Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 3:39 PM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> "Questions in Pentateuchal studies that postulate a J, E, P or any other
> such
> source hypothesis, because they have no evidence, are pushing beliefs.
> Those
> are the little questions that are irrelevant."
>
> Karl, they may not have proof, but then very few things do in our field.
> These questions do certainly have evidence. The entire endeavour of source
> criticism does have a leg to stand on, so it's unfair to characterise it as
> 'belief'.
>
> Therefore, these questions are fair game on B-Hebrew, so long as the
> discussions proceed cordially AND ON THE BASIS OF EVIDENCE.
>

Evidence. Yes!

But what sort of evidence? How credible is that evidence?

Are interpretations evidence?

In my view, and for many like me, interpretations are not evidence. As far
as we can tell, the entire field of source criticism is based on
interpretations, not evidence that we consider valid. The interpretations
are based on faith, therefore they too are faith.

>
>
> Regards,
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
>

Karl W. Randolph.