angelo

I still wonder, they must have been breast worshippers judging by the care they had in carving the breasts. Maybe it had something to do with motherhood and breastfeeding.

grasshopper

[
David, it would be but sparingly used, and much that happened to the people must still have been handed down simply as legend." (Hermann Schultz, Old Testament Theology, Translated from the fourth edition by H.A. Patterson, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1898, p.25, 26) (Both quotes from McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol. 2, pp. 68-69)[/quote]Here we have Wellhausen himself revealing a belief that the Israelites did not have writing in Moses' day and another prominent scholar of the day who goes even further and says "it was a time prior to all knowledge of writing" !! He wouldn't have written that if he had been writing a mere 30 years later, thanks to all the discoveries of archaeology which showed that writing was well known in Moses' day and at least a thousand years before Moses.

So, Dean, do you need further proof that Documentary Hypothesis Presuppostion #3 has been discredited?[/QUOTE]

Wasn't there two separate stages of writing in the Mediterranean? One occurred before the collapse of population at 1500BC or so and a separate literate age emerged around 700BC or so. The time between as far as I know is known as a dark age(no writing)

angelo

Wasn't there two separate stages of writing in the Mediterranean? One occurred before the collapse of population at 1500BC or so and a separate literate age emerged around 700BC or so. The time between as far as I know is known as a dark age(no writing)[/QUOTE]Agreed that writing existed in moses's day and for centuries before. The Sumerians left evidence of writing, and they were around thousands of years before the Israelites. The point is though, that very few could read or write, even in Jesus time less than 1 in 20 could read or write. I read somewhere where the apostles were all illiterate, thereby couldn't' have written any of the gospels.

Lucretius

I see Dave has effectively abandoned this thread (though I must admit that sadly I can see sometime in the near future he will start up a new thread in which he will claim he has" won " this one )
Anyway to keep this relevant I would like an explanation as to IF the Tablet Theory is correct why did this practice of people writing down their family history ,thoughts etc. stop when the OT stops ?
Why are there no Tablets actually written by the Apostles and even Jesus himself ?
Why do we instead have to rely on later second hand accounts of Jesus' life ?

Codec

I think two reasons:

1. Improvements in technology, papyrus and vellum etc.
2. No particular evidence that Jesus or the disciples wrote anything, or were even able to write.
3. (and as an extra) He was executed before he got chance to write his autobiography, as is thought of at least some of the disciples.

Lucretius

According to Dave as far as I can see the very fact that the system of writing possibly existed at the date of the hypothetical Moses means that EVERYTHING must have been written down .
Sort of I can write and the "technology " of writing is available (pen, paper etc) therefore by defintion I MUST have written a diary entry every day of my life.

Coleslaw

The obvious conclusion is that the Jews are right and the Christians are a bunch of pagan idolizer upstarts.

angelo

Second hand? Try fourth and more hands. It was translated to Greek, Latin, German, and more. Finaly we got the King James Version around 300 hundred years ago. [ I may have got dates wrong ]. But do you get the picture?
How could anyone take such a book with so suspect origins at face value?

Lucretius

Yes I was being overly generous in saying second hand ,perhaps a better description would have been "non eyewitness acounts"

-Jay-

Translation of the KJV started in 1604 and was completed in 1611. Excellent as an example of English prose, but, in my opinion, not so good as an accurate translation of the Biblical books.

regards,

NinJay