Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yohanan bin-Dawidh <yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com>]

Dear Yigal;

You wrote, *“Now, is there any ‘secular history’ evidence of these events?
No. Just like the entire Patriarchal narratives. This does not bother me.
Obviously it does bother you. If making up your own history and geography
works for you - be my guest, but not on this list.”*

This all depends on one’s opinion of the Torah, and the rest of the Miq’ra.
If they hold these documents to be merely ancient religious texts, then of
course, there would be no secular history regarding much of what is in these
texts. If they consider these to be the cultural texts of a people, namely
our people, then these serve as an all encompassing *(including
secular)*history for these people.

It matters not if these events are not mentioned in the writings of other
peoples in the surrounding areas, or if the events are recorded differently
by other peoples in surrounding areas, as it matters not what our history is
in modern times according to us verses what other people claim.  We know
there was a Holocaust, so even if there are people who want to claim there
was not, who cares, our history will record the truth according to our
understanding of the events, not according to their understanding of events.
I am even waiting for a spiritual rendition of the Holocaust to be written,
where Hitler is compared unto Phar’o, and it is YHWH that hears our people’s
cries, and saves us from Phar’o using Roosevelt, Stalin, and etc., which
would not be an incorrect to write, if it is truly our understanding of
events, since our culture is one that is naturally theocentric.

Merely because YHWH is mentioned in a text, and merely because there is a
spiritual / religious tone to a document, does not mean that the document
cannot also be thought of as a secular document, especially in our culture’s
ancient society, which was entirely theocentric.

Regards,

Yo*h*anan bin-Dawidh