To: peterkirk AT qaya.org, villandra AT austin.rr.com
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Please shed any light on meaning of "temple" in these passages
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 20:37:21 EST
In a message dated 2/1/2004 7:55:41 PM Eastern Standard Time,
peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:
>>>THE ISRAELITES IN HISTORY AND TRADITION
>>>by Niels Peter Lemche (c) 1998
>>>
>>>
>>Page 95
>>
>>...
>>
>>
>
>I don't know what to think of Lemche or the thoroughness of his research.
>It is news to me that anyone has been searching for a temple at Shiloh; I
>always understood the shrine at Shiloh to be only a shrine.
>
>
>
This seems to be typical of certain kinds of scholarship. One scholar
erects a theory that there was a permanent and impressive temple at
Shiloh although the records don't say there was. Another demolishes this
theory and then presumes that he has discredited the account which
didn't support the theory in the first place. Anyway it is extremely
hazardous to conclude anything from negative evidence in archaeology,
failure to find something. There are so many reasons why evidence can
have disappeared, or not be in the expected place.
________
Sounds nice, except in this case it does say that there was a temple there.
See 1 Sam 1.9 which reads in part