Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>]

Rolf Furuli wrote:

The mentioned example is an archaeological one. Some days ago I 
focused upon the text of the Pentateuch and formed the hypothesis: 
"The Pentateuch was written in the 15th century by a man called 
Moses."  To doubt that something that is written in the Pentatauch 
really happened is a psychological matter that is based on logic, or 
faith, or philosophy etc. By forming this hypothesis I tried to put 
the matter regarding the writing of the Pentatauch into a scientific 
setting. The hypothesis predicts that we will not find anachronisms 
in the text, and i discussed some possibilities. Then I asked the 
list members to mention other predictions that could be tested. But 
no one responded. So, I try again with a question based on the 
hypothesis: Which sides/characteristics/matters in the Hebrew text of 
the Pentateuch forbid a 15th century writing?

Everything I've read about the Philistines says they arrived in 
Palestine in the 12th century. But Abraham visited them in Gen.21 & 26, 
and the exodus group had to avoid going through their land (Ex.13:17). 
So if historians are right about the Philistines, the Biblical texts are 
anachronistic.

I have previously mentioned the strong archaeological evidence against 
the story of the complete evacuation of northern Israel in 2Kings17. The 
story is also anachronistic in using the word Shomron to refer to the 
northern territory rather than the capital city. If this piece of 
misinformation (actually propaganda) can be found in the Tanakh, it 
suggests that other distortions are to be expected as well.


Gabe Eisenstein