Fw: [asa] Oil and Tubalcain

FYI...

JETS 40/3 (September 1997) 377-387.
A DEFENSE OF THE HYPERBOLIC INTERPRETATION. OF LARGE NUMBERS IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT. DAVID M. FOUTS*

http://www.etsjets.org/jets/journal/40/40-3/40-3-pp377-387_JETS.pdf

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
Reply-To: "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:00:03 -0000

>
> . > I will also point people to an article on Theologyweb.com which I
>posted
>> challenging the concept that Adam is neolithic. It challenges the claim
>> that
>> iron working was going on in the Tubalcain incident.
>> See http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1692777&postcount=40
>>
>> I will not stick around to debate the issue.
>
>This is not much to debate on the issue as we are only dealing with half a
>dozen words in Gen 4.22. These give no historical markers for anything.
>
>Further we should see Genesis for what it is. It does not give a historical
>record of early society as it just gives some snippets. What evidence is
>there that the author of Genesis believed he was giving a historical
>account
>in the sense we would define history today? A very good article on
>historiography in the Old Testament is to be found in the IVP Dictionary of
>the Old Testament - historical books. The writer makes it clear that OT
>historical writers were not writing straight history but were using history
>for theological purposes. They are general and imprecise and we go wrong to
>impose Modern ideas of history on to them and that is a cause of so much
>scepticism of the bible over the last 200 years. Another article in DOT -
>hist books is on large numbers and there the author states that the authors
>were "employing numerical hyperbole in the narrative accounts" for uses
>both
>polemical and theological. Now apply that to the big numbers in Numbers and
>the superannuated Patriarchs! Now this sounds liberal doesn't it? But the
>author is D Fouts OT prof of Bryan College Dayton. Perhaps if we applied
>the
>same principles to early Genesis we would have no problem with billions of
>years and wont get bogged down whether Tubal cain was Neolithic or a cousin
>of Neanderthals!
>
>Michael
>
>
>
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Received on Mon Jan 1 13:41:50 2007