BBS Mythic Settlements
Introduction
In a field of credible scientific
methods, some better than others. This
segment of the BBS video is dominated by that which is no science at all. Field sweeps conducted with the unaided human
eye have no credibility whatsoever. We
would like to see full and open disclosure of the record books: for we do not
believe that either the area coverage or the allotted times are credible. We would like to see proof that teams of 424
on average, or as many as 598, and even 2,392 people in particular instances, actually
participated in these field sweeps for ten hours at a time, twice a week,
without ceasing for seven years. The
claims for a population explosion during the period 1200-1000, do not hold up
under simple mathematical analysis. The
Israelite house dating, with its pottery, does not square with the dating of
Hazor, or with the date for the Merneptah Stele. A 1450 destruction of Hazor by fire does not
explain a minor 1200 occupation in the hills.
Moreover, the people of Ai were terrified by fire, while the people of
Hazor thought nothing of torching their own city. The biblical record indicates that less than
one family occupied seventeen acres of settlement, which can hardly be
described as a horde. The follow on
materials disclose bias with malice, non-existent archaeology, unsupported
psychology, claims of origin from egalitarian simplicity, invention of a cover
story, and finally the creation of Yahweh in the image of man. We are compelled to reject all of this as twaddle.
Script[1]
Mythic
Settlements (time 34:28)
In the 1970s archaeologists started wide
ranging surveys throughout the central hill country of Canaan. Today, primarily the Palestinian territory of
the west bank.
Israel Finkelstein:[2] I was teaching at this
time, we used to take students and go twice a week to the highland, and every
day we used to cover between two to eight square kilometers,[3] and this accumulated very
slowly into the coverage of the entire area.
N: Israel Finkelstein and teams of
archaeologists, walked out grids over large areas, collecting every fragment of
ancient pottery lying on the surface.
Over seven years, he covered nearly four hundred square miles, sorting
pottery, and marking the locations of where it was found on a map.
Finkelstein: In the beginning they were spots
on the map, they meant nothing to me, but later slowly, slowly I started seeing
the sort of phenomenon….
N: By dating the pottery, Finkelstein
discovered that before 1200 BC, there were approximately 25 settlements. He estimated the total population of those
settlements to be three to five thousand inhabitants. But just 200 years later there is a very
sharp increase in settlements and people.
Finkelstein: Then you get this boom of
population growing and growing. Then we
are thinking about 255 [settlements], and the population grows also in time
from 3,000 to 45,000 or so. Now this is
very dramatic and cannot be explained as natural growth. This rate is impossible in ancient times.[4]
N: If not natural growth,[5] perhaps these are the
waves of dispersed people[6] settling down following
the collapse of the great state systems.[7] Then more evidence of a new culture is
discovered, a new type of simple dwelling never seen before. And it’s in the exact location where both the
Merneptah Stele and the Bible place the Israelites.[8]
Ben-Tor: The site in which this type of house
appeared throughout the country, this is where the Israelites lived. And they are sometimes even called the
Israelite house, the Israelite type house.
The people who lived in those villages seem to be a more or less in a
kind of egalitarian society, because there are no major architectural installations. If you look at the finds, the finds are relatively
poor, the pottery is more or less mundane, I don’t want to offend the early settlers
of the early Israelites, very little art.[9]
N: Curiously, the mundane pottery found at
these new Israelite villages is very similar to the everyday pottery found at
the older Canaanite cities like Hazor.[10] In fact the Israelite house is practically the
only thing that is different. This broad
similarity is leading archaeologists to a startling new conclusion about the
origins of the ancient Israelites.[11]
Dever: The notion is that most of the early
Israelites were originally Canaanites, displaced Canaanites.[12]
Machinist: The Israelites were always in the
land of Israel. They were natives, but
they were different kinds of groups.
