Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 10:28 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>  …
>
>
>
> What we need to do is to convince at least one mainstream university 
> scholar to look at what actually happened in Late Bronze Age Canaan.  Then 
> if such open-minded scholar would compare what actually happened in Late 
> Bronze Age Canaan to what the Bible says about the Biblical “Hittites”, a 
> refreshing new dialogue about the historicity of this part of the Bible 
> might well ensue, to the benefit of one and all.
>
>
>
> You don’t know what you are asking for.

My grandfather was a professor, my father a professor, a brother-in-law
recently retired from being a professor, along with other acquaintances and
friends, I should know about the politics in academia. You are asking for
one professor to commit professional suicide, for what? Once he’s drummed
out of academia, he can safely be ignored and/or ridiculed. That’s a pretty
big price, and how many professors are willing to do that? And if you agree
with the academic politically correct beliefs, things can go well.

An extreme example was one class where the professor spent most of the first
hour apologizing to the class for choosing a textbook that was head and
shoulders above the rest in the field. Apologizing for choosing the best
textbook? Yes, because it was written by one of those academic heretics who
had long before been drummed out of academia but continued to update his
textbook that had previously been published.

You, sir, have a better chance with academia than I or the people at
http://www.specialtyinterests.net/ (they make some pretty good points, but I
don’t agree with them on everything they say) because you swallow hook, line
and sinker the academic view of history. I cannot. And for linguistic
reasons I cannot agree with your theories either. Those professors who know
Hebrew will look at your linguistic arguments, and disregard your statements
on that basis, I don’t know about the history professors.

>
>
> Jim Stinehart
>
> Evanston, Illinois
>
>
Karl W. Randolph.