Epigraph:
Do they not then look at the camel, how it is created? (Al Quran 88:18)
Opinion by Joel Baden, special to CNN
(CNN) – It’s been a rough 2014 for the book of Genesis.
First a Noah’s Ark discovery raised a flood of questions, then there was the much-hyped debate over life’s origins between Bill Nye the Science Guy and creationist Ken Ham.
And now this: a scientific report establishing that camels, the basic mode of transportation for the biblical patriarchs, weren’t domesticated in Israel until hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are said to have wandered the earth.
Using radiocarbon dating of camel bones that showed signs of having carried heavy loads, Israeli archaeologists have dated the earliest domesticated camels to the end of the 10th century BCE.
But according to the traditional biblical chronology, the patriarchs were schlepping around Canaan on camels over a millennium earlier, all the way back in 2100 BCE
Taken on its own, this may seem a rather minor problem.
After all, this is Genesis, in which some people live to be 900 years old (hello, Methuselah), all of humanity emerges from Babylon, and the Dead Sea is created from the backward glance of Lot’s wife. (Not to mention the six-day creation story and the stuffing of all land animals on a single boat.)
How important could camels really be?
For those who believe the Bible to be fundamentally true, this is hardly going to change any minds. For those who believe it to be entirely false, this is surely not the most damning piece of evidence.
What the camels in Genesis reveal, in fact, has nothing to do with the “truth” of the biblical story at all.
Instead, the presence of these camels in the story highlights, in a very clear way, the essential humanity of the biblical writers: like the best authors, they simply wrote about what they knew.
The patriarchs are depicted as nomadic, never settling for long in one place, but moving constantly from location to location throughout Israel (and beyond).
An ancient Israelite, wanting to tell the story of the wandering of his ethnic and national ancestors, would have naturally looked to the nomadic peoples around him as models. And indeed, throughout the Bible camels are commonly associated with those tribes who lived in the desert: Midianites, Ishmaelites, Amalekites, Kedemites.
The biblical authors simply transplanted the nomadic standards of their time into the distant past.
There is nothing deceptive about this. They weren’t trying to trick anyone. They imagined, quite reasonably, that the past was, fundamentally, like their present.
They had no real alternative. In ancient Israel, in the period when the Bible was written (which ranges, conservatively, from the 10th to the third century BCE), no one had any way of knowing that camels had not always been domesticated pack animals. After all, we didn’t know that for sure until this past week.
Without any evidence to the contrary, it is perfectly natural to assume that things have always been the way that they are now. Today we have more information about the past than any other moment in history. In ancient Israel, they had virtually none.
Additional Reading
The Root Cause of Science and Religion Conflict: Wrong Theology!
Video: The Forged Bible — By Prof. Bart Ehrman
Categories: Bible, Religion, Religion & Science, Religion and Science
Zia is having another rush of blood to his head
What an earth shattering desert shaking existential experience . My Christian faith has been cut to the quick and lying torn and tatters threadbare and streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched exposed and vulnerable . Now the only thing to do is convert to Islam…..
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hawhum snore zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!
For those who dont know what ‘tongue in cheek’ talk is all about and are taking me literally serious. I am not serious I am … having a big laugh at all this camel around in circles talk. …
Prof. Bart Ehrman on the Bible’s Authors
Did the Bible Misquote Jesus? Dr. James White vs. Dr. Bart Ehrman
smells like camel dung to me
I think, sour grapes!
Will camel discovery break the Bible’s back? Nah! Die-hard believers ‘ll re-interpret or find something to blame rag heads for!
The Holy Quran presents the camel as an amazing creation of Allah. Not only is it the most versatile and beneficialof all the domesticated 4 legged animals, it also has the smallest antibodies. This enables their use in treatment of human diseases very possible because these antibodies can be easily transported. Other antibodies are larger therefore much more unstable in comparison.
For more on my earlier comment
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-domain_antibody
I agree with the author’s conclusion that this is another little dent in the historical accuracy of the Bible and is merely a result of the limitations of the narrators’ knowledge.
The first thought that crossed my mind when reading the article was the following prediction of the Holy Quran about the distant future:
And when the she-camels, tenmonth pregnant, are abandoned,…” (Ch81:v4/5)
I think it can safely be said that the entire economy of the Arabs at the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) depended on camels, since it was the only really suitable mode of transportation through the desert that surrounded them. So for the Holy Quran to claim that a time will come when this natural and essential commodity will be deemed useless is awe inspiring, to say the least.
Even more so when considering the other prophecies of the Holy Quran pointing to a more connected world, not less. For a desert dweller, who had also been a traveling merchant, to think of a more connected world without the most suitable mode of desert transportation known to him should be a huge moment of pause for those who consider the Holy Quran to be the work of man.
