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  • From: Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Job & Sumer
  • Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 22:23:52 -0600

On Thursday 10 June 2004 21:06, david.kimbrough AT charter.net wrote:
> Harold,
>
> I would point out that according to traditional
> chronologies the Isrealites were in captivity in Egypt at
> this time. An unlikely place and population to influce
> Sumerian poetry.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that the Israelites
were captives in Egypt during the entire patriarchal period?

> We can only go on the evidence at hand. There is no
> evidence of any kind for the existence of the Hebrew
> language or Hebrew versions of Job-like poems around 1700
> BC. If new evidence arises, it can be considered. Without
> evidence of some sort, it is just speculation.

As I pointed out in another post, there's no evidence that there wasn't such
a
language or body of poetry, either. Arguments from silence get us nowhere,
but it amazes me how many folks like to lean on them.

> > From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
> > Date: 2004/06/11 Fri AM 02:49:42 GMT
> > To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Job & Sumer
> >
> > Dear David K.,
> >
> > In support of Dave Washburn's possibility thinking,
>
> some ancient
>
> > orderings of the biblical books put Job right after the
>
> Pentateuch,
>
> > and this may be due to the thought that Job lived in the
>
> patriarchal
>
> > times. A popular conservative dating for Abraham puts his
>
> birth in
>
> > 2166 B.C. By that scheme, if Job had been contemporary
>
> with Abraham,
>
> > then his story could have been written prior to 1700 B.C.
>
> I've
>
> > recently been reading about the canon, and the fact came
>
> up that the
>
> > ancient rabbinic Jews had several conceptions about when
>
> Job should
>
> > be dated, and a patriarchal date was one of them.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Harold Holmyard
> >
> > >Sure, why not? We're dealing with what I call the
>
> accident of preservation,
>
> > >for one thing. The LXX and DSS were done on parchment
>
> or papyrus, whereas
>
> > >the Sumerian documents were done on fired clay. Is one
>
> likely to survive
>
> > >longer than the other? I would hope so. Furthermore,
>
> the DSS are not the
>
> > >oldest examples of "recorded Hebrew writing" that we
>
> have. ISTM that the
>
> > >paragraph below has one standard for Sumerian and
>
> another for Hebrew, which
>
> > >is not a valid procedure. We have no real idea how old
>
> the Hebrew language
>
> > >is, and were it not for the accident of preservation, we
>
> wouldn't have any
>
> > >idea that Sumerian ever existed. Basing such crucial
>
> decisions on the whims
>
> > >of nature seems like shaky ground to me.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
> David Kimbrough
> San Gabriel
>
> _______________________________________________
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--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Learning about Christianity from a non-Christian
is like getting a kiss over the telephone.





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