Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Bill,

You wrote:-
>>>You've brought up Kuntillat Ajrud many times, but given what the texts
>>>tell us about that time it would be very strange if we never found
>>>evidence like this. The texts tell us that the exclusive worship of
>>>YHWH alone was a minority position. Time and time again the texts tell
>>>us the majority were polytheistic. One only need read Jeremiah to
>>>realize how firmly entrenched polytheism was in Judah.

I replied:-
>>What are your eye witnesses to the existence of that minority position,
>>Bill? (The biblical texts cannot be given eye-witness status, as we can
>>only get back to the second century BCE with what we have.)

You rejoined:
>If you read my statement you would have seen that I did not claim that
>there were any eye-witnesses. 

If you read my statement you would have seen that I did not claim that you
had claimed that there were any eye-witnesses. I simply asked you to supply
some.

[..]

>I am not arguing for a blind acceptance of the total historical
>accuracy of the texts, but they certainly appear to me to have 
>a greater historical memory than you, and some others on this list,
>are willing to concede. My point about Kuntillat Ajrud is that it
>seems consistent with what the texts tell us about that period,
>hence, to me, it is further evidence of their historical core.

I have been arguing that noone seems to have any way to know what in the
texts, if anything, relates to the period they purport to. 

>If you're going pick on my use of the book of Jeremiah, I am aware of
>the differences between the LXX and the Masoretic text. But it seems to
>me that if the book were composed centuries after the facts, that it
>would be next to impossible to correctly get names like Baruch ben
>Neriah and others to match clay seals which were buried at the time and
>only recently recovered. Again, to me, evidence of a clear historical
>core.

Then you might refrain from trying to use the texts as surrogates for
historically verified sources.


Ian