Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>>> of and I 'believe' them to be in origin much older
>>> than the later books (in regards of narrative).
>>
>>...Why don't you attempt to give some substance to
>>your belief in the age 
>>of the texts? ....
>>
>>You should read about Erra, Gilgamesh, Zuisudra,
>>Sinouhe, Wen-Amun and 
>>a host of others who are definitely pre-biblical to
>>get a perspective 
>>of the literature of the Ancient Near East. Of course
>>there is a lot of 
>>religious literature as well, Mesopotamian, Ugaritic,
>>Egyptian...
>
>Thanks for the tip. I've read Gilgamesh and found it
>thoroughly unimpressive in comparison with Genesis.
>I've little interest in reading the others mentioned
>if they're like it.
>
>Yes. The key word that you kindly quoted from my
>previous message is 'believe'. I may have little
>'evidence' as you see it (all 'evidence' is subject to
>interpretation), but I still believe in the
>superiority of the texts of the OT over such as
>Gilgamesh etc. 

("Superiority"? What do you mean exactly?)

>Most of the OT and the NT assign Mosaic authorship to
>the Torah (Gen,Ex,Lev,Num,Josh,Kngs,Mal etc.). This
>comes from historical characters (most of which due to
>the lack of evidence to validate them, probably didn't
>exist right?), much older than a handful of 21st
>century grad's looking to rubbish the texts. 

Who's looking to rubbish the texts, someone who is 
interested enough to find out about their milieu or 
someone who doesn't care about when, where, or why 
they were written, nor the background to their 
writing?

>They must
>all be incorrect in their beliefs though right?
>
>We seem both to have a religion in action here, mine a
>faith in the texts and the God of the texts and yours
>of a humanistic nature, but if I'm not mistaken I am
>as entitled to my 'point of view' as you are.
>
>If you find it irritating to have someone like me
>stick to those beliefs in the face of your 'evidence'
>then perhaps you may wish to just politely disagree
>and not waste your time in debating the point.

My major problem, Ian, is when one states positions in 
public, I would consider those positions should be 
defendable.


Ian