They were basically the have-nots.[13]
Dever: So what we’re dealing with is a
movement of peoples, but not an invasion of armed hordes from outside, but
rather a social and economic revolution.[14]
N: Ancient texts describe how the Egyptian
rulers and their Canaanite vassal kings burdened the lower classes of Canaan
with taxes and even slavery.[15] A radical new theory based on archaeology
suggests what happens next. As that
oppressive social system declines, families and tribes of serfs, slaves and
common Canaanites seize the opportunity.[16] In search of a better way of life, they
abandon the old city-states and head for the hills.[17] Free from the oppression of their past, they
eventually emerge in a new place, as a new people, the Israelites.[18]
Finkelstein: In the text you have a story of
the Israelites coming from outside and then the teaching, the Canaanite cities,
destroying them and then becoming a nation in the land of Canaan. Whereas, archaeology tells us something which
is the opposite. According to
archaeology the rise of early Israel is an outcome of the collapse of the
Canaanite society, not the reason for that collapse.[19]
N: Archaeology reveals[20] that the Israelites were
themselves originally Canaanites. So why
did the Bible consistently cast the Israelites as outsiders in Canaan? Abraham’s wanderings from Mesopotamia; Moses
leading slaves out of Egypt and into the Promised Land; and Joshua conquering
Canaan from outside. The answer may lie
in the desire to forge a distinctly new identity.[21]
Machinist: Identity is created, as psychologists
tell us, by talking about what you are not, by talking about another. In order to figure out who I am I have to figure
out who I am not.[22]
N: Conspicuously absent from Israelite
villages are the grand palaces and the extravagant pottery associated with the
kings and …-ese of Canaan.
Avraham Faust:[23] The Israelites did not
like the Canaanite system and they defined themselves in contrast to that
system by not using decorations, by not using decorated pottery, they developed
an ideology of simplicity, which marked the difference between them and the
Egyptian Canaanite system.[24]
N: If the Israelites wanted to distinguish
themselves from their Canaanite paths,[25] what better way than to
create a story about destroying them.[26] But the stories of Abraham, Exodus, and the
Conquest serve another purpose. They
celebrate the power of what the Bible says is the foremost distinction between
the Israelites and all other people, their God.[27] In later Judaism the name of God is
considered so sacred that it is never to be spoken.[28]
Coogan: We don’t know exactly what it
means. We don’t know how it was
pronounced. But it seems to have been
the personal name of the God of Israel.
So His title in a sense was God; and His name was these four letters, י - ה - ו - ה, which in English
would be YHWH [JHVH], which we think would
probably be pronounced something like Yahweh.[29]
Methods
Archaeological methods began with
the careful and precise work of people like Flinders Petrie. For Petrie the work of archaeology began with
careful field evaluation, which likely included a lot of photography. Then the excavation site was laid out in
small squares, perhaps about twelve feet or three meters or slightly larger in
size. The work focused on quality,
rather than on quantity, and proceeded slowly sifting every trowel-full of
dirt. In this manner also the depth or
stratum of excavation was also controlled and evaluated. Thus with the careful logging of each square
a 3D model of the archaeological matrix was created. Anyone could read the log and re-date or
reevaluate the finds.
Garstang and Kenyon seem to have
preferred the trench method. It is
easier and faster. However, control of
the 3D matrix is lost, as length and depth are the only dimensions being
controlled. This does have the minor
advantage of providing a vertical section view of the excavation, but the in
depth perspective of horizontal features is lost, because it is fundamentally a
2D technique.
At Avaris/Piramesse/Qantir/Tell El-Dab’a, Manfred Bietak used radar imaging technology to map the
entire region before any digging took place.
Radar imaging technology created an extensive picture of the layout plan
of the site. While radar imaging
technology began as a 2D technique, multiple echo methods make 3D imaging
possible, and even 3D X-ray scanning.
