Mr. Lundahl Needs to be Evaluating the Critical 21st Century Scholarship on the Claims of the Bible and Not Getting Distracted by Irrelevant Greco-Roman Stories
Kevin R. Henke
November 23, 2022
The title of Henke (2022bo) is “Why Believe in Any Accounts in Ancient Documents if They are Not Supported by Archeological or External Other Evidence?”. Besides the question in the title, I also stated the following in Henke (2022bo):
“Once more, instead of providing evidence that Moses ever existed and wrote the Pentateuch, Lundahl (2022k) rambles on about other unrelated ancient sources that also have questionable claims and supposedly also involve his unreliable “earliest known audience” scheme (see Henke (2022b); Henke 2022bh). As I discussed in Henke (2022b), there’s no reason to believe Greco-Roman, Biblical or other ancient stories actually happened unless they are confirmed by archeology or are supported by other external evidence. Again, over the ages, people have frequently lied. Gullible audiences have then believed them and written down these lies as ‘history’ and ‘scripture.’” [my emphasis]
Instead of properly answering the question in the title of Henke (2022bo) and other issues raised about his unreliable sources and discussions, Lundahl (2022x) decides to only respond to the bolded phrase in the above quotation from my essay:
“I'm providing as parallel sources where the claims are not questioned by the expertise.
Which Mr. Henke would know if he knew the expertise.”
Mr. Lundahl’s Greco-Roman “parallel sources”, whether endorsed by 21st scholars or not, are largely irrelevant when dealing with the reliability of the claims in the Bible. Rather than frequently going off on these irrelevant tangents, Mr. Lundahl needs to be examining the archeological and other evidence that directly relates to the claims in the Pentateuch and the New Testament (e.g., Finkelstein and Silberman 2001; Dever 2005; Tov 2001; Price 2017; Ehrman 2013; Carrier 2014; Babinski 2010; Tobin 2010 and my other recommended references).
References:
Babinski, E. 2010. “The Cosmology of the Bible” in J.W. Loftus (ed.) The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails: Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, pp. 109-147.
Carrier, R. 2014. On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 696pp.
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.
Ehrman, B.D. 2013. Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics: Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 628pp.
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.
Price, R.M. 2017. Holy Fable: Volume I: The Old Testament Undistorted by Faith: Mindvendor Press, Coppell, TX, USA, 334pp
Tobin, P. 2010. “The Bible and Modern Scholarship” in J.W. Loftus (ed.) The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails: Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY, USA, pp. 148-180.
Tov, E. 2001. Textural Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 2nd revised ed., Fortress Press: Minneapolis, MN, USA, 456pp.