I appreciate the level of faith of so many Jews and Christians in their holy books despite the apparent historical inaccuracies. I think they rightfully connect with the essence of their teachings and realize and feel the initial truth brought by the holy founders of these books.
I sincerely wish, however, that they would also wonder how a book they dismiss as a lie can be free of these inaccuracies and rings truer with new scientific discoveries. I hope they would eventually realize that it is also from the God of Moses and Jesus (and thousands of other prophets)– God, who did not stop the process of revelation, and chose a time for his final Book, when He thought the world was ready to be united on one message…and so He also chose to safeguard that one particular Book, over all others, in miraculous ways:
Verily, We Ourself have sent down this Exhortation, and most surely We will be its Guardian. (Ch15: v9/10)
Ironically, it is due to the proclamation of the Holy Quran that we believe in the truthful origins of other faiths.
AA…in my previous comment I forgot to put correctly…only the Holy Quran references were supposed to be in bold. Please remove the tags as I dont’ have an editing option.
This story first appeared about two or three weeks ago and I had replied it. Given its attempt at portraying the Bible negatively, the sponsors think it has to remain permanently on this site.
It is a proven fact that Abraham originated from Ur of the Chaldees said to have been in Mesopotamia which is in modern day Iraq not far from the southern Arabian peninsula where the tamed camel purportedly made its debut.
The camel was said to have been domesticated long before Abraham left his home for the Levant. If that is correct, would a reasonable man convincingly say that there was no contact between the two communities? If there was, as it is likely to have been the case, then camels were not novel to Abraham. There is no proof that camels were domesticated after Abraham’s time and he would not have seen them for the first time in Palestine or Egypt.
What the archeologist have discovered was only in a small area. The whole of Palestine and the Sinai peninsula have not been excavated to obtain a definitive proof that the camels found in the mine was the first to have been used in the region. Many times archeology has contradicted itself as new evidence emerges. Those who made this find should only say that it is what is available at the moment and stop making a generalized statement.
Saying that the camel would be discarded as a means of transportation is not a prediction. Long before the time of Muhammad, while some people traveled by camels, there were sea going vessels. That was how contact was established with Ethiopia and some historians say even with India. That indicated that it was not everyone who placed reliance on the camel. The Europeans, who had conquered the Levant made little or no use of camels. It was only a matter of time before the camel would cease to be the preferred mode of movement.
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Namelee, I agree with parts of your argument. If archeologists made the conclusion based only on a few findings, it is not a definitive one. I read the original article, and like good scientists, they did only talk about probabilities:
Camels probably had little or no role in the lives of such early Jewish patriarchs as Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, who lived in the first half of the second millennium B.C., and yet stories about them mention these domesticated pack animals more than 20 times.
It is however interesting that you think nothing of the prophecy of the Holy Qur’an about camels becoming a highly devalued commodity in the future, when they were THE PRIMARY means of long distance transport for the desert dwellers. And you based this on the fact that there were some people in far away lands that had in fact used ships for travel. What relevance does sea travel have EVEN TODAY for the bulk of travel that people (particularly the Arabs) do which happens to be on or over land?
You made a good argument in defense of the Bible, but then your rather clumsy comments on the prophecy of the Holy Quran make it thoroughly evident that you’re not really interested in the truth after all…just whatever serves your preconceived biases.
There’s a set of very interesting sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which mention travel by sea, trains, and air, but I’ve a feeling the information will be wasted here.
All I can say is sour grapes.
The story about camel issue should be read in the light of University based scholarship, about the Holy Bible. Its history and why it came to have countless contradictions.
For an honest reader, let me suggest two authors, Prof. Bart Ehrman and Dan Barker.
Zia,
I have also noticed that you have made it impossible for comments to be made on certain stories featured here. One of them is the boko haram story. The other is the story you wrote on Muhammad being the light of your dark Europe.
This censorship raises questions about your level of tolerance in spite of living in a society that guarantees absolute freedom of expression.
In a forum as open as this, there could not be a better example of dhimmitude.
Namelee, you are equal among equals. I can assure you that I allow more than you would, if roles were reversed.
I did participate in a couple of Christian and atheist forums for almost two years and am talking from experience. They inspired me to launch the Muslim Times.
For freedom of speech I am guided by:
European Convention of Human Rights
I think many of the exceptions for freedom of speech are tackled in the Article 10 of European Convention of Human Rights.
This Article provides the right to freedom of expression, subject to certain restrictions that are “in accordance with law” and “necessary in a democratic society”. This right includes the freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information and ideas, but allows restrictions for:
When, in your dogmatic thinking and presentation, you go to an extreme, we find little choice, but to exclude some of your comments, to maintain a serene and reader friendly atmosphere.
Peace!
The spiritual and rational death of Christian beliefs took place a century or so ago. These sort of articles or discussions can be worthwhile for those Christian authors or preachers who still intentionally want to blindfolded with proven lies. for us they are totally unimportant and unnecessary.