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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen vs. Single Author
  • Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 19:24:55 EST


Bill Rea:
You wrote: “In the DH vs single-author hypothesis, there are a large number
of problems with a single author hypothesis for which the supporters
engage in all sorts of special pleading. For a number of these problems
you don't even have to be able to read Hebrew, they can be seen in most
English translations. Ultimately it becomes simpler, i.e. more
parsimonious, to believe that the text was composed by combining several
earlier closely related traditions.”
What you say may apply to the Hebrew Bible as a whole, or to the first five
books of the Bible. But does it apply to the Patriarchal narratives?
1. As to the Patriarchal narratives, what are the “large number
of problems with a single author hypothesis for which the supporters
engage in all sorts of special pleading. For a number of these problems
you don't even have to be able to read Hebrew, they can be seen in most
English translations.”
I know of no such items in the Patriarchal narratives (except for a tiny
handful of glosses).
1. Moreover, virtually nothing in the Patriarchal narratives is similar
to what is in the rest of the Bible, and vice versa. If the DH is right
and the same 4 people who wrote the Book of Exodus also wrote the Patriarchal

narratives, why is the point of view so dramatically different? As the tip
of
the iceberg, the Book of Exodus hates Egypt, whereas the Patriarchal
narratives love Egypt.
1. When I assert that the Patriarchal narratives were composed by a
single author in the mid-14th century BCE, what sort of “special pleading”
am I
resorting to?
1. No university scholar ever discusses the Patriarchal narratives in
the context of the mid-14th century BCE. How then can we be sure that
there
is no such connection, if no university scholar will discuss the matter?
Isn’
t that a form of academic “special pleading”? I can match every foreign
policy event in the received text of the Patriarchal narratives to what
happened in Year 14 of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign. Where is the “special
pleading”?
1. No one on the b-Hebrew list has yet come up with a single story in
the entirety of the Patriarchal narratives that is out of place in a
mid-14th
century BCE secular historical context. Academic scholars never discuss
that subject. If my theory of the case is wrong, why then isn’t there at
least
one story in the text that does not fit the mid-14th century BCE?
Please specify where I am engaging in “special pleading”. In particular,
please identify at least one story in the Patriarchal narratives that does
not
fit a mid-14th century BCE context, absent “special pleading”. As
previously discussed on the b-Hebrew list, there were camels in existence in
the
mid-14th century BCE, and nothing about the “Philistines” in the Patriarchal
narratives is redolent in any way, shape or form of the classic Philistines
who
lived in five grand cities on the southwest coast of Canaan beginning in the
early 12th century BCE. Am I engaging in “special pleading” to point that
out? Certainly the “Philistines” in the Patriarchal narratives are not the
later classic Philistines.
Please identify at least one story in the Patriarchal narratives that does
not fit a mid-14th century BCE context. Please specify where I am engaging
in
“special pleading”.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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  • [b-hebrew] Wellhausen vs. Single Author, JimStinehart, 01/06/2008

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