Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Henry,

If you'd cut the provocative rhetoric (found at the end of your post),
could you tell the world what your problem is with the content of the
quotation? Please show me your historical efforts so that I can understand
what your gripe is really about. Do you disagree with the the historical
implications and have something to back your dissent up or are you just
bleeding in public?

>I'm not going to continue this discussion, 

You haven't started in "this discussion". You haven't discussed anything.
I'd be happy to hear whatever evidence you'd like to bring to bear.


Cheers,


Ian

>because, frankly
>not much that you've said in response to my messages has been
>particularly worthy of much reply (though I hasten to assure
>you that I have no doubts about your institutional status as a
>professor) -- but what I said about the website was factual at
>a simple and direct level.  I quote:
>
>    One of the world's leading Biblical archaeologists concludes that
>    the Old Testament offers absolutely no credible historical data
>    on the early history of Israel.  Its often startling assertions
>    will make for a powderkeg of a book.  Among the author's
>    conclusions are these: There never was a "united monarch" [Saul,
>    David, Solomon] in history We can no longer talk about a time of
>    the Patriarchs.  The entire notion of "Israel" and its history is a
>    literary fiction.  The Jewish people's historical claims to
>    Israel, the small area bordering the eastern Mediterranean, is
>    not only the foundation for the modern state of Israel...
>
>The webmaster refrained from adding at the end, "Take that, you evil
>Zionists", and I commend him for his relative subtlety on this point  ;-)