Such technology was first developed for medical scanning devices and in
space[30]; it quickly found
industrial applications; the only limit is that of cost. We do not know if such 3D technology is yet employed
extensively in Promised Land and Egyptian archaeologically.[31]
Field
Sweeps
Field sweeping technology uses large scale grids to examine huge areas.[32] This is the same technology that is commonly
used to search for missing persons or murder victims. Field sweeps must be conducted with each
participant physically holding hands with both neighbors, all participants
maintaining a straight line, as participants walk slowly across a field:
experience has taught that greater separations result in missed information. It is critical to conduct the sweep as soon
as is possible because open field material degrades very rapidly from exposure
to animals, insects, people, rain, sun, wind, and the like. Just about anything can destroy or remove
valuable information.
Archaeological field sweeps control
only large scale grids. There is no
control of the surface, which has now degraded for over three millennia, three
thousand years. Any resemblance to the
surface topography as it might have existed in 1200 is strictly
accidental. Any artifact located, could
have been dropped by a playing child, been the result of anyone throwing pottery
shards at random, or from any number of uncontrolled and uncontrollable
sources. Moreover, the tendency, over
the years, would be for artifacts to disappear.
If anything significant were found, it would be the result of random
chance, and would greatly underestimate what existed three millennia ago. Also, whatever had been accidentally
deposited down through the centuries would be mixed together in an
indiscriminate manner.
For all these reasons, serious
archaeological investigation must have a means to look below the surface to undisturbed
strata, and then begin with a careful process.
That which a farmer’s plow kicks up accidentally, is not likely to be an
important find. It does not appear that
any of these concerns were addressed, in the procedure at hand. Very little credibility can be attached to
the results “discovered.” This is simply
not careful scientific work. Dating is
also dubious, since the only relationship possible is through pottery, and that
is devoid of strata relationships.
Field sweeps, conducted with the naked
eye are neither science nor archaeology.
3D sweeps conducted with radar imaging technology would have scientific
credibility.
Area
The claim for the area covered,
amounts to 400 square miles in seven years.
Let’s evaluate this claim using simple arithmetic.
- 400 square miles in seven years is
- 57.14 square miles per year is
- 1.095 square miles per week with two one-day trips per week is
- 1.4 square kilometers per day is
- .548 square miles per day is
- 350 acres per day is
- 15,265,380 square feet per day.
A single student examining a single
square foot per second for a ten hour day would catalog the following:
- 1 square foot per student per second is
- 60 square feet per student per minute is
- 3,600 square feet per student per hour is
- 36,000 square feet per student per ten-hour working day.
Dividing 15,265,380 by 36,000, we
discover that a team of at least 424 students would have to work the field one
day, twice a week, year-round, to accomplish the work. We simply do not believe that a single
teacher was able to organize 424 person teams over the course of seven
years. None of the associated pictures
show more that twelve or so students participating. Thus:
- the work was done casually and inconsistently or
- far less was accomplished than claimed and
- the magnitude of the discovery claimed grossly understates the size of the Israelite presence in 1200.
Discovery
The claim is that prior to 1200, 25
settlements were identified having a total population of three to five thousand
inhabitants. Moreover, sufficient discrimination
of the pottery was shown to identify 255 settlements, with forty-five thousand
inhabitants by around 1000, two-hundred years later. Furthermore, this increase is described as a
“population boom”, a “sharp increase”, a very dramatic [growth that] cannot be
explained as natural”, a “rate [that] is impossible in ancient times”, and
“waves of dispersed people.”
Let’s examine some very simple
arithmetic, involving the nature of exponential or growth equations:
- y = a * b ^ t, looking at the settlement report
- 255 = 25 * b ^200, what is the growth rate? Solving for b
- b = (255/25) ^ (1/200), 1/200 is the two-hundredth root, on our scientific calculator b = 1.0117, which is a growth rate of only 1.17%, a very low growth rate.
This growth rate corresponds to a
doubling time of 60 (59.69) years. This
means that the number of settlements could be expected to double every 60
years. Here is a scale chart:
- time in years.............................................. number of settlements
- 0.................................................................................................. 25
- 60................................................................................................ 50
- 120........................................................................................... 100
- 180........................................................................................... 200
- 200........................................................................................... 255
- 240........................................................................................... 400
We easily passed 200 settlements in
only one-hundred-eighty years. In the
next twenty years we reached 255. A mere
forty years after that we would have reached a total of 400 settlements,
without the existence of any population boom whatsoever.
