“As many men, so many opinions.” Terence. My friend Matt Roper sent me the follow summary of the state of flux of the Documentary Hypothesis as understood by Gordon Wenham in his introduction to his commentary on Genesis, Genesis 1-15, (1987) ——– “In the kaleidoscope of new pentateuchal hypotheses the existence of J remains one of the few points of agreement conceded by nearly everyone” (xxviii). This has occurred, however, largely at the expense of E (xxix). As far as... Read more
AKA “Temple of the Inscriptions” from Palenque. Read more
Historians have long realized that, epistemologically speaking, the idea of learning what “really happened” through historical methodologies is fraught with difficulties that sometimes renders a solution essentially impossible, especially with ancient history. History is not an empirical discipline. We cannot directly observe the past. We can only indirectly observe the effects of the past. These effects generally consist of man-made materials that survive from the past: texts and artifacts (including art). Thus, historians cannot directly observe Moses. We can only... Read more
When examining the question of historicity, it is important to distinguish between ontological issues and epistemological issues. Most non-historians (and many historians, for that matter), don’t understand this important distinction. I’ll use Moses as an example to try to elucidate this topic, and reflect on methodological issues related to ancient history (which are often quite different from modern methodological questions). Questions regarding “historicity” concern what “really happened.” Ontologically, something clearly happened in the past. Epistemologically the question is, how can... Read more
There’s an old biblical studies joke–yes there are such things–that goes like this: Documentarians believe that that can take a four egg omelet, and not only separate out each egg from the other, put each back in its proper egg, and tell you which four chickens the eggs came from, but also that they can tell what each of the four chickens was thinking when they laid the eggs. Read more
A recent column by Dan Peterson and me in the Deseret News. Read more
The discussion on DH 16 seems to have degenerated into a debate about the meaning of the term Documentary Hypothesis. Those who support the theory seem to want to define it as broadly and vaguely as possible. (I believe this is a rhetorical ploy; if everything is a variation of the DH, then they can claim unanimity of support for the DH.) For them, any theory that posits multiple authors in the Pentateuch is DH. Only a theory that posits... Read more
On Easter I find it puzzling and paradoxical that atheists and anti-Christians often claim that Jesus was a great moral teacher and philosopher, but he never claimed to be the Son of God. Rather, his disciples invented the resurrection and divine sonship due to a combination of wishful thinking and hallucinations. What this theory requires is that we believe one of the great moral teachers of the ages managed to surround himself only with delusional and hysterical disciples, who were... Read more
Χριστός ἀνέστη! (He is risen!) Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! (Risen indeed!) Photos of Easter at Jerusalem Read more
This video gives you a sense of what Jewish prayers at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif during Jewish holy days in Jerusalem. Read more
Enigmatic Mirror
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