From: "Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT home.com>
To: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>, "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Date of the Exodus (still shorter)
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 08:34:36 -0600
Again to Dave Washburn:
I apologize for over-defensiveness and also if I attribute to you positions
that you do not take. One of the problems with such a list is that I cannot
always sort out exactly who said what. Sometimes it might be better if only
two were dialoguing back and forth sequentially before others chimed in with
their side lights. I am as guilty as anyone else here, so accept my part in
a sometimes less-than-clear strand of argumentation.
I am glad to know that I have erred in painting you in with those who offer
the unusually high pillar of fire to explain an unusually long column of
Hebrews marching across the desert. I consider such an assumption to be the
last refuge of the truly desperate.
As to your formulation ["Unless we insist on projecting our ideas of how
history should be written back on the ancients, this is perfectly good
history from the writer's point of view."], I am in full agreement and have
written similar words myself elsewhere.
I accept that you made no personal references and intend no personal
disrespect in return. And I am happy to remove you from the list of those
who believe in the volcano as the rabbinic "sod" interpretation to unlock
the mysteries of Exodus.