Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 15/08/2004 03:04, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 8/14/2004 6:52:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
> rosewalk AT concentric.net writes:
>
>
>  
>
> > In my experience, it is only people who do not believe in the Divine 
> > Origin of the Torah that believe it is historically not accurate.
> >    
>
> Then you have a lot of reading to catch up on--books by people who don't 
> address the "Divine Origin" of the Torah at all--but are still motivated to 
> vindicate its general accuracy.  And yet most of these still point out 
> inconsistencies and anachronisms.
> They exist because the Torah was written by humans who can have lapses in 
> knowledge and make errors.  Believe me, whoever wrote, for example, that Joseph 
> had access to "silver money" was not guided by a higher power.
>  

I think you misunderstood Shoshanna's logic, as she misunderstood mine.

There are those who believe in the "Divine Origin" of the Torah and 
believe that it is accurate (e.g. Shoshanna).

There are those who do not believe in the "Divine Origin" of the Torah 
but still believe that it is (in general) accurate (e.g. Marianne).

There are those who do not believe in the "Divine Origin" of the Torah 
and do not believe that it is accurate (e.g. the Copenhagen school).

But is there anyone who believes in the "Divine Origin" of the Torah but 
does not believe that it is accurate? If there is any disagreement among 
us, it is here. My opinion would be that there are such people who 
believe that the Torah is generally accurate but not necessarily so in 
every historical detail. But perhaps this depends on exactly what is 
meant by "Divine Origin".

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