That is to say, 40 years where Egypt was entirely uninhabited by human beings, this in the lifespan of the one truly great later Babylonian Empire-builder.
Perhaps the single biggest stinker, as far as the Bible's historical problems, is that it claims that the Jews were anachronistically monotheistic. There are inscriptions in Palestine that indicate that the Jewish culture of the time was at the very most charitable henotheistic, and was in reality polytheistic, including the Asherah as consort of YHVH.
If the Biblical state had been half of what it was claimed to have been, the Egyptians and the Assyrians would have been able to wipe it out simply due to sheer isolation. But the Bible was very clearly written by partisans of the Judaean court at the expense of the Northern Kingdom, which can be deciphered from several passages and explains the BLAM where Simeon and Levi sack and massacre an entire town in Genesis. Both of which were founders of Northern tribes.
Which in turn raises the *real* problem of to what extent anything in the record can be trusted.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-02-14 06:36 pm (UTC)Perhaps the single biggest stinker, as far as the Bible's historical problems, is that it claims that the Jews were anachronistically monotheistic. There are inscriptions in Palestine that indicate that the Jewish culture of the time was at the very most charitable henotheistic, and was in reality polytheistic, including the Asherah as consort of YHVH.
If the Biblical state had been half of what it was claimed to have been, the Egyptians and the Assyrians would have been able to wipe it out simply due to sheer isolation. But the Bible was very clearly written by partisans of the Judaean court at the expense of the Northern Kingdom, which can be deciphered from several passages and explains the BLAM where Simeon and Levi sack and massacre an entire town in Genesis. Both of which were founders of Northern tribes.
Which in turn raises the *real* problem of to what extent anything in the record can be trusted.