The Genesis 14 narrative was crafted around the prehistory references in the Shapira Scroll. The narrator did this with the intention of answering how the indigenous peoples of the lands east of the Jordan were dispossessed or destroyed, while writing Abram into the narrative as the hero, thus paving the way for the sons of Esau and Lot to take possession of said lands. This paper will compare Genesis 14:5-7 with both the relevant text of the Shapira Scroll and that of Deuteronomy, showing that the latter is less likely to be the “other” source that the narrator relied on.

Genesis chapter 14 tells the tale of the warrior, Abram. He commands three hundred and eighteen trained men in pursuit of his nephew, Lot, whom four kings have taken captive. Abram is a superhero of biblical proportions, victorious in battle. This is the same Abram who, just two chapters earlier, in fear of his life, told his wife to say she was his sister so that the men of Egypt might spare him when they took her to be their own.

What explains this sudden change?

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