If some people say the Bible, Koran, and the Torah is all fiction then what is the history of...

Question

...Hebrews, Christians, and Muslims? What are their earliest historical events and figures? Is everything that is contributed to those 3 derived from pagan beliefs or myths? Is nothing in history contributed to them alone. Is not one person or event in early ancient history contributed to them?

Answer 1

Like the Odessey or Illiad, there are kernels of truth in the myths and legends that make up the collection of stories we call the Bible. As much of it is propaganda for one particular tribe's view of god, the information that can be checked against other sources (eg archeaological evidence, other culture's records etc) are the most reliable.

Answer 2

The premise of your question is wrong, that is, “ . . . If some people say the Bible, Koran, and the Torah is all fiction . . . “  I’m not aware of any valid historian or any student of history who accepts that perspective.

Clearly actual events and people contributed to these books.  The debate (to the degree that there is one) is to whether they have a divine origin and to what degree they are altered by myth and politics (of the time of the writing).  

Answer 3

Not all fiction as there's some historical data in it since it relates to the history of the kingdom of Israel, mixed with a good deal of myths and beliefs, as to the religious side of it there are parts  that derives from other myths. Sorting out which is which is going to take a loooot of time.

Answer 4

  The Bible and Torah are a bit more complicated than being almost total fiction. Certainly, the events from around roughly 600BCE are largely historical, though in many cases written well after the time of the actual things documented. Also, it is often a distorted history, with "spin" given to things like the Babylonian conquest. In these cases we can often compare records from other civilizations, such as the Babylonians, and get a better idea of what actually happened.

   For the earlier events of the Bible, from Adam and Eve, through the time of Moses, and even as late as David's reign(800-900 BCE), there is little or narchaeologicalal validation of the stories. Iessencese, most of these stories seem to be myth or legend.  Were these tales spun wholesale, were they oral history that became so distorted as to be useless as a historical account, or are they in fact are they accurate accounts of the times? We can't say. But without the evidence we cannot assume they are historical.

   As far as contributions from the pagans, almost certainly. The most common example is the Sumerian Flood account, which predates the biblical one by a thousand years. The forefathers of the jews did not live in isolation from their neighbors. They traded with them, talked with them, shared stories and history with them. It's not suprising that we'd see some of the stories filtered down under these conditions.

   The early religious texts might be said to be a good initial starting point in studying the history of the region. It at least gives some hints on where to look, and approximately when certain events might have happened. But its the archeological research that validates or falsifies the stories. It's not all true, or all fake. Sorting out what part of the texts are which is the hard part, and in some cases we may never prove or disprove the stories. That's where our need to know and the idea of faith come into play.