Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

I think that what seems to be happening here is a classic problem of  
'same data different interpretation'

George seems to be taking the data of many ancient cultures using long  
survival ages of their ancestors and interpreting this as a customary  
device to exaggerate the life span of your ancestors.

Other people might take the same data and conclude that if that, that  
must mean that people really did live for longer than we do today at  
one time. There are so many independent cultures claiming the same  
thing that it must have some historical basis.

James Christian



Quoting George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>:

> 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'. 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. My hypothesis is that this is a literary device   
> and that people didn't actually live for centuries. 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.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
>
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