 2005 for 22 days as he led a tour of 35 students from Dallas Seminary through the land. Lecturing about 8 hours a day without notes Todd demonstrated his knowledge of the archeology, geography, and history of the land. His opinion is definitely worthy of consideration.
9 thoughts on “Domesticated Camels in Israel: new evidence that ‘breaks the Bible’s back’?”
Comments are closed.
Daniel B. Wallace 
Thank you for sharing this Dr. Wallace
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Theologians, Inc. and commented:
A good take on recent archaeological developments.
LikeLike
Here I have posted interested information on the topic.
I hope it helps.
LikeLike
Pingback: Getting over the camel hump | A disciple's study
I’ve got links to the archaeological evidence mentioned in the Christianity Today article. Check out my blog post on the topic at:
http://www.increasinglearning.com/1/post/2014/02/archaeology-confirms-the-biblical-account-of-camels.html
LikeLike
The conclusions made by these researchers go far beyond the actual data they uncovered and ignores the plethora of data in the archaeological record concerning camels. See: http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2014/02/17/The-Date-of-Camel-Domestication-in-the-Ancient-Near-East.aspx
LikeLike
Good article from Talbot’s faculty blog about this issue: http://thegoodbookblog.com/2014/feb/19/is-the-bible-wrong-about-camels-in-genesis/
LikeLike
Well, I have one interesting yet simple explanation for this. Abraham came from Ur with already domesticated camels. When they got older and reproduced he couldn’t tame their cubs because he wasn’t skilled in this. Thus, there might be a gap in the history of Israel, after the arrival of Abraham, when there were no tamed camels in the land.
LikeLike
Pingback: Which archaeologists have the oldest camels? | jkinak04