Wallener

My understanding is the Ugaritic text connection was found to be lacking in the late 1980s. The phrase "slaughter a kid in milk" turned out to actually say "coriander in milk". It is possible to read the Hebrew text as "don't fry the kid in its mother's fat", which actually makes a whole lot more sense (getting mother's fat means killing the mother means no more milk and no more baby goats.) It also fits with other prohibitions, such as the one to spare the mother when taking fledglings.

In all three citations, the prohibition is disjoint from the surrounding context. IMO this, plus the fact that the identical phrase is used each time, points to a relatively late addition.

gregor2

I dunno about practical justifications. A herding society doesn't need priestly advice about not destroying the means of food production. And just selecting this type of prohibition out of all the advice that could be given about maintaining your herd is, again, hard to understand.

It seems to me that it had to have been a worship ritual (that had been adopted by the Judah tribe) being criminalized for political purposes, in order for its inclusion to make sense.

Wallener

Given that the texts also explicitly give restrictions on murder, adultery and incest, I'm not sure an appeal to Obviousness is supportable.

vsop44

Can' t remember where I read that , but in an Egyptian museum , there is a depiction of a Pharaoh receiving 2 inscribed tablets from a god on a mountain top about 1000 years before Moses was born .
Also in his book the bible unearthed , Israel Finkelstein declares that the biblical Moses never existed and that the Exodus from Egypt was a hoax for If between 150.000 and 400.000 people wandered in the desert for 40 years (38 years at the same spot ) even 3200 years later we should find traces of their passage .

EssEff

Worked for me!

Wallener

He most assuredly does not call it a "hoax".

Anat

Indeed not. There are many forms of literature describing events that did not happen that aren't considered hoaxes or deceptive in any way. Fables, legends, myths, folk tales and fantasy, each have their own cultural functions. Problems arise when a story is either misinterpreted or misrepresented as belonging to a different genre than originally intended.

I once saw an interview with Finkelstein where he talked about celebrating Passover with his young daughters. He saw no problem with teaching them the traditional version at a young age and the historically correct version at a later age.

John Kesler

I wish that you could recall the relief, stele, etc. that you have in mind. At any rate, the idea that a god gave people laws is not unique to Israel. See for example the Stele of Hammurabi which dates to circa 1760 BCE. On it, the sun god Shamash is depicted giving the law to Hammurabi. An image can be viewed here.

Wallener

Shamash is also the main candle used to light the other Channukah - Festival of Lights - candles.

vsop44

Israel Finkenstein might not have used the word Hoax ; but he made sure for us to understand that the whole story never happened !

Thank you Anat , you made it very clear . I definitely used the wrong word !