Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

The present is not the key to the past. Things change. The climate changes.
There are historical records that there were forests in the Negev as late as
the seventh century BC, which makes the change less than 3000 years ago. In
the early and middle bronze ages, the whole Negev was grassland, enough to
support large herds of sheep and cattle, but not today. Things change.

A similar change happened in the deserts of New Mexico, within the past 150
years. The grasses used to be “up to a horses belly”, abundant enough to
harvest as hay, but today it is mostly sage brush, greasewood and other
desert plants, and what grasses there are rarely reach up to the knee.
Things change. The present is not the key to the past.

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 6:28 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>
> James Christian:
>
> 1.  If you are going to cite the Septuagint, then note that the Septuagint
> sees El-Paran as referencing terebinthes or oak trees of Paran.  There are
> no oak trees south of the Dead Sea!
>

> The pinpoint historical accuracy of Genesis 14: 6 is truly breathtaking.
>

So you agree that this was an event that happened around 2000 BC, as the
text indicates? If you don’t, then the above sentence is nonsense.

>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>

Karl W. Randolph.