Friday, April 10 2009: Passover
Apparently, Passover started Wednesday. While googling for archaeological evidence of the Exodus I came across this quote here:
"But one element is missing from these inscriptions: There are no dead Assyrians! That is consistent with the ancient "historical" style -- negative events, failures and flaws are not depicted at all. When a nation suffers an embarrassing defeat, they usually whitewash the mistakes and destroy the evidence.
This idea has significant ramifications for archeology and the Exodus. The last thing the ancient Egyptians wanted to record is the embarrassment of being completely destroyed by the God of a puny slave nation. Would the Egyptians ever want to preserve details of the destruction of fields, flocks, and first borns -- plus the death of Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army at the Red Sea?
In other words, we wouldn't expect to find prominent attention to Moses' humiliation of Pharaoh -- even if it occurred. "
I nearly laughed out loud. Yes, this is the reasonable conclusion to draw from the total lack of corroboration for the plagues of Egypt or the Exodus: the Egyptians were embarrassed that they got pwned by YHWH.
Another fun quote from further down the page:
"Interestingly, the Torah is unique among all ancient national literature in that it portrays its people in both victory and defeat. The Jews -- and sometimes their leaders -- are shown as rebels, complainers, idol-builders, and yes, descended from slaves. "
This is laughably absurd. The same aggrandizing exaggeration the author attributes to the Syrians and Egyptians appears throughout the Bible, as well. At the time that that the conquest of the Promised Land supposedly occurred Jericho had no city walls and most of the cities mentioned either did not exist or were small villages. There is also no evidence supporting the expansive range of the unified kingdom of David and Solomon.
"But one element is missing from these inscriptions: There are no dead Assyrians! That is consistent with the ancient "historical" style -- negative events, failures and flaws are not depicted at all. When a nation suffers an embarrassing defeat, they usually whitewash the mistakes and destroy the evidence.
This idea has significant ramifications for archeology and the Exodus. The last thing the ancient Egyptians wanted to record is the embarrassment of being completely destroyed by the God of a puny slave nation. Would the Egyptians ever want to preserve details of the destruction of fields, flocks, and first borns -- plus the death of Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army at the Red Sea?
In other words, we wouldn't expect to find prominent attention to Moses' humiliation of Pharaoh -- even if it occurred. "
I nearly laughed out loud. Yes, this is the reasonable conclusion to draw from the total lack of corroboration for the plagues of Egypt or the Exodus: the Egyptians were embarrassed that they got pwned by YHWH.
Another fun quote from further down the page:
"Interestingly, the Torah is unique among all ancient national literature in that it portrays its people in both victory and defeat. The Jews -- and sometimes their leaders -- are shown as rebels, complainers, idol-builders, and yes, descended from slaves. "
This is laughably absurd. The same aggrandizing exaggeration the author attributes to the Syrians and Egyptians appears throughout the Bible, as well. At the time that that the conquest of the Promised Land supposedly occurred Jericho had no city walls and most of the cities mentioned either did not exist or were small villages. There is also no evidence supporting the expansive range of the unified kingdom of David and Solomon.
Bob SAGET. wrote: