The whole Genesis story is fiction - there's nothing useful about it except fanciful entertainment.
The whole book of Genesis is fiction? Or just the creation story?
Genesis covers a lot of time and territory. Maybe billions of years.
Naw... Only 6000 years... /s
Whatever. But I would bet a lot of the book has a basis in real events. Cain and Abel could have been two tribes where a bunch of nomadic herders wiped out some farmers that were irritable over the nomad's animals eating their crops. As to the flood, we know the ocean spilled over into what is now the Black Sea, the deposing of Esau in a conspiracy by Jacob and his mother is believable. The slaughter of the Shechemites by Simeon's and Levi's men could easily be based in an event. Moving on further into the other books the destruction of Jericho probably did result from an earthquake at an opportune time. The David and Goliath story is believable in that a teenage sharpshooter could knock a huge opponent unconscious and then behead him with Goliath's own sword.
Surely a lot of the bible including Jesus' parables are allegories meant to convey a lesson but there are many cases where the historical parts have some basis in fact and real events. I'm sure the writers took some liberty and license in their recording of long ago oral history.
