Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Karl,

Thanks for your thoughts. I enjoy sparring with you.

Our conception of history is different to the ancients, even though there is 
significant overlap (both are trying to understand the past). When we 
construct the past, we do not normally resort to the categories of folklore 
or myth. If anything, we try to get behind these. The ancients didn't have 
the investigative paraphernalia that we possess today to do this, and so 
their investigative paraphernalia were popular memory, myth, and creative 
imaginations. They didn't have teams of archaeologists digging up the past in 
a controlled dig for academic purposes. They did not have archives of daily 
newspapers, encyclopaedias, museums, the internet, or large popular 
cemeteries with headstones and detailed information. They didn't have 
publishing houses, a 'media', universities, and democratic governments with 
freedom of information. They didn't possess the scientific and technological 
knowledge we have today. Just think about Gen 1 - the sky is a hard dome! But 
it actually isn't. If the ancients could have blasted off into orbit, Gen 1 
would have looked vastly different, even though the basic message might have 
been the same.

Put all that together, and I think it's safe to say that the ancients 
conducted history in a very different way to us today. Ancient documents tell 
us how people conceived of history, but not always about the actual history 
itself.

Finally, your argument about the paucity of documents from the 15th century 
BC is an argument from silence. Yes, you're right - there could be a whole 
lot of Deuteronomy-like documents from the 15th century BC that have been 
lost. But how would we ever possibly know? That's a claim that cannot be 
reasonably tested, and so is purely speculative. I wouldn't be basing much at 
all on it. As such, your final sentence is very apt:

"Any attempt to date Deuteronomy based on highly speculative musings that
contradict clear statements to the contrary are going to be rejected by
many."


Regards,

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