Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ruthy & Baruch" <alster AT comandcom.com>]

Niels Peter Lemche wrote:

<snip>

> In a scholarly discourse, anything that relates to the supranatural must
be
> left out of consideration. And I do not care whether or not you will
agree,
> but I would fail and probably any scholar worth his or her salt would do
the
> same if a student here wrote a thesis and included such ideas as the ones
> you have been advocating in this mail and other similar answers to this
> list. Try to get focused on the subject of scholarship. I do not want to
be
> more rude than necessary but a scolarly discussion belongs to a scholarly
> list and a discussion about personal religious sentiments and convictions
> belong in a religious list where such subjects are discussed.

Please do not take this question as rude, Prof. Lemche, but would you have
"failed" D.I. Block's book on Ezekiel because of his "theological
implications" of the various oracles?  Even though I personally - as an
Orthodox Jew - do not share many of his religious beliefs, I still see this
as definitely a scholarly work.  And what about George Mendenhall's _The
Tenth Generation_, where he discusses a certain miraculous incident which
he says happened in Turkey?  Even though it might be nice for some of us to
do away with religious beliefs in scholarly discussion, I think the
examples I just gave prove that this is not a wise thing to do.

Kol Tuv,
Baruch Alster
Kochav Ya`akov, Israel