Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 8:53 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> Karl wrote:
>
> "...his basic thesis is that the documents give a
> certain message, but that he doesn't believe their message..."
>
> You're putting words in my mouth, Karl. I didn't say that at all.


I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to put words into your mouth.

But then, what do you mean by “OK. But now the next step is making
individuals living for centuries believable. These genealogies just do not
reflect the real world in the 1-to-1 way this discussion assumes. It might
reflect perceived relations and particular views of the past, but to claim
that humans actually lived for centuries is really pushing it. I think we
can deal with someone living for 150 years (just), but beyond that, we're
getting into the realm of creative literature.
…
Add to this the fact that Genesis shows evidence (esp. Gen 10) of an Iron II
context (at the earliest), and this entire line of reasoning is quite
questionable.”? The clear text reading is that the people did live for
centuries and it sounds like you don’t believe it. Where is the
miscommunication between you and me?

> I implied that the documents have a message which might be different to
> what many people in this thread think it is. You're implying that the
> message is necessarily historical in the way we perceive history today. I'm
> arguing that probably is not be the case, but rather that the ancient had a
> different concept of to us. You're arguing that we should impose our
> definition of history onto these documents, while I'm arguing that we should
> try to understand what the documents themselves define as history.
>

This sounds like what I described as the third way of understanding the
text, that the words don’t mean what the words say.

>
> Whether or not I believe the message is a different issue altogether, and
> not really pertinent to the list


Which is exactly my point too.


> (though, FWIW, I am a Bible-believing evangelical Christian).
>

Sorry, but so many people of diverse ideologies have all claimed to be
“Bible-believing evangelical Christian” that the term has long ago lost any
semblance of precision. I don’t know what you mean by that.

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

Karl W. Randolph.