Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Kirk [mailto:Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]
> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 5:22 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: Genesis
>
>
> Liz, I take this personally. I do not "accept" these four sources. Well,
> what do you mean by "accept"? Do you mean be "*certain*" of this
> position? I
> certainly am not, or to put it another way, I give the probability of the
> documentary hypothesis not corresponding to reality as considerably larger
> than .000000001. Does that make me not a *scholar*? Or does it
> just make me
> not dogmatic?
I should have said that I personally am not aware of any who
do not accept the view. People argue over the dates, but I didn't know
of any who didn't accept it.  What is the alternative?

>
> And what is this Bayes' Theorem you are talking about it? Is it
> the same one
> I learned about when studying probability at high school? If so,
> I think you
> need to learn again when this theorem applies and when it does
> not. I don't
> remember it having anything to do with people with disparate
> beliefs coming
> to agree.
Dear Peter, there is a lot more to probablity theory and statistics
than what you learned in high school.
Liz

>
> Peter Kirk
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
> To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 5:46 PM
> Subject: RE: Genesis
>
>
> <snip>
> >
> > Every *scholar* accepts these four sources in the Pentateuch.
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > <<However, this view is not supported by conclusive evidence, >>
> > There is a law of evidence called Bayes' Theorem. It says that rational
> > people, no matter
> > how disparate their original beliefs, will come to the same opinion in
> time,
> > if given sufficient and identical evidence -- PROVIDED that they are not
> > *certain* of their original position. People who are dogmatic, and
> > completely fixed in their original position will not change
> their mind no
> > matter how convincing the evidence, or no matter how much of it
> they see.
> >
> >
> > <<and intensive archaeological and literary research has
> undercut many of
> > the arguments used to challenge Mosaic authorship.>>
> >
> > Archaeological and  literary research has rendered Mosaic authorship
> nearly
> > impossible,
> > I'd say the probability of Mosaic authorship is .000000001.
> (According to
> > Bayes' theorem,
> > my giving it even that much probability leaves me capable of changing my
> > mind if suffient and overwhelming evidence exists, like for example they
> > find his grave on Mt. Nebo with a torah in it, preferably in OLd Kingdom
> > Hieroglyphics.).
> >
> <snip>
>
>
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