Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Jim,

This is hardly a short message, but this is not really the issue. What I am 
concerned about is that it represents the type of message from which I'm 
trying to dissuade you posting.

If you are honestly asking for feedback, and not just treating this forum as 
your personal publication outlet (which I suspect you are, but I'll give you 
the benefit of the doubt...again), then here's my feedback for you:

What you've proposed is, to be kind about it, ludicrous. You are trying to 
shape evidence, rather than understand it, and this constitutes a breach of 
basic scholarly method. The linguistics don't work, the geography cannot be 
reconciled, and you're bringing unwarranted assumptions to bear on the 
narrative. This (along with many of your other posts) is methodologically 
flawed - a classic house of cards. So, what you are engaging in is far from 
what could be conceived as a plausible argument. If I received this as a 
submission from a student, it would fail.

So, I suggest you stop trying to chisel the evidence into your desired form, 
or else stop these postings. They are simply not in the spirit of the 
B-Hebrew forum. I can see that you're not the aggressive type, and you're to 
be commended for that. However, you're just not hitting the mark in terms of 
basic methodology and argumentation, and you very rarely accept correction. 
B-Hebrew tries to foster collegiality, but your posts aren't really doing 
that.

Once again, I'll reiterate my advice: If you wish to propagate your 
methodologically questionable views, then please do so on a blog. Otherwise, 
please engage in a methodologically appropriate way.



Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Co-Moderator, B-Hebrew
(Sydney, Australia)