THE combined armies of four Eastern kings cross the Euphrates River. Their line of march is the King’s Highway to the east of the Jordan River valley. En route they conquer the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, and the Horites. Then, the invaders turn around and defeat all the inhabitants of the southern Negeb.

What is the purpose of this military campaign? Between the invaded regions of Transjordan and the Negeb lies the prize. It is a coveted valley called the District of the Jordan. (Genesis 13:10) Here, the inhabitants of five city-states, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, live a carefree life of material ease. (Ezekiel 16:49, 50) Once they were subject to the apparent leader of the combined armies, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. But they have rebelled against him. Now, without neighboring support, they face an accounting. Chedorlaomer and his allies win the resulting battle and begin their long march home with much spoil.

Among the captives is a righteous man, Lot. He is the nephew of Abraham, who is tenting in the nearby mountains of Hebron. When Abraham hears the distressing news, he immediately summons 318 of his men. Courageously, with the support of some neighbors, they chase after the four kings and surprise their armies by night. The invaders flee. Lot and his household are recovered, together with the other captives and goods.

What reason do we have to believe this record in the 14th chapter of Genesis? Was the story invented to make a national hero of the forefather of a number of nations, including the Jews? What about other events in the life of Abraham?

Consider how archaeology has thrown light on the record about Abraham.

Ur of the Chaldeans

According to the Bible, Abraham was raised in “Ur of the Chaldeans.” (Genesis 11:27-31; 15:7) For centuries, Ur’s location was a mystery. Critics believed that if it existed at all, it was an insignificant, backward place. Then, to their embarrassment, ruins that lie between Babylon and the Persian Gulf were identified unmistakably to be those of Ur. Thousands of clay tablets unearthed at the site revealed that Ur was a center of world trade, with a large cosmopolitan population. In the time of Abraham, the city even had schools where boys were taught to write and do arithmetic.

Furthermore, excavations at Ur revealed that its architects used the column, the arch, the vault, and the dome. Ur’s craftsmen produced exquisite jewelry, elaborately designed harps, and daggers with blades of pure gold. In several homes, archaeologists unearthed sewage pipes, made of baked clay, that descended into large drainage pits up to 40 feet [12 m] deep.

These discoveries gave many scholars a fresh view of Abraham. “We had been accustomed to think of Abraham as a simple dweller in tents, and find him a possible occupant of a sophisticated brick house in a city,” wrote Sir Leonard Woolley in his book Digging Up the Past. “Abraham,” stated archaeologist Alan Millard in his book Treasures From Bible Times, “left the sophisticated city, with all its security and comfort, to become one of the despised nomads!”