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  • From: "Oun Kwon" <kwonbbl AT gmail.com>
  • To: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaac's Age at the Binding Incident
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:37:00 -0400

Hi Jim,

Is 6-month year your idea? Intriguing to read as it explains the ages
of those people.

Have you read "The Bible Dates Itself by Arthur Earle (1974)". He
gives the solution: They were using base 7 system, not base 10 system.
And he pinpointed at what time (the king in the throne) the change
over occurred. [He does not cover those ages before Noah].

Oun.

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 2:48 PM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams:
>
> You wrote: "You have stated that 'All ages in the Patriarchal narratives
> are set forth in
> terms of 6-month 'years.' This has not been proved to anyone's
> satisfaction.
> "
>
> What you say is correct. Here is a representative sampling of scholarly
> opinion on this subject:
>
> 1. "[P]rodigious life spans [are] attributed to the Patriarchs." John J.
> Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (2004) at p. 84.
>
> 2. "The actual chronological place of this event [Isaac's death, reported
> at
> Genesis 28: 29] is obviously considerably earlier in the narrative. The
> biblical writers observe no fixed commitment to linear chronology, a
> phenomenon
> recognized by the rabbis in the dictum, 'there is neither early nor late in
> the
> Torah'." Robert Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary (1996),
> footnote
> 29 at p. 201.
>
> 3. "The over-all chronological scheme [of the Patriarchal narratives]
> remains obscure." E.A. Speiser, Genesis (1962) at p. 126.
>
> By contrast to modern scholars, the Hebrews understood the ages of the
> Patriarchs. The Koran understands the ages of the Patriarchs. And the
> medieval
> Christian scribes who put chapter and verse numbers into the Bible in the
> Middle
> Ages understood the ages of the Patriarchs.
>
> But you are right that modern scholars are totally baffled by the ages of
> the
> Patriarchs. Although the internal timeline of the Patriarchal narratives in
> fact makes perfect sense, without a single number being a "mistake" or not
> fitting in perfectly, modern scholars have been unable to figure out that
> internal timeline. Modern scholars also do not understand the way in which
> each
> character's ages are set forth in the text.
>
> The above scholarly quotations speak for themselves.
>
> The scholarly view is that P put in all the numbers, and that P's numbers
> are
> unfathomable. But why would P take the time to put a whole series of
> numbers
> into the Patriarchal narratives, where allegedly all characters' ages are
> way
> too old to be believable, and even worse, allegedly the internal timeline of
> the Patriarchal narratives is incoherent to a fault? Though that is the
> modern scholarly view of the case, is that scholarly view a rational
> explanation
> that is the slightest bit convincing?
>
> Do you realize that not a single modern scholar has taken the time to figure
> out that the reason why Abraham finds out about Rebekah at Genesis 22:
> 20-24,
> after the binding incident and before Sarah's death, is because that is when
> Abraham's father Terakh died? That's straight mathematics, as shown in my
> post. And it works regardless of how one interprets a "year". No modern
> scholar for the last 50 years has made a serious, sustained attempt to try
> to figure
> out how the internal timeline of the Patriarchal narratives works.
>
> Modern scholars have not come up with any proposal for understanding either
> (i) the stated ages of people in the Patriarchal narratives, or (ii) the
> internal timeline of the Patriarchal narratives. You are right that modern
> scholars
> do not endorse the concept of a 6-month "year" being used for all people's
> stated ages in the Patriarchal narratives, or for periods of time the
> Patriarchs spend in Canaan. But it is also true that modern scholars have
> no
> alternative of their own to propose in this regard, other than to say that
> the numbers
> used in the Patriarchal narratives are "obscure".
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
>
>
>




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