[b-hebrew] repost of full question

K Randolph kwrandolph at gmail.com
Tue Apr 22 15:54:48 EDT 2008


Dear Dirk:
Dr. Rolf Furuli is a professor teaching Hebrew and Semitic languages at a
university. Dr. Harold Holmyard really knows original languages,
translations and many cross references in the Bible. As for me, my only
claim to fame is that I have read the Old Testament many times through in
Hebrew, and wrote a dictionary for my personal use to help me in
understanding the text. Now you, a computer programmer, on the basis of
Strong's numbers and the definitions he wrote (he did not have a reputation
as a linguist) are lecturing us?

First of all, you are missing a king, Darius the Mede. The Bible does not
say how long he reigned, just that he was 62 years old when he took over the
kingdom (Daniel 6:1 (5:31 in English)). According to prophecy the Medes were
to be in ascendency first, to be followed by the Persians. But according to
Isaiah 44:24–45:4, Cyrus, not Darius, was to restore the temple and have
people return. Therefore Darius the Mede, who continued the Babylonian
Captivity, who was nominally the king of Babylon by means of conquest, was
not to be connected with the end of the exile, nor the completion of the 70
years desolation.

Secondly, you are insisting on a sequence of events that the prophecies do
not.

Third, while you may be correct about the Babylonian records (did they
mention the acting king Belshazzar?), how good are those concerning the
Medo-Persian period? From what I read, very poor.

Finally, if there is a difference between Biblical dating, and secular
historical consensus, I trust the Biblical dating far more than historical
consensus, therefore question the historical consensus. That's my personal
practice, others disagree.

This is my 2¢, and I do not intend to argue the point. You sound like a
person with an agenda, out to prove your theory. It that's the case, count
me out.

Yours, Karl W. Randolph.


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