Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 31/12/2005 03:57, Steve Franklin wrote:

> ...
> |
> | So, are you sayig that the story as told in Exodus was not
> | miraculous or did I mis-understand your posting.
> |
> Yes, I am saying that in its original form, it was not miraculous, just as the
> birth of Isaac when Sarah was 90 was not miraculous, but, in that particular
> case, the result of a doubling of the timeline sometime after the story was
> written. These folks were not idiots and their accounts were not written for
> idiots. They did not expect anyone to believe that these events were the 
> result
> of miracles, which I distinguish from instances of divine intervention; Sarah,
> after all, had reached menopause at the time. ...

Well, Steve, the question was not for you, but your answer gives me the 
chance to correct your misconceptions.

Do you really expect anyone reading the Exodus account to believe that 
it was not intended by the author to describe something miraculous? Is 
the parting of the sea not a miracle? (Here I leave aside the question 
of whether the events really happened.) As these folks were not indeed 
idiots, they would have realised that there was nothing special about 
Sarah conceiving at age about 45. But, as it is clearly known, they had 
a world view in which miracles did happen, and so they would have had no 
problem with the account as it stands, of Sarah giving birth at 90 and 
the sea parting to let the Israelites cross.

As for your sepculations on Egyptian chronology, you sound like a new 
Velikovsky, but I won't go into such off topic matters here.

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