[b-hebrew] Was Abraham Born in Mesopotamia?
JimStinehart at aol.com
JimStinehart at aol.com
Mon Nov 5 14:11:16 EST 2007
Uzi:
You wrote: “what is the prevailing opinion of modern secular scholarship
regarding the identification of kasdim with kassites?”
The prevailing view of academic secular scholars, although it is wrong, is
that “Kasdim” is not “Kasdim”, but rather is “Chaldeans”. The Chaldeans
were not prominent until the 1st millennium BCE. If we let people get away
with saying that “Kasdim” is “Chaldeans”, then we have forfeited any
historicity of the Patriarchal narratives.
The author of the Patriarchal narratives had never heard of the Chaldeans,
who did not yet exist in his day.
We should be brave enough to look at what the text actually says. There is
nothing about “Chaldeans” in the Patriarchal narratives. There is nothing
about Abraham’s “am”/people/ancestors living in Mesopotamia prior to Abraham’
s birth in the Patriarchal narratives. There is nothing about Abraham
speaking broken Hebrew, or miraculously learning Hebrew on the fly, when he
leaves Harran and travels to southeastern Canaan. Nothing like that is in the
text.
The Hebrews were indigenous to Canaan or greater Canaan. That’s what
academic secular scholars have verified in the last 30 years or so, and that’s what’
s been in the Patriarchal narratives all along.
The text of the Patriarchal narratives is perfect, as is. But we must look
at what the text actually says. The conventional misunderstandings of the
Patriarchal narratives are completely non-historical.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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