Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

   Opinions and impressions will vary. 

   Anyone interested in biblical historicity owes Kitchen
 a great deal of gratitude for the tremendous collection of
 extra-biblical sources he gathered in support of his
 position.
   
   Skipping over his major contributions directly to 
to the issue raised by George:
    To my mind Kitchen's sharp attacks on various
 minimalists are justified and very articulate. He 
often responds directly to their quotes. 
     His comments on Thompson are prsented in  six spefific
 points discussed with detail in six pages (pp 450 -458). 
      His critique of Lemche is as detailed in 
  four pages (pp 458 - 462). And so forth. Obviously
 he does not dismiss opinions he rejects with just a couple
 words. 

   True, his style is lively. I for one find the lack
 of pomposity refreshing.


    And yes, every work of scholarship deserves a cautious
 approach. But criticsm should involve refutation of the
 arguments of scholarly oponents, exactly as our author
 does. 


   Uri Hurwitz                          Wilmington VT
  



A slight aside to advise some caution about Kitchen's book mentioned by Uri. 
Much of what Kitchen writes in attacking the minimalist position is 
characterised more by vitriol than logical reasoning. I get the impression 
that he does not fully understand the minimalist position. I myself am not a 
minimalist (though, annoyingly, I'm often mistaken for one), but I find 
Kitchen's approach quite unscholarly at times, producing more 'heat' than 
'light'.

My subjective 2 cents...

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