Blacky. I'll cover as much as I can quickly.
"Abraham, the person whom the Bible tells us used to live in Ur of the Chaldeans". Ur was not Chadean until about 700 BC.
"What is noticeable is that those same names also appear in the Bible." I don't think anyone's claimed the OT was totally made up. This merely shows the personal names were widespread throughout Mesopotamia.
"The proofs that have been presented to us so far, give reason to believe that the patriarch accounts are firmly based on history". Yes. But that history is much more recent than 2000 BC. More like 1500 to 1200 BC.
"The fact that the Jews and Arabs regard Abraham as their forefather is in itself proof that he was a historic person". No. It shows they all believe the same myths.
"One of Abraham's relations was Moab". Like the Maori of NZ they invented common ancestors to cement political alliances. Often these alliances didn't hold up for very long of course. That's why the myths say Moab was born of an incestuous relationship. The Moab kingdom is much more recent than any time proposed for Abraham. In fact both Moab and Omri are comfortably within the period we would call history.
"Perhaps the most interesting finding connected to the name of Israel is the so called Israel-stone, which dates back to year 1200 B.C." Now 1200 BC is actually before the nation of Israel existed according to most chronologies. The word in this case probably refers to cities in the Jezreel (actually Yisre'el) valley. There is no doubt this region was important for a very long time. Judah later borrowed myths from there to justify their claim over the region.
"The existence of the Hittites has also been confirmed." And Abraham is recorded as meeting them. They didn't expand from their homeland until at least 1600 BC. See above.
"the pylon of the temple of Karnak, includes references to such place names as Jacob-Er and Joseph-El." Egyptian records show Semitic-speaking people were almost always widespread in the Delta region.
"A few references to Benjamites can be found in the clay tablets of Mari." Oops. These tablets date to 2500 BC so this guy Abraham certainly lived for a very long time.
"One of the sons of Jacob was Asher, from whom descended his own tribe" See previous post regarding Asher as probably being the Sea People tribe Weshesh. Asher was a coastal tribe.
I'll leave Levi and Rachel etc.
Now genes.
"Recent genetic studies of the Jewish people clearly indicate that the roots of the Jewish nation can be traced to the Middle East." Everyone else from there also has the same collection of genes. This is hardly an earth shattering statement.
"Furthermore, the discovery of the "Cohen Gene" -- the genetic signature shared by the majority of Kohanim -- the Jewish priestly family worldwide, is an indication that this signature is that of the ancient Hebrews." What most commentaries on the subject neglect to say is that particular Y-chromosome is common throughout Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Again not surprising. Sorry, you later mention that.
"If the CMH is the genetic signature of Aaron, the father of the Kohanim, it must also have been the genetic signature of Aaron's father, Amram, and that of his father, Kehat, and of his father, Levi. Levi's father was Jacob who also must have had the CMH as his Y-Chromosome genetic signature, as did his father, Isaac.
Thus we arrive at Abraham." The trouble with that argument is that many Jews don't even have that Y-chromosome. Therefore they're not all descended from one male who lived 4000 years ago. Besides which the so-called Abraham Y-chromosome is widespread, even well beyond just people who claim descent from him.
Thanks for your interesting posts.
