Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

Stephen Segall <segall AT umich.edu> wrote:
"..many biblical scholars contend that there is no evidence that the Exodus
actually took place..." 
 
 this is contrasted with a book that

."....shows that in addition toarcheological evidence and comparison with 
other ancient documents, the...accuracy with which the phenomena are 
described can give some indicationof the accuracy of the rest of the story. 
In the case of the Exodus, the
phenomena described are sufficiently rare and localized that there is
virtually no possibility they would have been included in the story if the
Exodus did not occur. ."

There is another approach. What we have in Exodus is a reflection in outline 
of memories of real events. These memories can be acccepted as genuine  for a 
bondage of some Hebrews in Egypt, a lucky escape of some of them , a 
leadership of a man whose name they remembered in truncated form, and, 
significantly,  the beginning of their new religion under a god who does not 
tolerate other gods. This outline can perhaps be broadened, but not to a 
point where hitsoriography, in the modern sense,  can be written.
 
All reconstructions as to dates, toponyms and so forth must remain 
speculative till new evidence turns up.
 
It needs hardly be pointed out that the ancient authors and redactors of 
these narratives would have been mortified by the possibility of natural 
exlanations that detract in any way Yahweh's ability tp perform miracles.
 
Uri

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew


                
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!
>From peterkirk AT qaya.org  Mon Aug  2 18:53:12 2004
Return-Path: <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
Delivered-To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from pan.hu-pan.com (hu-pan.com [67.15.6.3])
        by happyhouse.metalab.unc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 161092002D
        for <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Mon,  2 Aug 2004 18:53:12 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from [213.162.124.237] (helo=[127.0.0.1])
        by pan.hu-pan.com with asmtp (Exim 4.34)
        id 1Brlg7-00015X-5g; Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:53:11 +0100
Message-ID: <410EC5DA.1040105 AT qaya.org>
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:53:14 +0100
From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
        rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616
X-Accept-Language: en-gb, en, en-us, az, ru, tr, he, el, fr, de
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Stephen Segall <segall AT umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Evidence for the Exodus
References: <1a0.27ac0946.2e3fc690 AT aol.com>
        <Pine.SOL.4.58.0408021410500.5398 AT mspacman.gpcc.itd.umich.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.4.58.0408021410500.5398 AT mspacman.gpcc.itd.umich.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse,
        please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - pan.hu-pan.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - lists.ibiblio.org
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [0 0] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - qaya.org
X-Source: 
X-Source-Args: 
X-Source-Dir: 
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-BeenThere: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4
Precedence: list
List-Id: Hebrew Bible List <b-hebrew.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>,
        <mailto:b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/b-hebrew>
List-Post: <mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>,
        <mailto:b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 22:53:12 -0000

On 02/08/2004 19:31, Stephen Segall wrote:

>The eruption of Mt. Sinai, the burning bush and the backup of the Jordan
>River were rare and localized phenomena. ...
>

The eruption of a granite massif like the traditional Mt. Sinai would be 
not just rare, but unique in the whole of geological history and strong 
confirmation of "Yahweh's ability tp perform miracles". So perhaps the 
mountain you have in mind is not the one which currently often goes by 
that name?


-- 
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/