Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
I am continuing here with my responses to criticisms raised on the earlywritings forum against the proposal that the first biblical texts were composed as late as around 270 years before Christ. (I had looked forward to continuing the discussion on that forum until I lost confidence in the sub-forum’s promise to be an “academic … Continue reading “Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’”
CORRECTION (10th June 2026): The title says “sacrifices continued”. I should have added a qualifier, such as a question mark or an adverb “arguably” or the adjective “informal”. Scholars cite evidence to indicate that informal sacrifices continued. Some scholarly works have also expressed doubts about any sacrifices being offered but I have yet to see … Continue reading “No, Jerusalem was NOT an “uninhabited ruin” after 70 CE — sacrifices continued . . . .”
Continuing with Part 3….Surely a simpler explanation is that the capitals bearing those motifs [Astarte’s tree of life and guardian cobra heads] were on Mount Gerizim because they were not forbidden in Persian times.This time I will skip the background introduction and begin with a list of English language articles by Yitzhak Magen. There are … Continue reading “Looking for Evidence for a Persian Period Temple in Samaria’s Mount Gerizim – Part 3”
Continuing …..Background: I have set out the evidence that indicates the Persian provinces of Yehud (Judea) and Samaria were polytheistic societies, worshiping Yahweh, yes, but a Yahweh as part of a pantheon of deities. Judaism as we recognize it only surfaces in the archaeological record in the Hellenistic period, from around the mid third century … Continue reading “Looking for Evidence for a Persian Period Temple in Samaria’s Mount Gerizim – Part 2”
The following (and previous) post can be used as part of an argument for the Hellenistic origin of the Hebrew Bible.In the previous post I bracketed off the main paper in a reader that might not be immediately visible in all browsers so here it is reformatted to be read directly as a blog post.There … Continue reading “Evidence Against Jerusalem in Persian Times Producing the Hebrew Bible”
An argument has appeared on the earlywritings forum proposing that an early form of the Book of Deuteronomy was produced in the Persian period — more specifically, in Persian period Samaria. It is mid-semester break for me and the scholarship relating to Persian period writings in Yehud and Samaria is still fresh in my mind … Continue reading “An Attempt to Date a pro-Samarian Deuteronomy to the Persian Period”
If we did not have the biblical narratives describing returns of Judeans to Judea during the Persian period along with allusions to the rebuilding of a temple in that time, but instead relied solely on archaeological evidence, I suggest we would have no reason to ever propose that the Hebrew Bible witnessed any significant development … Continue reading “Fundamental Problems with the Persian Period Origin of the Hebrew Bible”
Following is a recent assigmnment of mine — a research plan for an essay — that I think contains some information that will be of interest to some readers. . . . Russell Gmirkin gets a mention, by the way. Rethinking Scribal Culture in Persian Period Yehud: Evidence and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible … Continue reading “Plan for a Study of the Origins of the Hebrew Bible: Persian or Hellenistic period?”
Russell Gmirkin did not argue that ALL of the books of the Jewish Bible originated in the Hellenistic era. When I began to post on the earlywritings forum that “Why the Hellenistic era for ALL “Old Testament” books should be taken seriously” I was attempting to set out why it is both possible and plausible … Continue reading “Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 8”
In response to the post that I copied here, one consistent critic of Russell Gmirkin’s thesis in particular (and of the Hellenistic era hypothesis for the creation of the Hebrew Bible more generally) posted the following response:Elephantine is the site of a Persian era garrison settlement of Jews in Egypt. For an discussion of the … Continue reading “Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 2”
Since I don’t expect to have much time to write new posts again before the end of the year, I will from time to time copy what I once posted on another forum in defence of Russell Gmirkin’s thesis dating the Old Testament books to the Hellenistic era.The orthodox view is that biblical books about … Continue reading “Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 1”
These past few weeks I’ve been trying to untangle my way through the data strands that seem to relate to Christian origins and early development (again) and I find myself coming back to the chimerical figure of Paul (again).When I reach this point, as I have done so many times before, I tend to seek … Continue reading “Questioning the Identity/Historicity of the Apostle Paul”
If the Old Testament books were not written before the Hellenistic era as a number of scholars have argued and as I have posted about for some years now, why would their authors have chosen a very favourable Persian empire as the narrative setting of the restoration of Judea after the Babylonian exile? We know … Continue reading “Why the Bible Gives Persia Such Good Press: a Hellenistic Perspective”
Recent posts have focussed on the case for the earliest books of the Bible being composed as late as the Hellenistic era, that is less than 300 years before Christ. The longstanding conventional wisdom has understood the first biblical narratives go back to the time of King David (around 1000 BCE) or at least to … Continue reading “Comparing Samaria and Judah/Yehud – and their religion – in Persian Times”
I have transcribed the last ten minutes of the archaeologist Israel Finkelstein’s December 2022 Conference presentation because it dovetails with my recent posts and discussion points about the evidence relating to the composition of biblical texts in the Persian era.If Jerusalem — nor the whole of Judea — had a “Writing Culture” in Persian times, … Continue reading “No Evidence Jerusalem/Judea had a “Writing Culture” in Persian times — Israel Finkelstein”
I am continuing here with my responses to criticisms raised on the earlywritings forum. The next objection raised was: I can’t help feeling that proponents of a Hellenistic origin of the Old Testament must postulate conditions in the early Hellenistic period for which (at least IMO) we have no direct evidence and which (at least IMO) … Continue reading “Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible — continuing”