Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Christian M. M. Brady" <cbrady AT tulane.edu>]

On 6/3/02 4:22 PM, "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> wrote:

> You must have me mixed up with someone else.
> I don't think the story is historical, and I don't have anything
> bothering me. I'm trying to get people to realize that
> their statements carry implications, that assumptions
> are embedded which, upon closer examination, may not
> pan out.
> When you say "brought together" by  a D narrator,
> who was that D-narrator, when did he live, how did
> he know the story?
> I sense the anger these questions arouse; we tend to
> get angry when we run up against questions which
> challenge the bedrock of our faith, of who we are as people.

But Lisbeth, your questions, valid though they are, do not undermine or
challenge whether or not the events were historical. I think everyone would
agree that we cannot *prove* (beyond the text) that these events happened.
In the same way none of us can *prove* (beyond the text) any theories about
authorship and transmission with respect to, well most of the biblical
texts. 

As I said your questions are valid, but irrelevant in terms of evaluating
historicity. 

Cb
cbrady @ tulane.edu
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