Re: [asa] Re: Ages of the patriarchs

On 2/22/07, Dick Fischer <dickfischer@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> So anyone who derives a marvelous numbers matrix based upon the MT needs
> to reflect on that old IBM adage – garbage in, garbage out.
>

Interesting take. So the MT is garbage, right? I'm sure the Masoretic
scholars are turning in their graves.

Dick, by your own admission, you are not a mathematician. So I don't think
you have the right to make derisory comments about a "marvellous numbers
matrix", when there are mathematicians here who have some idea of the
probability of such symmetrical patterns turning up, and thus to infer
intentionality on the part of the author. Also you stated earlier that the
evidence for long ages was pretty scarce. So, if I claim that the MT
scholars manipulated the ages to make a pretty pattern, it's really no
different from saying that the LXX scholars (or whoever preceded them)
adjusted the figures to make events align with known historical events.
Just because the account squares with known history doesn't prove that the
long ages were true. It just means that one set of editors manipulated the
figures to fit with historical dates, and one set manipulated them to make a
pattern of symbolic numbers.

Iain

Iain

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Thu Feb 22 11:49:45 2007