> I think Gen.4-11 contains allusions to historical people &
>events, but it isn't at all the same type of thing as the succession
>narrative of II Sam - I Kg. A lot of the material is fragmentary, like
>the Song of Lamech noted above: What is he singing about? There are
>parallel accounts woven together - the names in Chs.4 & 5 and the
>different aspects of the flood story. Noah is a rather odd character in
>an historical narrative - he never says a word (until later, after the
>Ham episode). & the "Broken Myth" of 6:1-4 raises some questions.
Is it a requirement for reality that a person be reported to having said
something? There are lots of dead people whose names we do not know who were
never quoted in a book.
If you understand when I think the flood might have occurred (5.5 myr ago),
that passage could apply to crossings between the new humans and their ape
ancestor. Such a situation might have been possible; indeed it might still
be possible today between a human and a chimpanzee, as disgusting as that
would be.
> But perhaps an equally pressing question: Why do people, as you
>say, "Want to hear" that Methuselah was a real human being who lived 969
>years &c? Is the problem perhaps that no one has called their attention
>to the fact - obvious once it is pointed out - that there are different
>ways of being true besides being chronicle-like narrative?
Do you believe that Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave after 4 days?
If so, why would you want to believe that particular oddity?
If not, why do you believe that Jesus is the son of God?
My point is that if God could raise a man from the grave after his brain had
been without oxygen for 96 hours, then why is it so difficult to believe
that God could have initially created a long-lived human?
Whether God did this is another issue. my own view is that those years might
have been lunar "years", like the Egyptians used originally. Thus 969/12 is
about 80 years or so.(see ~Mantho, translated by W.G. Waddell, (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 3-7)
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm