Still No Evidence from Lundahl (2022r) that Genesis is History
Kevin R. Henke
October 2, 2022
In Lundahl (2022j), Mr. Lundahl asks me the following question:
“But where exactly is Henke going to adress [sic spelling] what C. S. Lewis had to say about the Miracles of Christ in the Gospels, which were his go to for historic miracles?”
I gave the following response in Henke (2022as), which deals with Christ’s supposed greatest miracle, the Resurrection:
“Nevertheless, I had not planned on dealing with the supposed Resurrection of Jesus Christ until Mr. Lundahl provided acceptable evidence for the Talking Snake of Genesis 3. That’s why the Resurrection is not mentioned in Henke (2022a) and Henke (2022b). Yet, in his impatience, Lundahl (2022j) wants to deal with the “historic miracle” of the Resurrection even though, as I stated before in Henke (2022b), miracles have to be demonstrated under current and strict laboratory conditions. Meanwhile, Price (2007), Carrier (2014), Loftus (2010), Loftus (2011) and other works argue that the Resurrection of Christ is a myth. We could discuss these references once Mr. Lundahl gives me suitable evidence for the existence of the Talking Snake in Genesis 3. As I’ve argued before in Henke (2022b) and my other essays, Mr. Lundahl’s arguments about “first known audiences” and “cultural memories” are not acceptable evidence. People are gullible and tend to believe all kinds of lies and misinterpretations.” [my emphasis]
Lundahl (2022r) then replies to my bolded statement:
“A prior historic text is usually proven to have been taken as historic by a subsequent one. Hence the importance to go backwards in history, just as we would do within "living (or recently dead) memory" - and the objections to miracles in Genesis are philosophically also objections to those in the Gospels. I have also given (at the very latest in previous instalment) [i.e., Lundahl 2022q] a good argument why miracles should NOT be proven (typically) in laboratory settings.”
As I argued in Henke (2022b), Henke (2022bh), Henke (2022co), Henke (2022ej), and Henke (2022eu), Lundahl (2022r) is also absolutely wrong here. Our oldest copies of Genesis are in the Dead Sea scrolls. No doubt, the Qumran community believed that Genesis was history, but their opinions are not good evidence to demonstrate that Genesis actually is history. Again, we don’t know when Genesis was written. It could have been as much as 1,000 years before the Qumran community and a lot of lying, misinterpretations, and editing of texts could have occurred in 1,000 years. That is, there is a huge knowledge gap between the Qumran community and the origin of Genesis without a proper chain of custody (Henke 2022fd). Tov (2001, p. 9 and following) also warns us that the ancient Hebrews did not treat their biblical texts as carefully as the later Soferim and Masoretes did.
Again, skepticism is the default approach (Henke 2022dv). I don’t have to try to demonstrate that Genesis is not history, even though the geologic evidence is solid that no worldwide Flood ever occurred about 4,300 years ago and that the Earth is far older than 7,000 years old (e.g., Strahler 1999; Prothero 2007; Dalrymple 1991; my website). Mr. Lundahl has the burden of evidence to demonstrate that the accounts in Genesis actually happened and that the book was well preserved from the time that it was written to our earliest copies. No one has done that.
References:
Carrier, R. 2014. On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 696pp.
Dalrymple, G.B. 1991. The Age of the Earth: Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 474 pp.
Lewis, C.S. 1960. Miracles, 2nd ed., printed 1974: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 294pp.
Loftus, J.W. (ed.). 2010. The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 422pp.
Loftus, J.W. (ed.). 2011. The End of Christianity, Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 435pp.
Price, R.M. 2007. Jesus is Dead, American Atheist Press: Cranford, NJ, USA, 279pp.
Prothero, D.R. 2007. Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters: Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, USA, 381pp.
Strahler, A.N. 1999. Science and Earth History: The Evolution/Creation Controversy: 2nd ed., Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 552 pp.
Tov, E. 2001. Textural Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 2nd revised ed., Fortress Press: Minneapolis, MN, USA, 456pp.