What positive evidence is there that Abraham existed as a real historical person?

Answer:

Positive historical/archaeological and even scientific data point to the existence of Abraham as a real person.

Historically, Abraham is regarded as a real person by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, in terms of their faith, based on their sacred writings, which in quite a number of cases have hard historical evidence which backs them up as being legitimately historical.

In terms of ethnicity both the Jews and the Arabs trace their descent from Abraham. The Jews through Abraham's son Isaac and the Arabs through his son Ishmael.

The historian Josephus quotes Berosus the Babylonian historian as mentioning Abraham (without actually naming him) when he stated "In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man righteous and great, and skilful in the celestial science." Scholar of ancient writings Bill Cooper agrees with Josephus' assessment of this as being a reference to Abraham. (Bill Cooper BA Hons: "After the Flood: The Early post-flood history of Europe traced back to Noah", New Wine Press, 1995. Appendix 2 page 180). Josephus also mentions that Hecataeus wrote a whole book about Abraham.

Further to the above, Josephus quotes from Nicolaus of Damascus, from the fourth book of his history as saying, "Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land of Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans. But after a long time he got him up, and removed from that country also with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea....Now the name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus..." (Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, chapter 7, paragraph 2 (159, 160); William Whiston, translator.

The historical details from Josephus relate evidently to the time when Abraham (then called Abram) was en-route to Canaan (from the biblical Old Testament record in Genesis) and stayed some time in what the Old Testament refers to as Haran, before later entering Canaan. Obviously all of the above is referring to a person who actually existed, all references being from outside The Bible itself.

Scientific studies in the field of the Y-chromosome pattern in males have confirmed that both Jews and Arabs have likely descended from one single man, as mentioned above.

The bible itself, from around the time of Abraham, has numerous archaeological data which back it up in terms of the customs and setting of the bible time of Abraham. These details also show that Abraham belongs in the setting in which the bible puts him and no later. The name Abraham is mentioned in the Ebla tablets, and also in a tablet from Babylon. Another Ebla tablet mentions Sarai. While some may rightly contend these are not necessarily direct references to Abraham himself, it does show the existence and use of the name in the relevant time period.

Summary: In view of all this, and in consideration of the 'ancientness' of the time there is a remarkable amount of positive evidence for the existence of Abraham as a real historical person.