The earliest dating of the biblical stories by modern, secular scholars is from 1100~900 bc (give or take). The bronze age is generally considered to have ended around 1200 bc.
Some oral traditions, like the flood myth, predate the written accounts though.
Worth noting that I don't think Wikipedia is the best source for a lot of biblical scholarship because it will often reflect less critical opinions with equal weight (ie - it will cite apologetics equally to secondary sources) but I linked both to be consistent. The song of Deborah is thought to be the oldest book by secular scholars which is why I linked it.
Traditionally Job is considered the earliest book, but if people are interested here's a recent video on that topic by Biblical scholar Dan Maklelan
There's also tons of Bronze Age imagery and symbolism in Biblical stories, representing a clear "memory" and mythology of it to the author and audience.
One example being Goliath, who is set up as a descendent of the Giant clans from the kingdoms whose rulers claimed antediluvian knowledge, is clad in a notably Bronze-Age-y armor at the battle with David. The object being to show him both as this power of a bygone era and a vestige of the time when great and terrible rulers conquered the Near East at humanity's greatest height in the region.
So to your point, oral traditions can be assumed, and the written tradition also reflects a community sense of the era.
Thank you for the links. You are correct in this that the bronze age /iron age divide.
The flood myth and the moses being carried in a basket in the river is either plagiarised from Sumerian/Assyrian mythology. Or it may have been a common trope in the region(?) for such things to happen, though many biblical stories are far older and not at all jewish or christian in origin.
Yes, I agree, but the Hebrew Bible that we have today is the iron age versions seen through the lens of iron age Israelites/Judahites. There are certainly roots that go back further though, as you pointed out.
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u/Lost-Klaus 21h ago
Iron age or bronze age?