Kosh

This sounds like another of those apologetic arguments that gets them more problems than it's designed to solve. Funny how nobody noticed this "interpretation" until evidence started to show the claims to be so wrong.

So... would "seventy families" have comprised enough labor to build the monuments of Egypt (it was an entire city, IIRC).


Would "seventy families" have been enough for Pharoah to even take notice of when they wanted to leave?

Would "seventy families" been sufficient to wipe out the Cannanite population?

King Josiah. 7th cent BCE. Fabrication.

Jayhawker Soule

"Would seventy families have been ..."? I don't think so. Neither does the author.

It seems to me that there are three different general positions that one might take towards the Tanakh: (1) it's inspired and historically accurate, (2) it's the fabrication of some Iron Age Jewish scribe, or (3) it's an accretion of myth, folk history, and propaganda.

Not everyone who views the bible as worthy of more than reflexive ridicule and contempt is a simple apologist.

[ June 14, 2002: Message edited by: ReasonableDoubt ]</p>