Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <brocine AT earthlink.net>]

A note, friends, from the staff of b-hebrew:  We are not
going here...

Mr. Mattfeld wrote:
> I have been following with great interest the debates
about the dating of
> the Pentateuch. I suspect part of the problem in these
exchanges is that the
> players have not "laid all their cards on the table" for
the others to see.

It is best for all on the list if members *do not* lay all
their cards on the table.  If we begin to put forth our
faith positions (or non-faith positions), the discussion
cannot help but turn to public attempts to criticize the
faith positions of others, and, in a broad sense of the
term, to prosyletize one another to our own faith (or
non-faith) positions.  To the contrary, our list charter
expressly forbids debate about faith (and non-faith)
positions.  Theology in its broadest conception and
hermeneutics in its most divergent approaches are not
appropriate topics for discussion in this forum in and of
themselves.  In other words, while we may *tolerate* a
little theology or hermeneutics that sneaks into a thread,
we will not tolerate a thread devoted to theology,
hermeneutics or sectarian doctrine.  Even humanist doctrine
does not enjoy any special priviledges on this list.  We
believe the discussion on the list can be instructive and
fulfilling even if members do not reveal and discuss their
particular faiths and biases.

> I had noted in an earlier post that archaeology and
geology have failed to
> find the proof of Noah's flood that covered the tops of
mountains and which
> destroyed all humankind except those save on the ark.  I
accordingly take
> the Humanist perspective that the dialogs between God, the
serpent, Adam,
> Eve, Noah and Moses are all fantasy, from the mind of the
narrator. If the
> flood didn't happen as we assured by geologists and
archaeologists, then
> obviously the bible's dialogs are all fictious and not to
be trusted. Why
> should I accept the narrator's claims that what I am
reading are Moses
> words, when I know he has earlier in Genesis fed me false
information about
> a world encompassing flood ?

I think the topics introduced in the above paragraph invite
the kind of sectarian discussion we want to avoid.  List
traffic has been voluminous and fulfilling without such
topics.

<noted and snipped>

Thank you, all, for your cooperation.

Shalom,
Bryan Rocine
b-hebrew staff