Let’s do the same simple arithmetic for
the population report of expansion from a minimum of 3000 to 45,000.
- y = a * b ^ t, looking at the population report
- 45,000 = 3,000 * b ^ 200
- b = (45,000/3,000) ^ (1/200) = 1.0136, a 1.36% growth rate, slightly higher than for settlements, but not alarming either.
The doubling time is down to less
than 52 (51.19) years.
- time in years..................................................... number of people
- 0............................................................................................. 3,000
- 52.......................................................................................... 6,000
- 104...................................................................................... 12,000
- 156...................................................................................... 24,000
- 200...................................................................................... 45,000
- 208...................................................................................... 48,000
Evidently BBS is not acquainted with
the mathematics of growth. There is
nothing exceptional about these numbers.
In fact we are astounded that these growth rates are so low.
House
At this point in our saga BBS
splices Ben-Tor’s report of the Israelite House into the error filled
arithmetic. If we were to accept either Zuckerman’s or Finkelstein’s
Hypothesis, we would be compelled to call these Canaanite houses. Fortunately, Zuckerman’s frivolity and Finkelstein’s weightless, worthless data
compel us to believe Ben-Tor. We have no
problem with this being an egalitarian society; these were simple Semitic
shepherds, not devoted to pomp and show.
The pottery identification in these
Israelite Houses is another matter. It
is described as being equivalent to the pottery discovered at lower Hazor. This exposes other errors: for the 1200
pottery discovered in an Israelite House cannot be equated to pottery for a 1450[33] battle at Hazor, with
pottery from upper Hazor and lower Hazor co-existing in space and time. Granted: the BBS description of pottery
dating is grossly oversimplified; so oversimplified as to be completely
wrong. Several possibilities still exist.
- Hazor pottery exposes a chronological inversion that discredits the entire pottery dating method.
- Israelite Houses must be re-dated to 1450.
- Hazor must be re-dated to 1200 which seems preposterous in view of the 14C data.
- Bible records are accurate, reporting a post 1406 date for the First Battle of Hazor, followed by a slowly developing and theologically confusing development of settlement from 1396 to 1010, during which time the Philistines became the dominant military and political force for a space of nearly ninety-six years until Yahweh suppressed them through the work of Samuel and David.
“The [whole] notion … that most of
the early Israelites were originally Canaanites,” is based on false reasoning and bad arithmetic. This construct has no evidence and is
impossible to sustain against real evidence: it is completely subjective and
only has assumption for a foundation. So
we are dealing with an invasion of armed hordes
Israel
Israel currently claims a land area
in excess of eight-thousand square miles, all of which is west of the Jordan
River. While it is nearly impossible to
get accurate figures, we believe that the territory commanded by the Israelites
from 1396 to 1010 was supposed to be at least twice this size or more than
sixteen-thousand square miles. After the
conquest, the task fell to Joshua to assign the allotted inheritances, many of
which were trans-Jordan territories. If
we use 16,000 square miles as a basic estimate of land area, and 2.414 million
as a basic estimate of population we can arrive at a crude idea of the
potential population density. This
number will be high because many Israelites were exclusively city dwellers.[34]
- 2.414 million people distributed over 16 thousand square miles is
- 151 persons per square mile is
- 4.24 acres per person is
- 17 acres per family of four.
Finkelstein’s proposed numbers range
from around 8 people to as many as 113 people per square mile. These numbers are not consistent with the
biblical evidence, even when one allows for militarily involved individuals,
unable to settle because of military duty, and other possible factors. Neither are they consistent with a flight
from Hazor. Finkelstein’s numbers are
far too low: since both his math and method are seriously flawed we cannot rely
on his numbers as an evaluator of reality.
The Bible simply provides better and more reliable data.
