Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

On the contrary, Jim. Walter's article (did you have time to read it?)
implies the unhistoricity of the account. It implies that it was made up by
someone well after the event who knew in general terms about quail being
toxic - presumably a well known phenomenon - but got mixed up on a lot of
the details: the location, the time of year, how quickly the poison acts
(not while they were still eating but minimum one hour later), and who it
would kill (not large numbers of the strongest men but only a few of the
elderly). 

If we assume historicity, at least for the sake of the hypothesis, we see a
rather different and more coherent picture. The Israelites, having lived in
Egypt for hundreds of years, would have been well acquainted with quail as a
food source and would have known well that those arriving from the north in
autumn are poisonous. But when they came across quail arriving in spring on
the shores of the southern sea, as the account states, they would have
expected them to be edible - and all the more so as they had eaten quail at
the same time the year before without ill effects, Exodus 16:13 - both are
dated to the second month, counting the Passover as the first month (Ex
16:1, Num 10:11). So it was a surprise to them that these quail were toxic,
and so seriously so that they killed strong men within seconds. There may be
no obvious medical explanation, but none is needed because the explanation
is given in the text, the anger of YHWH.

People of faith will recognise that the creator God can put people to death,
and bring them back to life, as he chooses - though they may struggle with
the ethical questions of why he sometimes decides to do so. While sometimes
he uses scientifically describable means to do such things, he is certainly
not bound to.

People without faith will I hope at least recognise that this is not a forum
to ridicule those of us who do have it.

Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jim West
> Sent: 01 June 2003 19:03
> To: Walter R Mattfeld
> Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Miracle of the Quail article (Nu 11:31-35)
> 
> At 01:52 PM 6/1/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >For those interested, I have a new article titled
> >The Exodus and the "Miracle" of the Quail at Kib`roth-hatta`avah (Nu
> >11:31-35; 33: 16-17; Ps 78:26-31). The article explores the "evidence"
> for
> >migratory quail in the Sinai and a MEDICAL explanation of the PLAGUE by
> >which Yahweh-Elohim struck down his ungrateful people at
> >Kib`roth-hatta`avah. Cf. the following url
> 
> but doesnt the very notion of a medical explanation require one to assume
> historicity?
> 
> Jim
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> Jim West
> 
> Biblical Studies Resources
> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
> 
> Quantum ad sensum tribuis, tantum spiritui detraxeris-  Zwingli.
>