Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 7:27 PM, <jimstinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>
>
> Prof. George Athas:
>
> You wrote:  “The imagery of the birds pecking is enough to portend the
> baker's death.
> It's what birds did to corpses impaled in the open air. You just have to
> read
> the text. Plain and simple. No mystery. No enigma. No chicanery. Just a
> simple
> story. End of story.”
>
> What could a Baker do to cause Pharaoh to have him impaled, with his
> corpse to be pecked at by birds?  You write:  “No mystery.  No enigma.”
>  But shouldn’t we expect the Biblical text to give us a clue as to what the
> Baker’s horrible crime was?  I
>

No, we shouldn't. It had nothing to do with the story. The focus of the
story is Joseph's ability to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh could have the
baker impaled for burning the morning toast, because the Pharaoh was pretty
much all-powerful. You're creating a cure for which there is no known
disease. Please stop.

-- 
Dave Washburn

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