Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: The daughter of Jeftah died? (Was: David to Liz)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The daughter of Jeftah died? (Was: David to Liz)
  • Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 15:28:48 +0200


>> It means that we have a means of locating the writing in time.
>> We know who wrote the text and why. By "who" I mean that we
>> have some idea of the writer as a cultural entity. By "why" I
>> mean that we have some idea of the motivation behind the
>> production of the text. It is not a matter of signing a name,
>> but of knowing the context of the production of a text. If a
>> text cannot be contextualised, it doesn't mean that the
>> writer(s) wrote fiction, but that it cannot be treated as
>> historical information.
>
>Why? Your last sentence does not follow. Why do we need to know the context
>in order to treat it as historical information?

What makes historical information? One factor is that it can be
related to the period it claims to talk about. Contextualisation
is relating it to the period through various means.

You may treat any information as historical if you are not
committed to coherent criteria that states what historical
information can be. This treatment is personal and of little
use to anyone else.

So, please read the statement you were commenting on as saying
something like

>> it doesn't mean that the
>> writer(s) wrote fiction, but that a historian cannot treat
>> it as historical information.


Ian


>Now, if you wanted to say
>that in order to treat the text not as *reporting* historical fact but of
>indicating perceptions and theologies of the time of the writer, then yes,
>we need to place it in its context, but not if one is arguing that it is
>historical fact. Not that *I* would ever do such a thing... ;-)






  • Re: The daughter of Jeftah died? (Was: David to Liz), Ian Hutchesson, 06/04/2002

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page