Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
This post covers just one small set of details addressed by Russell Gmirkin in Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible, legal proceedings. I am keen to get to the next chapter where laws themselves are compared, but to take the question of “Biblical” links with the Greek world as distinct from the Near … Continue reading “Similarities between Biblical and Greek Judicial Systems”
Russell Gmirkin continues to argue for much of the Old Testament having been written as late as around 270 BCE in his new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. (He first made the argument in Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus, – link is to archived posts addressing various points in that work.) The … Continue reading “The Bible’s Assemblies and Offices Based on Greek Institutions?”
My response to Cornelis Hoogerwerf’s post on Γεγραμμένα, Misquoting Albert Schweitzer, has raised the question of the intended meaning of Schweitzer’s words in relation to historical probability, common sense, and more. Cornelis has said my own explanation of S’s words is wrong; I attempted to explain why I disagreed. But rather than leave the discussion … Continue reading “Schweitzer in context”
The Bible’s narratives evidently share much of the cultural heritage of ancient Syria and Mesopotamia but zoom in for a more detailed study and one arguably sees many signs of a distinctively Greek influence. That’s the argument of Russell Gmirkin in Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. Previous posts in this series that … Continue reading “The Tribes of Israel modeled on the Athenian and Ideal Greek Tribes?”
After too long a hiatus I am excited to at last return to writing about Russell Gmirkin’s new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. The previous two posts: Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible The Pentateuch’s Debt to Greek Laws and Constitutions — A New Look The following post is … Continue reading “David, an Ideal Greek Hero — and other Military Matters in Ancient Israel”
For the previous post in this series examining Russell Gmirkin’s new book see Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible —o0o— Ancient Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic eras loved a good foundation story. Such a story typically began with severe troubles leading to a hopeful solution or escape by sending out a group … Continue reading “The Pentateuch’s Debt to Greek Laws and Constitutions — A New Look”
Russell Gmirkin in his new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible draws attention to striking similarities between the Pentateuch (the first five books of the “Old Testament”) on the one hand and Plato’s last work, Laws, and features of the Athenian constitution on the other. Further, even the broader collection of writings that … Continue reading “Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible”
On this page are links to archives of posts treated in special depth. In Depth Archives The Kennedy Assassination, Interview: Billionaire Logic and the Death of JFK Historical Methods (with reference to the study of Christian Origins/Historicity of Jesus) Book of Revelation — Annotated List of Posts Nazareth Death and … Continue reading “ARCHIVES by TOPIC, Annotated (Updated 2 March 23)”
What happens to the Documentary Hypothesis (DH) if, as outlined in recent posts, the Pentateuch was first written in the third century BCE? That’s the first question that comes to most of us when first hearing a thesis like this. This post outlines Russell Gmirkin’s chapter on the DH, and is thus a continuation of … Continue reading “What Happens to the Documentary Hypothesis if the Pentateuch was written 270 BCE?”
In Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch Russell Gmirkin presents a case for the Books of Moses, Genesis to Deuteronomy, being based largely upon the writings of Babylonian and Egyptian historians: Berossus (278 BCE) Manetho (ca 285 BCE) His first task is to demonstrate that we have … Continue reading “Why the Books of Moses should be dated 270 BCE (clue: “Rabbits”)”
I have been posting on the works of several scholars who argue that the Old Testament scriptures were composed much later than traditionally thought (Thompson, Davies, Lemche, Wesselius, Wajdenbaum) but there remains much more to be written about their arguments, and more published scholars to draw into the same net (Nielsen and Gmirkin are two … Continue reading “The Books of Moses — Unknown 300 years Before Christ?”
This post is a continuation of a protracted series on the views of Philippe Wajdenbaum whose doctoral thesis, arguing that a good many of the Biblical stories and laws were inspired by Greek literature, has been published as Argonauts of the Desert: Structural Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. Several of the more recent posts have … Continue reading “New Understandings of the Old Testament: Jacques Cazeaux”
The influences of Mesopotamian creation stories in Genesis are clear. But how those stories came to be re-written for the Bible is less clear. Russell E. Gmirkin sets out two possibilities in Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch: The traditional Documentary Hypothesis view: Around 1400 BCE the … Continue reading “The Genesis Creation Story and its Third Century Hellenistic Source?”