They may have originally been compared to archetypes that they matched, with greater or lesser perfection. Even if this were true these characters have since become defined entirely by those archetypes. The archetype is all that remains. In a way their historicity, and their actual unique personalities have become irrelevant. They serve now merely as examples of the archetypes that they represent, and the narrative roles they fulfill. Seems odd to think of a flesh and blood person making his way through the trivial vicissitudes of life, only to later be identified as the personification of some religion-historical force. Seems odder to be a neighbor who never got along with that guy. There had to have been some other member of the ethnic group/household led by Abraham who thought he was a jerk. What would that person think to know that the local good-old boy community leader who he thought totally full of shit is remembered 4,000 years later as the font of the most influential religious movement in history. Imagine learning that 4,000 years from now Chazz Uliano would be thought of as the key-stone of an entire civilization.
