Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Passion is fine. Vitriol is, I believe, unnecessary these days. We can 
conduct scholarship without it. In any case, I find some of Kitchen's 
arguments unconvincing. They have assumptions and logical leaps which, as far 
as I can tell, either ignore certain aspects of 'minimalist' arguments, or 
don't understand them properly. I'm not saying he has nothing to contribute. 
Far from it. But I think his arguments are often lacking some essence.

And, Will, without starting up a discussion on minimalism...

Minimalism argues that when reconstructing history, the Bible should be used 
minimally, if at all, since it is either unreliable, too far removed from the 
events, or not aiming to be historical anyway. Maximalism argues that the 
Bible should be used in historical reconstruction because it is totally 
reliable about historical facts. And there's an entire spectrum between these 
two poles.


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