Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Thomas,

Having followed this -- for want of better words -- "debate" from the time
my attention was drawn to it on this list, I noted in Shanks's response
that he specifically mentioned the University of Copenhagen as a breeding
ground for those nasty beasts, the minimalists. Will you yourself wear the
term with pride: are you a minimalist? What does it mean to you?

Shanks -- as you point out -- says some rather provocative things about the
sorta people who hang out at the Copenhagen den of iniquity. What do you
think motivated his venom?

Amongst other things he accuses you guys (the minimalists) of not being
motivated by pure scholarship and he says that this is widely acknowledged.
What is your comment on that? Is this the first time you have been accused
of being "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Jewish"? If not, what is it that brings
these accusations? And what is your response?

As you are often a man of few words <grin>, how would you describe your
work and its direction?


Yours,


Ian

>The recent article of Hershel Shanks in the newspaper Ha-'Aretz presenting a
>response to Ze'ev Hertzog presents a long series of misrepresentations (*)
>and/or slanders(**) against either Professor Hertzog or other scholars,
>among whom is the writer. The reader is invited to read Professor Hertzog's
>article, Niels Peter Lemche's Israel in History and Tradition (1998) or my
>The Mythic Past (1999= The Bible in History: London) to judge the truth of
>Shanks' attack.
>
>The misrepresentations and slanders are 

[omitted]