Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis

[Bucky Ball]

if this were true then why not build the perfect protagonist?

or one that follow the typical story arch? 

why have the protagonist keep failing the same trial over and over and over again? All it does is undermine the character of the person who is supposed to be the moral standard.. This reeks of real life people and real life failures.

If a story's protagonist fails to learn a great moral lesson over and over again yet holds himself up to be the hero, he become little more than a hypocrite.. So why is Abraham not the father of hypocrisy? if what you say is true?

How I see it:

That perfect protagonist (in the eyes of the ancient Israelites) was God. Abraham and all the others are meant to be imperfect human models of righteousness through obedience and adherence to God's laws and commands. God is supposed to be the main hero here, not Abraham and others.

Anyway, it's not like Abraham failed so many times in his accounts that he could no longer be a human model for others morally speaking. He still walked with God, and was considered righteous because Abraham believed God (Genesis 15:6).

Things were told exactly the way the editors / compilers wanted them told. They had a reason for telling everything as it was told. As we shall see later, when Ezra brought the Torah (scroll) of Moses back with him from the Exile, (the first time in human OR Biblical history it's mentioned, in the Book of Nehemiah), there is a specific reason for it, at that specific time. The various threads of the mythical traditions of the patriarchs were wound together, with places and people, (some of which are actually impossible, as we are about to see). The (supposed) ownership of some important places were written into the scroll, and "established" in the literary "history". There is also the attempted portrayal as Abraham's children as the progenitors of all the surrounding Canaanite and other generally local tribal families ... which of course is not at all true. These tribal entities were in place long before any of the migrating groups (which Abraham's group may have been), came into the area from the north and east. In the text he's portrayed as the father of nations and peoples. It's hardly a portrayal of failure. He had a HUGE family, sons to succeed him, and enjoyed wealth and position.