Quote: All that the bible doesn't represent aside - the stories contained therein are among the earliest in western literary tradition.
Pardon the pun but that is a huge leap of faith.
From what we know, these stories were borrowed/stolen from much earlier Mesopotamian traditions which had been written down by them at least 1500 years earlier and probably much much more. Separately, Egypt developed a literate society while this particular group of Canaanites was still getting sheep shit out from between their toes.
