Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Jim,

The linguistic impossibilities of your suggestion do not bother me so much as 
the breathtaking fantasy of a Mesopotamian-born man in the Bronze Age 
(whichever subsection of it you wish to assign makes no difference at this 
point) being named after an Egyptian deity, although only half the deity's 
name made it into the Mesopotamian man's name. You're hanging a suggestion 
that goes against everything we know of ancient Near Eastern religions in the 
Bronze and Iron Ages on a single letter. You're going to revolutionise 
history with this!

But then again, maybe not.

Perhaps as a way of testing your own theories, you could write up an article 
and see if a peer-reviewed journal is willing to publish it. But I would be 
mighty surprised if any journal does publish it. Why? Because this is 
precisely the type of fantasy that denigrates serious scholarship based on 
evidence and logic.

Jim, I suggest you take a course on logic, as well as on historical and 
linguistic research, and ancient Near Eastern religions. And I mean that 
seriously. God bless you for your sincerity, but I just wish you'd channel it 
into some actual logic and proper handling of evidence. You need to remove 
the blinkers that seem to keep you from appraising evidence appropriately, 
and stop massaging data into incredulous conclusions. I know that sounds 
harsh, but I don't mean it to be. I just want you to get a dose of reality 
and offer us something that is of actual substance rather than a figment of 
your imagination. You seem to have a lot of energy to put into things, which 
is great! But I think I speak for many in saying that I wish you'd pour that 
energy into actually learning to make a proper argument with which we can 
engage. Until then, you will keep finding people telling you that your ideas 
are fantastic—literally! You are not bringing about a Copernican revolution 
in biblical studies. Your ideas are actually scuttling attempts to seriously 
engage with Hebrew and biblical literature. And until that changes, I will 
continue to oppose your ideas with an Irenean strategy of simply pointing out 
what you're saying. I do not need to refute your ideas; simply restating them 
functions as enough of a refutation.

With earnest sincerity, Jim, please do yourself and everyone else a favour 
and channel your energies into some further study. Perhaps then we will be 
able to have a proper discussion.

This thread is still closing on Sunday night.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia