Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>]

Dear Ian,

it was my own proposal to put an end to this wild polemic which I many
times perceive as unfair.

You should occasionaly apply for your interlocutors at least the same
argumentation standards:

if you lay weight on the late orthography of Tarshish, than allow your
interlocutor to draw your attention at the early orthography of Togarma

if one offers a realistic scenario for the anachronistic citation of
Alasia, do admit at least this as one possibility, you can not rule out
(thing you never realy tryed), instead of creating uncertain scenarios and
declaring them in an apodictic way as absolute truth

if you don´t know it better, don´t scorn others out about things they
never said so: my hints at Tabalka, Tegaramma made obvious that all these
entities may have become independent countries with the break of the
hethite empire - I haven´t written they were independent countries by the
time of the empire.

There is much more to write about the frustrating experience of this
polemic. I´ll think twice next time before answering your mails.

But in first instance don´t forget: the quality of a theory is to be
measured (when lacking direct controll) on how much it helps one to
understand things previously obscure, remaining outside of the previously
existing theories.

You have contributed to deepen the obscurity of what was previously
obscure.

All the best,

Bányai Michael