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b-hebrew - Re: The chicken or the egg?

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  • From: Banyai AT t-online.de (Banyai)
  • To: Leeroy AT cool.dk, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: The chicken or the egg?
  • Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 20:25:48 +0200


Leeroy Malachinski wrote:
> Hi B-Hebrew folks,
>
> I would greatly appreciate any help on the following.
>
> Suppose you have two stories in the Bible that clearly bear some kind of
> relationship to each other e.g., Gen. 19 & Judges 19 (Sodom & Gomorrah and
> the awful incident in Gibea) and many others like them. Does anybody know
> of any method(s) or considerations that allow clarifying which story was
> the earlier? Which story is throwing light on the other? Bibliography that
> deal with this question will also be greatly appreciated.

You have an interesting question Leeroy. The similarity between Gen. 19 &
Judges
19 is something has long preoccupied me. I don´t beleave there could be a
general
pattern how to judge in such cases, my personal opinion is that Gen. 19 is a
Levitic creation from during the Gibea incident, to offer the ideologic
platform,
first for the retaliations against the Benjaminintes, than later for sparing
the
lives of the few Benjaminite survivors.
What would have happpened if God would hae killed even Lot, no Moabites and
Ammonites more. One has to leave Sodom without looking back, to be spared.
What
if the Benjaminites wouldn´t be allowed to marry Israelite women, should they
come to an incestuous relation like Lots daughters?
Gen. 19 is apparently argumentational help made from disparte stories.

Of course, no minimalist could accept such an interpretation, since Gibea as
well
as Lot´s story were no history, and all the Bible is post Exilic.

Sadly you can not demonstrate the historicity of the Gibea story solely out
of
the text, so you´ll have a quid pro quod situation.

All the best,

Bányai Michael





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