BAR May/June 2006 article

[Sekhmet]

The Patriarchs in History

There was one article in the Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 2006 titled, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Meet Newton, Darwin and Wellhausen by Professor Maynard P. Maidman on page 58 that spurred me on in the creation of The Archaeological Chronology of the Bible Lands .  Any chronologist working on the problems of Biblical chronology can tell you.  That Dr. Maidman uses the same key words in dismissing the Patriarchs.  That all traditional bound scholars use.  These key words are must, seems, the importance that what is in Genesis echoes the Bronze Age realities.  The bias against the first millennium for finding them, that even the second millennium holds little hope for finding them. Then the minimalism of important extant texts such as Pharaoh Merneptah’s usage of the people of Israel, and the open questions if and why it is so impossible to find the patriarchs . 

It is as if some old archaeologist snapped a picture and it is now the ‘bible’ quoted as gospel.  In the meantime, like all the others Professor Maidman address’ not one bit of the newer archaeological discoveries of the last 20-30 years from the archaeologists of Assyria and Egyptian works.  It is one reason why this chronologist enjoys reading the works of the more recent scholars.  They are free of the restrictions regarding Biblical and scriptural descriptions.  They balance their words at times as if on a precipice, that they dare not fall down.  Perhaps out of fear of ruining their years of education and standing in a world that demands that the traditional un-working chronology be upheld.  No matter what the evidence provides. 

Until words like must, seems and the many others are eliminated from the work of Biblical History.  We will continue to be hamstrung by work that has no reality in our day.  Due to the continued work of archaeologists unburdened by nearly two thousand years of theology based upon a pagan concept of a short world history.


An original piece by Pjbl2223@aol.com based on the copyrighted 2000-2008 The Archaeological Chronology.  All rights reserved.

[kattey]

I must stick up for the Pagans.  The great cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece, Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians and numerous others, are the foundations upon which present religions are based.  It could be no different for all those born before Jesus as far as Christian theology goes.

There are Pagans who were/are great people.  Somehow they were accepted by God even if they called him by a different name.