Wrap
Up
What follows in the BBS discussion
is the clear disclosure of the BBS intentional opposition to biblical
records. This is not a search for
convergence or for resonance; this is a quest to destroy and discredit biblical
evidence. The claim that the Israelites
were originally Canaanites is based in the first part on an archaeology that
only exists as the figment of one uber-imaginative mind. In the second part, the claim is based on a
pseudo-psychological definition of identity: no actual psychologists were
referenced in the claim. In the third
part, a claim surfaces, based on the supposed humility and egalitarian
simplicity of these Israelite/neo-Canaanite people, which is once again devoid
of substantiation: how exactly do humility and egalitarian simplicity establish
national origin? In the fourth part, the
claim is made for the big lie; the Israelite/neo-Canaanite people fabricate a
falsified cover story that justifies their right to exist. Lastly, they supposedly invent an uber-deity,
a larger-than-life God, named Yahweh: which makes no sense whatsoever, and is
irrelevant to the case at hand, unless this Yahweh really exists.
Conclusion
In a field of credible scientific
methods, some better than others. This
segment of the BBS video is dominated by that which is no science at all. Field sweeps conducted with the unaided human
eye have no credibility whatsoever. We
would like to see full and open disclosure of the record books: for we do not
believe that either the area coverage or the allotted times are credible. We would like to see proof that teams of 424
on average, or as many as 598, and even 2,392 people in particular instances,
actually participated in these field sweeps for ten hours at a time, twice a
week, without ceasing for seven years. The
claims for a population explosion during the period 1200-1000, do not hold up
under simple mathematical analysis. The
Israelite house dating, with its pottery, does not square with the dating of
Hazor, or with the date for the Merneptah Stele. A 1450 destruction of Hazor by fire does not
explain a minor 1200 occupation in the hills.
Moreover, the people of Ai were terrified by fire, while the people of
Hazor thought nothing of torching their own city. The biblical record indicates that less than
one family occupied seventeen acres of settlement, which can hardly be
described as a horde. The follow on
materials disclose bias with malice, non-existent archaeology, unsupported
psychology, claims of origin from egalitarian simplicity, invention of a cover
story, and finally the creation of Yahweh in the image of man. We are compelled to reject all of this as twaddle.
[1]
What is for the most part an exact copy of the script follows. There are a few places where individual
speakers could neither be heard nor understood: for this we apologize. Every effort was made to be precise: there
were just spots that defeated us. Since
this is a quote in its entirety it seemed unnecessary to mark it with quotation
marks. The notation for each speaker is
tedious enough: Narrator, Reader, etc.
If you discover bothersome errors please reply to this Blog and point
them out. You may verify the script more
easily by starting to replay it where the “time” stamps indicate discussion
begins. The second of these links is
free from advertising and thus easier to use.
This blog is found at:
http://swantec-oti.blogspot.com/
[2]
Israel Finkelstein (1949 …), Israeli
archaeologist and professor at Tel Aviv University. Works: Megiddo. There is little evidence that Finkelstein
ever participated in a dig.
[3]
2-8 square kilometers amounts to 0.772-3.089 square miles, or 494-1977 acres,
or 21,528,000-86,111,000 square feet. We
do not believe that any one person can cover more than 1 square foot per second
effectively for a ten hour day, which amounts to 36,000 square feet per person
per day. Hence, between 598 and 2392
people would be required to do the work.
We simply do not believe such figures are possible: they are necessarily
greatly exaggerated. We have refrained
from using the term, lying, but this is most certainly gross exaggeration of
the facts.
[4]
Unfortunately, this emotional argument does not show a very good grasp of the
mathematics involved, the mathematics of exponential equations.
[5]
The conditional clause (if) fails.
Careful mathematical examination reveals that this growth is perfectly
normal: there is nothing unusual or extraordinary about this growth whatsoever. Given the reality of human fertility, we are
surprised that the growth is so low.
[6]
The record clearly shows that “waves of dispersed people” are involved. Not waves of Canaanites pouring out of Hazor
in search of greater freedom from Hazor’s supposed slavery: for which, no
documentary evidence was ever adduced; but rather, waves of Israelites are
pouring from Gilgal to receive their Yahweh-promised inheritance. This is, by its very description, twelve
waves of dispersing people.
[7]
Rather than “the collapse of the great state systems” the period from 1396 to
1010 shows a revival with increasing power among “the great state
systems”. After Joshua’s defeat of these
“great state systems”, Israelite martial and political control declined
steadily (in the linear regression) due to compromise of values, idolatry, and
other sins. At the same time the
Canaanite “great state systems” are growing steadily, reaching a power climax
during Philistine domination, a domination so complete that Israelites were
afraid to walk the main roads (Judges 5:6), or to thresh wheat openly (Judges
6:11); villages were also abandoned (Judges 5:7).
[8] As
we have demonstrated before, the Merneptah Stele offers no definitive
information; while the Bible places the Israelites in Canaan as Semitic
invaders. The architectural style seems
irrelevant to such points. The houses
tell us nothing about who lived in them: at least not from the information
provided by BBS.
[9] We
have no objection whatsoever to the Ben-Tor comments. What we find fault with is the false-construct
that others will attempt to make from them.
It is the simple fact: Ben-Tor’s observations about the Israelite house
are not at all supportive of a migration of poor refugees, coming from lower
Hazor, into the mountains; when, ostensibly, the poor of Hazor burned their own
city and fled for the hills. The timing
is inconsistent (1450 is not supportive of a 1200-1000 movement). The motivation is inconsistent (why would
they do this?). The quantity of 20,000 inhabitants
of Hazor, at least 17,500 of whom were from lower Hazor, is inconsistent with
25 settlements, having 3,000 total inhabitants.
Besides which, there were many other similar, but smaller cities
involved in the supposed collapse of Canaanite culture around 1450. This adds up to hundreds of such settlements,
and tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of refugees by 1200, and
many more in 1000. Ben-Tor is right, all
of the numbers are wrong.
[10]
In which case, we must either date these houses and villages to 1450; or
re-date Hazor to a later period, matching the Israelite houses; or reject the
pottery dating system as an unworkable solution.
[11]
“This broad similarity is leading archaeologists to a startling new [false]
conclusion about the origins of the ancient Israelites.” Since when do mere pottery and/or wealth
convey the nature of the ethnicity of the owner, or whether the presence of
such pottery and/or wealth establishes its owner either as an external invader,
or a participant in internal dispersion (a sort of Canaanite suburban sprawl,
or a version of lower class Canaanite flight)?
Having supposedly taken internal control of Hazor, what motivation would
lower class Canaanites have to live in the mountains? Since Hazor was such a sizable and populous
city (17,000 or more without any stretch of imagination; possibly 70,000 or
more), why are the numbers and sizes of settlements not greater? The argument is self-defeating.
This article claims 20,000 inhabitants at Hazor’s prime,
[12]
Obviously, an impossibility: neither the motivations nor the numbers of people
support such a conclusion.
[13]
Where is the evidence for such an idea?
[14]
This is just more question begging.
[15]
Which texts? Please provide verbatim
quotes, with dated and located references that specifically relate to
Canaanite/Egyptian affairs. The Lachish Letters (590) are too late. What related correspondence exists beside the
Amarna letters (1391-1332)? Which
letter? What line?
[16]
There is no factual basis for this.
There are several indications of widespread freedom of speech.
[17]
There is no evidence for such an internal migration either. If such evidence exists, please produce
it. This is just so much subjective
speculation. Hazor was continuously
occupied from before 1450 until well after Solomon in 930. So, from whence did these disgruntled
Canaanites appear?
[18]
The only recorded instance of such flight is that of the Gibeonites, who were
willing to become indentured servants so that they could abandon the slavery of
idolatry, and come close to Yahweh, the living God (Joshua 9).
