Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>]

Dear forum,
I had intended to point out that Hjelm argues that there was not a split, but 
rather never had been a unity between these two distinct peoples: Jews and 
Samaritans.
Thomas

        In responding to Yitzhaq Sapir's remarks, 
         
        >I do not intend to enter a historical discussion with you, unless 
you intend
        >to be prepared to back up your objections and claims where they 
differ
        >from the currently established scholarly consensus or a major 
scholarly
        >position.
        

        Peter Kirk had responded:
        
        Well, on this issue there doesn't exactly seem to be an established
        consensus, from what Thomas Thompson and Kevin Edgecomb have just said
        on this list. (I am surprised to find myself in agreement with 
Thompson,
        but at least no one can accuse him of biblical fundamentalism!) And I
        don't accept that any one "major scholarly opinion" is sufficiently
        weighty that I have to argue against it in detail. But I have 
presented
        some of my own evidence for an earlier split, to which can be added 
the
        evidence from the excavations on Mount Gerizim. Of course such an 
early
        split was not necessarily complete, final and formalised until much
        later, and there may have been periods of mutual cooperation over a 
long
        period before that final split.