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  • From: Banyai AT t-online.de (Michael Banyai)
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] The Golden Calf & the Hathor Cult of Sinai ?
  • Date: 19 Sep 2004 19:08 GMT

Dear Peter,

it has little sense what you are doing. You are creating a religious rule out
of something what is clearly a problematic exception, namely the interdiction
at the Sinai.

This interdiction was apparently so widely unknown, that the highpriest at
the idolatric temple of Dan was according to the book of Judges a descendent
of Moses. I suppose that the Sinai story was so little known even within the
family of Moses, that it remained secret till well after the time of Solomon
as it resurfaced.

Now to your objection, it would be no need to the Sinai story to contain
historical even if in deformated form. I must contradict you since the Bible
in its Judahite version was not created in the desert but indeed in
contradiction to the traditions of the northern kingdom. So should a judahite
redactor have intended to push his theological view through, than it had to
use the same rough material and pre-emptively accuse the Israelites of
manipulating facts and divine oracles, like the one quoted at Sinai.

This would have been the usual quid pro quod: an invention out of nihil would
have only discredited the judahite version. The best manipulations are those
which use at large pieces of truth.

But probably your reluctance to follow is rather your personal disinterest in
history. Should one wish to extract history out of the biblical material, one
would have to make a decision, what the material he is working with is or has
to say.

You are not taking any decision but this is your own particular choice since
the material available is plenty enough to support a hypothesis in my
direction. My hypothesis makes the happening at Sinai not to be a premonition
by 500 years of things which have to realy happen only that much later.

And this makes sense so.

Best regards,

Bányai Michael
Stuttgart




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