Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Rochelle:

Your theories are certainly running into a bunch of skepticism as they
pertain to Biblical period Jews and Judaism.

On 10/26/06, rochelle altman <willaa AT netvision.net.il> wrote:
> Look, JCR,
>
> ...
> For JCR only, it seems:Here goes:
>
> The points which you clearly have failed to understand are these:
>
> 1) These were "city" mice forced to wander in a waste.
Where is your evidence for this? These were not the overlords, but
conscripted workers, and from what I know of history, most such
workers were recruited from the farms, vineyards and sheepfolds of
rural regions until only the last couple of centuries in developed
countries (even today in countries like Bangladesh).

> 2) "City" mice are accustomed to customs.
All people are accustomed to customs. What you need to show is that
the customs in the cities were also found among farming villagers and
hamlets.

> 3) Custom hardens into rules very fast..
>
> 4) The customs in the ANE required certain dimensions and formats for
> presenting legal documents as coming from an authority.
Even among nomadic and seminomadic peoples? Even among rural peoples?

> 5) The tablets would have had to meet these expected customary forms to be
> accepted as authoritative... whether or not there was a wall to display
> them on. In this case, they were placed in a carry-case called an ark
This is a leap, to say that they had to be tablets.

> 6) Moshe is described as following custom when he presents the tablets to
> the people.
Where is this found in Tanakh? Or are you making assumptions based on
ANE customs from other peoples?

> 7) From the evidence of the PaleoLev scroll, once there were walls to put
> them on, they followed custom and displayed the Torah on the wall. (They
> also returned to "city" mousery as soon as they could... something that
> tends to be ignored.)
History, as presented in Tanakh, indicates that there were no official
walls that could be used for displaying official documents where the
"temple" (which was a tent until Solomon) was for nearly five
centuries after Torah was written. And the evidence, again  from
Tanakh, is that the walls of Solomon's temple were not used for
displaying official religious documents.

> 8) The customs of the ANE in presenting authoritative documents continued
> in use essentially unchanged through the entire Greco-Roman, Medieval, and
> early Renaissance periods
But did Judea follow that custom? While you have done well in
documenting those customs from ANE to the modern time, you have not
shown any examples from Biblical era Judea. Just because other nations
practiced certain customs does not mean that Biblical era Jews did.
The latter may have continued customs that go back to Abraham or
before and the nomadic lifestyle that they practiced.

> 9) Remnants of these ancient customs survive to this day.(e.g. legal size
> paper; black equals law; stripes equal rank).
>
> 10) If you wish to maintain otherwise, you must provide the contradictory
> evidence.
>
> ....
>
> risa
>
> Dr. Rochelle I. S. Altman

You mention "the evidence of the PaleoLev scroll" to back up your
claims. But there are many of us who see no such evidence. All we see
is an old document written in an ancient font, different from the
modern fonts, an ancient font that was already a cursive from an even
more ancient font that the original author may have used.

Karl W. Randolph.