[19]
“According to [the narrow minded, highly biased, and extremely unscientific]
archaeology” of Finkelstein. By the open
declaration, “archaeology tells us something which is the opposite,”
Finkelstein reveals that this entire BBS discussion is clearly contradictory
and visibly hostile to the biblical witness.
It is not archaeology that poses the problem, but the subjective and
unfounded interpretation of archaeology that is the real problem.
[20]
Actually, archaeology reveals nothing of the sort. A serious examination of Joshua and Judges
reveals a perfect fit with this archaeology, especially with the turbulence of
Judges. Only by imposing a false
construct on archaeology and the Bible, can we arrive at such an erroneous
conclusion, “that the Israelites were themselves originally Canaanites”. The turbulence of Judges and 1 Samuel is only
brought under control by the administrative skills of David and Solomon. Shortly after Solomon’s death, the northern
territories (Israel) quickly revert to pagan Canaanite mentalities. In the southern territories (Judea) the
process of stagnation merely takes longer.
[21]
The Israelites did not lie to falsify a new identity. By all means, when one doesn’t possess a
legitimate passport or other biological records, the legally appropriate thing
to do is forge such false documents.
That way you can get into bars without being exposed as a fraud. The absurdity of this suggestion is
patent. The Israelites did not lie to
falsify a new identity. They had all the
necessary credentials in Yahweh.
[22]
Imaginary or mythic identity may be created by such means; but real identity is
created from a family and parents, with a birth certificate, and a lifetime of
honest commitment and work in service to society, to those we love, and even to
our enemies. Real identity rests in thus
honoring God first, as well as the family name and reputation.
[23]
Avraham Faust, professor at Bar-Ilan University, no other bibliography.
[24]
The difference is marked, because it is real.
In spite of all their compromises with idolatry the record of Judges
shows that the Israelites had a memory of Yahweh; when they were in trouble,
they cried out to Yahweh, and were saved.
As falsely prompted as Israelite prayer was, Yahweh rescued them
repeatedly.
[25]
Once again, the conditional clause (if) fails.
The Israelites have no motive for wanting “to distinguish themselves
from their Canaanite paths”, if indeed, they are originally Canaanites.
[26]
If one is ashamed of one’s past, the best course is to denounce and renounce
it. Lying only complicates an already
bad situation. This BBS argument is
simply farfetched.
[27]
If Yahweh “is the foremost distinction between the Israelites and all other
people”, He is either real or not real.
If Yahweh is not real. He is just another Canaanite idol, and there is
no special attraction in seeking to serve Him.
The “distinction between the Israelites and all other people” is only
pivotal and rational if Yahweh is real.
Surely, even the stiff necked Israelites would have understood
this. If Yahweh “is the foremost
distinction between the Israelites and all other people”, no false tale of
destruction is necessary. This “moral
purpose” argument has no weight. Indeed,
if Maslow were correct, yet he is not, the Israelites could develop no such self-actualization “needs” until their
bellies are full: so here we have a poverty stricken and homeless people acting
at the highest plane of human need hierarchy. Either Maslow is wrong, or BBS is wrong, or
both or there is another motivating force or person involved: namely,
Yahweh. Fundamental to this BBS chain of
argument is the fact that none of the perpetrators believes that Yahweh really
exists.
[28]
BBS has only one recourse to reality: falsification of ancient records. This is pathetic. The leap of conversation to the meaning of
the name of Yahweh at this point is a non-sequitur: it has no relationship to
the topic at hand.
[29]
All of this is true, yet amazingly irrelevant.
[30]
Military espionage puts a lot of funding and technical expertise into such
efforts.
[32] Finkelstein
indicates that his idea of grid size is in the neighborhood of 2 to 8 square
kilometers, 0.772 to 3.089 square miles.
He does not indicate the surveying method he used to establish his grid,
or mark it.
[34]
All of the Levites, plus all of the leaders, administrators, and scribe
classes.
[35] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations,
please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish. No rights are reserved. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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