Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:10 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> Hi Karl.
>
> What I meant by "Ok..." is that even if you've made one part of a text
> 'believable', there are still other parts of the text that also need to be
> made 'believable'. You have to agree that people living for centuries is
> beyond what we can tell as 'normal'.


Quite true. “Normal” by today’s standards. But has that always been
“normal”?


> Just think about Ps 89.10 - 70 or 80 years is a good life. You have to come
> up with a believable hypothesis for how people lived for centuries at one
> point in time.


I have heard of one, connected with the flood having destroyed a previous
state of the earth that was much healthier than presently.


> My hypothesis is that this is a literary device and that people didn't
> actually live for centuries.


Then how do you explain gradually decreasing life spans in a history
stretching from the flood to the time of Cyrus the Great ascending the
throne of Persia?

My understanding of the Enuma Elish, as well as all the other god myths, is
that the gap in “history” stretches from far before the “present”, that
there is no continuation from then to “now”.

The former gives the impression of history, the latter of mythology.


> This is not the same as saying it's lying or incoherent, which is what
> you're implying your 'third option' is about. It's simply saying that at one
> point, this is how people talked about the past.
>
> Finally, I know my beliefs mean nothing to you, which is why I added
> "FWIW". If you like, we can talk about that offlist.
>

No, it’s not your beliefs that mean nothing to me, but your terminology.

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

Karl W. Randolph.