Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Walter,
>
> I was disappointed that you chose not to take advantage of this opportunity
> to present your understandings about the Flood before this scholarly forum.
> I am sure that all would have profited from views from a different
> perspective.

I'd be happy to do just that if you will refrain from the offensive and
condescending tone.

> >From the little you did respond to, I would make the following 
> >observations.
>
> Dave:
> "I would simply point out that 10 generations before the flood and 10
> generations after
> seems a mite...convenient?  Hence there's every possibility that the lists
> are symbolic or representative."
>
> As you well know, some inerrantists are also "literalists", if Holy Writ
> says there was 10 generations before the Flood and after, and gives very
> specific years to the lives of these individuals, then that is how it is.
> Halley's Bible Handbook (1965), used by many Conservative Protestants (of
> coures, not all), gives the following "approximate" dates:

Walter, you should know that they key word there is "some."
"Some does not constitute "all."  Some humanists believe that
women are essentially a lower form of life.  Shall I place you in that
category because you classify yourself as a humanist?  This is the
kind of condescending, almost ridiculing, tone that I am talking
about.  As for Halley's, I have no idea why it says what it does
because I don't use it.

[snip]
> You have on earlier occasions proclaimed to this list that you are an
> inerrantist. I appreciate that declaration, for it helps me to understand
> "your presuppositions" when you you offer "your" interpretations about the
> texts. But as an inerrantist, would you please clarify for me which text is
> to be regarded "as inerrant," the Masoretic, The Septuagint (used by Early
> Christians), the Samaritan, or the Peshitta (Aramaic Christianity) ? I note
> disagreements amongst these texts on various data, like different ages for
> the 10 pre and post flood individuals. Which text is inerrant for you and
> why ?

The autographs, which we no longer have.  Once again you present
a straw man in order to try and ridicule me, and all you do is show
that either you are deliberately trying to bait me, or you simply
don't understand.  Searching out the autographs is why I am also
active in textual criticism.  So your question is invalid at its
foundation.

> In regards to the "hard evidence" of Flood deposits, Dave said:
>
> "I would also point out that traditional geology has to posit at least a
> dozen global floods to get
> the various strata, so the idea of such a thing is hardly lacking in "hard
> evidence."
>
> I'm not sure of what Dave is talking about, he doesn't give any particular
> time period, cite any sources or scholarly authorities and he gives no
> locations for the so-called "Global Floods."

Oh, come on.  Read a basic book on geology.  Strata, the kind
that are found in places like Wyoming's Wind River Canyon and
other places around the world, are laid down in moving water.  I
already said this, but you snipped it.  Try reading the whole of what
I wrote.

> In the Ancient Near East, where the biblical stories are situated, the only
> documented Flooding is that of the Nile or the Tigris and Euphrates river
> valleys. In Lower Mesopotamia microscopic analysis reveals that in every
> case the various flood deposits were freshwater silt from the flooding
> Euphrates and Tigris rivers, not a world engulfing saltwater flood as
> portrayed in Holy Writ that covered the mountain tops to a depth of 15
> cubits (Ge7:20).

I like the way you subtly threw in the word "saltwater," something
that neither I nor the texts mentioned.  In fact, in Genesis the water
comes from the sky and from underground, so it's doubtful it would
be saltwater.  Another unfounded assumption.

Archaeologists have concluded that these various Floods
> occurred at different times, in different locations within the confines of
> Lower Mesopotamia, and in no way totally destroyed mankind and his world,
> even locally (that is, that not all the cities of Lower Mesopotamia were
> simultaneously destroyed in one great Flood event).

When did these floods occur?  How far back do they go?  I already
addressed this.  We don't know when this event occurred, because
the genealogies are not a reliable criterion of chronology.  So in
terms of this archaeology, all I can say is "So what?"

Once again, if you will adopt a less derisive tone, we can discuss
the details.

[snip]
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Éist le glór Dé."