For This Debate, Mr. Lundahl Needs to Get My Recommended References and Study Them
Kevin R. Henke
October 4, 2022
In Henke (2022at), I criticize Mr. Lundahl for not obtaining my recommended references and seeing what modern archeology really says about the Old Testament:
“Why does he often avoid them and prefer less reliable sources, such as Wikipedia articles or outdated 18th to 19th century religious books, such as the opinions of 18th century Bishop Richard Challoner? He lives in Paris and certainly he should be able to find a University or other library with science journals. Why does he trust ancient histories, Wikipedia and other websites, but not modern archeology? Why does he trust C.S. Lewis? Why does he blindly trust Kent Hovind, who has no legitimate training in science? Why doesn’t he use Strahler (1999) or other science textbooks for legitimate information on science and the scientific method instead?” [my emphasis]
For modern archeology, I was specifically thinking of Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) and Dever (2005), which I had previously recommended to him.
In response to the bolded sentence from Henke (2022at), Lundahl (2022r) refers to Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) and blames me for not providing specifics about the claims in this book:
“Henke has so far not given any archaeological observation by Finkelstein or Silberman, which I could intelligently discuss, or at least look up in their rivals like Thinker's Update, he has only referred to their overall conclusion, which contradicts history and is false for that reason.”
No, Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) are discovering history and refuting a lot of myths in the Bible (e.g., pp. 22-24, the failed search for Abraham on pp. 33-36, the failed Exodus on pp. 48-71, and the failed Conquest of Canaan on pp. 72-96). Now, I actually did refer to statements made by Finkelstein and Silberman (pp. 105, 118) in Henke (2022dn), which was posted on September 15, 2022 and before Lundahl (2022r) was written:
“Traditions, ‘collective memories’, and ‘earliest known audiences’ are not reliable evidence of history. They may be nothing more than centuries of a lot of people believing in made-up stories and misinterpretations. Archeologists Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) discuss the archeological results on the origin of the nation of Israel and demonstrate that there’s no evidence that Moses wrote the Pentateuch and that the ‘collective memory’ of the Israelites in Genesis, Exodus and elsewhere in the Old Testament is largely wrong. In particular, they noted that considerable progress in deciphering the historical origins of Israel only began once archeologists stopped taking the claims in the book of Joshua at face value (p. 105). Finkelstein and Silberman (2001, p. 118) concluded that Israel did not result from a massive Exodus from Egypt and the violent conquest of the Canaanites as indicated in Exodus, Joshua and other Old Testament books. The massive Exodus from Egypt never happened. Instead, Israel emerged from within the Canaanites. Mr. Lundahl needs to realize that just because a story is old and widely believed, this is no reason to label it as ‘history.’”
In Henke (2022ec), another essay posted before Lundahl (2022r), I also provided the following statement about when Finkelstein and Silberman (2001, pp. 310-313) think that the Exodus myth started:
“As for his anti-Semitic comments on Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) in his 2014 essay linked [… here], Mr. Lundahl needs to carefully reread that archeology book, what the book actually says about King Saul, when they actually think that the Exodus myth started (pp. 310-313), and Mr. Lundahl needs to question the details about David and Solomon in the Bible. This is because the archeological evidence clearly demonstrates that the Bible is often wrong about Moses, David and Solomon.”
Actually, Mr. Lundahl’s 2014 essay is careless and never bothers to reference Finkelstein and Silberman. Thus, he could have been referring to another reference by them rather than their most popular work, Finkelstein and Silberman (2001). Anyway, why didn’t Mr. Lundahl get a copy of Finkelstein and Silberman (2001) and respond to these paragraphs in my essays? I’ve seen Mr. Lundahl’s lame excuses in Lundahl (2022r) for why he can’t obtain a copy of Finkelstein and Silberman (2001). Actually by simply searching on titles, I was able to easily find free pdfs of many of my recommended books and articles, including a complete and free pdf copy of Finkelstein and Silberman (2001). However, because they might violate copyright laws, I’m not going to provide any links and I cannot recommend that people actually download and use them. Use your own conscience. Also, if necessary, Mr. Lundahl can always buy a copy and sell it after our debate if he doesn’t want to keep it. So, if Mr. Lundahl wants to have a good debate that meets the interests of our readers, both he and I need to get the other’s recommended references.
By the way, as I stated in rule #7 on written debates, I’m not going to summarize my recommended literature for my opponents.
“I will provide information or links so that individuals can look up my references. I will not provide copies or summaries of my references. My opponents will need to show some effort and look up the references for themselves and read them. I don't expect my opponents to be lazy.”
I wrote this rule before I met Mr. Lundahl. So, I’m not calling him lazy. Nevertheless, once I’m convinced that my opponents actually have the document in hand, I’ll point out even more specific examples and we can discuss them in detail. Mr. Lundahl and I did this with Lewis (1960) and I actually discovered that Mr. Lundahl was not as familiar with Lewis (1960) as he thought (e.g., Henke 2022ch).
References:
Dever, W.G. 2005. Did God Have a Wife?: Archeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 344pp.
Finkelstein, I. and N.A. Silberman. 2001. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts: The Free Press: New York, USA, 385pp.
Lewis, C.S. 1960. Miracles, 2nd ed., printed 1974: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 294pp.
Strahler, A.N. 1999. Science and Earth History: The Evolution/Creation Controversy: 2nd ed., Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, 552 pp.