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  • From: Oun Kwon <kwonbbl AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Robert Alter on Joseph
  • Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:04:29 -0400

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 8:46 PM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
>
>
<clipped>
>
> 2.  Where you’ve got the facts slightly wrong is Prof. Alter’s reaction to
> my suggestion that all people’s ages in the Patriarchal narratives are set
> forth in terms of 6-month “years”.  I believe that was the idea of mine
> that Prof. Alter characterized as being “ingenious”.  However, Prof. Alter
> was
> expressly noncommittal as to whether my “ingenious” theory of the
> Patriarchs’ ages was correct or not.  Prof. Alter did  n-o-t  agree that
> Joseph was age 8½ regular years in chapter 37 of Genesis.
>
<clipped>

> Jim Stinehart

It IS ingenious, for sure.

When compared to the theory of Arthur Earle (using a base 7 number
system to account for those ages after Noah), '6-moths' ages and 'base
7' ages do come out quite comparable.

It should be noted that Earle did pinpoint exactly when the people
changed to a decimal base system in his meticulous study of OT
narratives.

Oun Kwon.




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