But Blacknad and Terry- Why do you so much need to "prove" all this? ( Very fascinating stuff though, I just spent far too long reading it!) If you have faith then it is real. Isn't that enough? Sometimes such "Blind Faith" leads to things like the discovery of Troy-which wasn't Troy but a nevertheless a good attempt!

To me it seems that there probably was a patriarchal society which had a very rich oral history, only later written down. The question surely is- were they really in touch with their divine God and did his divinity inspire their lives? For that leap you have to believe in the supernatural yourself, and we are back to faith.