Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Goldsmith" <iangoldsmith1969 AT yahoo.co.uk>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 7:04 AM
Subject: RE: Raqiyah


> Everyone has an opinion on the verses we read. Some
> are based on the little we see and know, some based on
> faith. Perhaps we'd better stick the text itself,
> conclusions are a very private thing for the
> individual. Bashing those opinions about is a little
> rude, even when I do it!

Isn't BH supposed to address the linguistic aspect?  Since language, of
course, is cultural we are dealing with Bronze Age, Iron I and Iron II
cultures.  We should be discussing it in that context rather than whether
moderns may believe which Bronze Age myth preceded the others and whether
moderns actually believe the cosmos was carried around on the back of a
giant turtle.

Let's get real. Genesis was probably composed around the 9th or 8th century
BCE when it was believed that a solid vault from which the "heavenly lights"
shone was stretched over an earth held up on foundations.  Raqiya is an 8th
century BCE word, not a 21st century one.


Jack