Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 8/5/05, Read, James C wrote:

> No. The biblical authors say a lot more about these kings, and several
> other archaeologically attested Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian kings,
> not to mention the Moabite Mesha` and various others, than just their
> names. In the Bible there is quite a lot of archaeologically confirmed
> information about their territories, their careers, their military
> campaigns etc etc.
> END QUOTE
> 
> I should expect that now he will answer something like 'This only proves
> that they knew their names and certain details about their territories,
> their careers...'.
> 
> It appears that they want external evidence for every single word of every
> book just because it now belongs in the canon and this seems to make them
> distrust it as a reliable source.
> If only other historical sources were so complete and so honest about the
> failings of their kings.

I was wondering, could you name some specific ANE historical source that is
not as complete or as honest as the Bible?  Also, if the Bible is so complete
and so honest, why does it "forget" to mention Ahab's participation in the
Battle of Qarqar, which is generally regarding as a successful attempt to 
thwart Assyrian advances.  Does the Bible perhaps want us to think that
Ahab was not an internationally recognized powerful king who made success-
ful military campaigns, but rather that he only participated in border
skirmishes?
Or why does Mesha in the Mesha stele claim he revolted under Omri's son?
Does he have some hidden agenda in claiming that?  Is it not possible that
the Bible just "slightly corrected" the date of revolt of Mesha so as to 
"fulfill" the prophecy in 1 Kings 21:28 - 29?

Yitzhak Sapir