That’d be my answer too. If we said “David” we wouldn’t be streching the
facts too much.
Moses?
Can’t find it now, but there was an earlier thread about the historical validity of Exodus and the answer seemed to be that there isn’t any independent evidence for any of it, including the existance of Moses.
What about Noah? Didn’t they find his ark?
Oh yeah, and fossils of the two unicorns that didn’t make it. :rolleyes:
Yes, but the government hid it in a warehouse.
I guess I was wondering who the first person mentioned in the Bible who definitely wasn’t allegorical. In other words, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, etc. were allegories, even though the ancients (and some not so ancients) thought they were real. Who may have been the first person mentioned who was, or at least based on, a real person? Let’s leave out Mitochondrial Eve for now.
Thanks for your help,
Rob
Pharoah Shishonk I of Egypt. 1 Kings 11:40 says:
This was probably Shishonk I.
Well, guy, who is this “they” you are talking about?!
Seems to me that more than one person has lately
made an active search for your ark
and found precisely… OUCH!
Oh, and OUCH = nothing!
Please read the second footnote at the bottom
and ask yourself why Morris-substitute Morris
would dodge the moderator’s opening question to him
and would like very much to dodge all such questions.
(This, BTW, is another example of a father
sending out his son! 
)
(Just li’l ol’ me–“Whatsisname”)
Technically speaking, speciation doesn’t work like that.
Archaeologist Michael Jursa discovered a tablet (dated 575 B.C.) noting a gold donation made by the “cheif eunuch” to a temple during Nebuchadnezzar’s II’s reign. (Book of Jeremiah)
Here is the link to the article in Archaeology magazine. Jursa notes that the find is interesting because “it is so incredibly rare to find people appearing in the Bible, who are not kings, mentioned elsewhere.”
I know practically nothing about historical events in the Bible. I was taught largely with parable and allegory, so I know nothing about the significance or pertinence of this find- if Dio drops by maybe he can place this artifact historically.
Sorry if this is unhelpful; I came across the article and thought it might be of interest.
Unfortunately for Biblical literalists, Moses not only isn’t supported by outside verification, but the very account of him in the Bible is suspect. For starters, his name is strongly reminiscent of the Egyptian Tutmose, and the story about him being found in the rushes in a basket is lifted from the Egyptian myth of Horus. If there ever was an Egyptianized Hebrew who was somehow instrumental in the decision of the proto-Israelites to move away from Egypt and migrate west to the Jordan valley, the legend probably bears as much relationship to the facts as the story of King Arthur does to the history of Britain.
I always liked the poem by Lord Byron-“The Destruction of Sennacherib”?
It relates the story of the destruction of the Assyrian army of King Sennacherib, who attempted to invade/destroy Judea, in the 4th cntury BC. Is there any independent verification of this?
The figures at the very end of the two kingdoms and thereafter, particularly the rulers in Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt, are mostly documentable historical figures. So yes, the later Assyrian emperors, the Chaldean (New Babylonian) emperors, and the Persian emperors (but not “Darius the Mede,” who is as historical as Prester John) are “real” historical figures.
There’s no really good reason for presuming that the kings following Solomon are not much as represented in I and II Kings and II Chronicles, with the caveat that the Biblical naratives are judging their reign on a particular Yahwistic standard. But only a few of them are independently attested, Omri being the earliest of this crew.
Beginning with David, as we move backward in Biblical chronology, the figures take on more and more legendary aspects. That is to say, we have vivid portraits of characters in the Bible, but to what extent those portraits reflect the historical reality of the figures involved is highly debatable.
Since the OP has restated the question, I think we’ve gotten sidetracked. The first non-allegorical character would have to be someone who was around not too long before the story was written down. My WAG would be Joshua.
:smack: EAST.
In the KJV, the first real person mentioned is King James - the preface says:
Yes, I do realise that doesn’t count.