Like David and Solomon, we can say that they existed based on the temple ruins in Jerusalem.
What about the other like Abraham and Moses?
Can you name Jewish patriarch who are historical and mythological?
You hit the nail on the head. Historical verification identifies artifacts and places which co-existed with David and Solomon. One can go to the brook where David selected a stone to sling at Goliath.
First, Abraham was not a Jew. Neither was Moses. Moses was an Israelite of the tribe of Levi. Abraham was Isaac's father, and Isaac's son Jacob was named Israel. Israel had 15 or more children, from whom sprang the 12 Tribes of Israel, one of which was Judah from whence sprang those Israelites known as Jews.
The Patriarchs end with Jacob. Jacob went to Egypt during a famine and was reunited with his son Joseph whose death his other sons had faked and then sold into slavery (to his cousins) who in turn sold him to an Egyptian named Potiphar. The Patriarchs live in a pre-historic limbo lacking the archeaological verification of Judah's kings. Where was Sodom and Gomorrah from whence Abraham's nephew fled (in the plain South and East of the Dead Sea?) and Ur of the Chaldees Abraham's birthplace (Iraq which was ancient Chaldea, or was Ur, meaning light, in Syria--ancient Assyria--or some other city of the same name)?
Archaeological research provides tantalizing guesses as to the identity of these places. When was Abraham in Egypt--who was the Pharaoh who sought to marry Abraham's lovely wife Sariah? Joseph and the Hebrew slaves, were they Hyksos--Semitic nomads? What about Moses? Who was the Pharoah of Moses' time? Then we get to Noah, the patriarch who sailed the Deluge and landed the Ark on, was it Mt. Ararat in modern Turkey? Further back we find Enoch whose city was taken up to heaven (Atlantis?!) and Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Eden. These are not mythological people invented like the Greek gods to explain natural phenomena and morality, but there is little or no historical or archaeological evidence outside of the Bible that they existed. The Epic of Gilgamesh may corroborate the Flood Epic and Noah, but archeology does not.
So, there you are. Jewish patriarchs start at Judah. Prior to Judah, the Patriarchs run back in time to the creation (Israel (Jacob) son of Isaac, son of Abraham and so on back to Adam). Only when we get to David is there clear historical evidence (coins, weapons, other artifacts and known place names dated to David's rule). Before that time, archeology has not found much for us to go on.
Reply:Um, Elijah for mythical I guess and Woody Allen for historical.
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