Hi Don, you wrote:
>>You sidestepped my critical question. What you have written
about Jonah is actually an argument for the view that the
Bible and other ANE literature incorporate shared mythological
material.<<
No, I showed germs of historical evidence in what has been taken as
nothing but a poetical account. Jonah was probably a real person who
did do something just like the biblical book says he did. So were Adam
and Noah in my estimation. Historical events reverberated throughout
the region for centuries. For example, Gilgamesh is on the Uruk king
list. So we can assume he was a real king. His escapades whatever they
were became continually embroidered as scribe after scribe down through
centuries repeated the legends and added their own new twists.
Genesis 2-11 probably was carried with Abraham to the land of Canaan
when he left Mesopotamia. What we have in Genesis likely was protected
through the Abrahamic line. The stories which circulated in Assyria and
among the Hittites and Amorites are corrupted versions of original
events. After Abraham's departure the legends and epic tales still
harken back to original events although corrupted over time. The flood
is the best example because it was such a resounding event.
It's just that I can't prove to you that any of it is true. All I can
do is substantiate the events portrayed in Genesis with parallel
literature. I don't know whether George Washington really threw a
dollar across the Potomac (American folklore), but I know there was a
George Washington because he is on the dollar bill.
Dick Fischer
Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org <http://www.genesisproclaimed.org/>
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Received on Fri Jun 16 22:10:54 2006
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