The Water Below and Above the Expanse

[shunyadragon]

Really? And your evidence for that is . . . ?

They found the date carved in stone. Chuckles!

 

[Audie]

excuse me, Eli, but you can verify Egyptian kings from contemporary writings of respective kings, during the 18th and 19th dynasties, from the second half of 2nd millennium BCE.

But you cannot do the same with that of Moses and Joshua In that same half of that millennium, as there are no Late Bronze Age inscriptions that mention them anywhere in Canaan, especially in the royal archive at Megiddo, where there hundreds of clay tablets written in ancient Canaanite cuneiform. There are also no mentions of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the first half of 2nd millennium BCE (2000 - 1500 BCE).

there are no verifications & justifications for these mythological figures from Abraham to Joshua, just stories written from 600 BCE and later.

It is funny how you say, their names (referring to Egyptian rulers of the times that both Genesis and Exodus) are not important and yet why were these stories of Abraham, Joseph and Moses, set in Egypt in the first place?

Genesis can name some nonexistent king name, Melchizedek (Genesis 14), but cannot actual kings ruling at the times of Joseph and Moses.

It's an example of how fiction is so
often more important to the bible than fact.

 

[Kathryn]

excuse me, Eli, but you can verify Egyptian kings from contemporary writings of respective kings, during the 18th and 19th dynasties, from the second half of 2nd millennium BCE.

But you cannot do the same with that of Moses and Joshua In that same half of that millennium, as there are no Late Bronze Age inscriptions that mention them anywhere in Canaan, especially in the royal archive at Megiddo, where there hundreds of clay tablets written in ancient Canaanite cuneiform. There are also no mentions of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the first half of 2nd millennium BCE (2000 - 1500 BCE).

there are no verifications & justifications for these mythological figures from Abraham to Joshua, just stories written from 600 BCE and later.

It is funny how you say, their names (referring to Egyptian rulers of the times that both Genesis and Exodus) are not important and yet why were these stories of Abraham, Joseph and Moses, set in Egypt in the first place?

Genesis can name some nonexistent king name, Melchizedek (Genesis 14), but cannot actual kings ruling at the times of Joseph and Moses.

Melchizedek was also a priest. I personally believe there is plenty of evidence for his reality. He is mentioned by Josephus, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Torah and other rabbinic writings, the Midrash, the Zohar, the Bible, the book of Mormon, and Isma'lism, among other sources.

 

[gnostic]

Melchizedek was also a priest. I personally believe there is plenty of evidence for his reality. He is mentioned by Josephus, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Torah and other rabbinic writings, the Midrash, the Zohar, the Bible, the book of Mormon, and Isma'lism, among other sources.

Sorry, but these sources are relying on Genesis as the primary source for the story that included Melchizedek, but you to remember that Genesis itself was composed from the 6th century BCE, when the prominent people of Judah, particularly from Jerusalem, were living as hostages in Babylon.

They are set of invented stories - myths - a national & cultural narratives meant to bolster the Jewish religion, with some cultural heroes, eg Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David & Solomon.

Books like from Genesis to 1 Kings are not eyewitnesses’ accounts. They are not history books.

There are no contemporary texts or even contemporary inscriptions that mentioned them.

You do know what “contemporary“ means, don’t you, Kathryn?

Although, it isn’t perfect, and there may be some propaganda involved, but we know of the kings in Egypt from the Middle Kingdom period (11th to 14th dynasties) and New Kingdom period (18th to 20th dynasties), archaeologists and historians can piece together the history of the lives of numbers of pharaohs, because they left behind texts and inscriptions that can be dated to those periods. Some of these pharaohs have temples and tombs built that include their names inscribed on walls, columns, sarcophagus, coffins, artworks, stelae, etc.

inscriptions on stone stelae, often contained important records about the pharaohs, about their families, about their achievements in politics, diplomacies with foreign, to commemorate their victories, their building programme and so on. More importantly, these stelae are often written during their lifetime or at their death…hence they are contemporary works.

Likewise the Babylonian and Assyrian rulers have something written down sometimes on stelae, but also on stone or more often clay clylinders.

The same cannot be said with those Hebrew heroes. From Adam to Solomon nothing were written down, nothing contemporary.

There are neither inscriptions of either Abraham or Melchizedek, anywhere or any sources that can be dated to first half of 2nd millennium BCE. I know they don’t exist, so I really don’t think you have a single evidence that would really establish their existence.