Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Lewis:

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Lewis Reich <lbr AT sprynet.com> wrote:

>
> That Imhotep and Joseph are both reported as having done many of the same
> things does not necessarily imply that they were the same person.  It might
> just as easily mean that stories about Imhotep were the basis for later
> stories about Joseph, for example.
>
> Lewis Reich
>

This is a back-handed way of saying that Joseph = Imhotep, not that they
were the same man, but that Hebrew literature copied Egyptian sources to
make up the story of Joseph. At least, this is the way I understand your
statement.

Because this is a list discussing Biblical Hebrew literature, I take this as
a legitimate addition to the discussion. However, I disagree with it.
Because we have no documentation to indicate which understanding is correct,
here is where we need to smile, shake hands in friendship and agree to
disagree.

Here both sides are taking beliefs on faith—many on this list take the
belief that the Bible is inaccurate, but that modern reconstructions of
history are accurate, and I take the other side that the Biblical history is
accurate (taking into account a few copyist errors), and where men’s
reconstructions of history contradict it, the human reconstructions are
inaccurate. Both are statements of faith, and on this list we neither push
our own faith, nor argue against others’ faiths. So here we agree to
disagree.

Karl W. Randolph.