Researchers Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef from Tel Aviv University have discovered what may be a discrepancy in the history laid out in the Bible.
Using carbon-dating to determine the age of the oldest-known camel bones, the researchers determined that camels were first introduced to Israel around the 9th century BCE.
The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament refers to camels as pack animals as early as the story of Abraham. Though there is no archaeological evidence of Abraham's life, many in the religious and scientific communities, including Chabad and the Associates For Biblical Research,
cite the 20th century BCE as his time of birth. If the new evidence is
correct, however, this suggests discrepancies between the Bible and
human history as explained by science.
The researchers scoured
ancient copper production sites in the Aravah Valley, where camel bones
were only present in sites active in the last third of the 10 century
and the 9th century BCE. Sapir-Hen and Ben-Yosef write in their report:
"[The
camel bones] demonstrate a sudden appearance of camels at the site,
following a major change in the organization of production in the entire
region."
This suggests that camels were introduced to the region abruptly, perhaps by Egyptians along Mediterranean trade routes.
Dr.
Robert Harris, an Associate Professor at the Jewish Theological
Seminary, says this shouldn't come as a shock to the theological
community.
“While these findings may have been published recently,
those of us on the inside have known the essential facts for a
generation now," Harris conveyed to HuffPost Religion through associates
at JTS. "This is just one of many anachronisms in the Bible, but these
do not detract from its sanctity, because it is a spiritual source, not a
historical one.”
Biblical archaeology is understandably an imperfect science. Archaeologist William Dever explained in an interview with PBS several years ago:
"We
want to make the Bible history. Many people think it has to be history
or nothing. But there is no word for history in the Hebrew Bible. In
other words, what did the biblical writers think they were doing?
Writing objective history? No. That's a modern discipline. They were
telling stories. They wanted you to know what these purported events
mean."
Joined: Aug 10 2009
Location: Home
Status: Offline
Points: 152241
Posted: Feb 07 2014 at 7:02am
Derri wrote:
We are all finding out about life. There is no absolute that we know of, and we have to approach the universe less arrogantly. Currently there are 20 stars roughly the size of our sun that have been ejected out of our galaxy. Scientist have no idea what caused this, as they did not come from the black hole at the centre of the galaxy and yet they are moving at a speed fast enough to leave it. No one knows what could have worked these stars up to such velocities because before this discovery, only a star kicked out of a black hole could have such energy to even dream about leaving the galaxy.
In the book of Job, God poke with Job about arrogance and presumption of claiming to know in absolutes all that God is. The point is to find out and come to awareness by experiencing---by being.
I'm not sure exactly what you are getting at. You present an interesting scientific mystery in one paragraph and then go directly to talking about arrogance and God in the next. My only conclusion is that you're using some sort of god of the gaps argument. "We don't know...therefore God."
I agree that arrogance should be left at the door. I would say that includes using stories from the specific religion one fancies to be the end-all answer for mysteries about the universe.
It's because now biblical researchers are now saying that genesis was written in 500 BC, so of course it would have been stories and fables. There is no proof of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob nor the 12 tribes and etc. They just simply didn't exist in the fashion they were described. I don't even think the hebrews were an complete ethnic group coming for the same people but different people and slaves making up a group or nation. So they weren't blood, but they needed these stories to bind the people together and that's where Judaism comes in.
Lol. Pat Roberts said bless your soul Bishop Usher youse wrong.
When I see articles like the camel article and they say stuff like evidence seems to contradict the bible I always wonder if the writer is serious.
Anyway back to Pat Roberts. Since faith requires no proof why not just accept the science and recall that one believes YHWH is the creator and has a hand in ALL things. Why present 'evidence' for a young earth. Its kind of pointless and even Pat Roberts can see that.
Lol. Pat Roberts said bless your soul Bishop Usher youse wrong.
When I see articles like the camel article and they say stuff like evidence seems to contradict the bible I always wonder if the writer is serious.
Anyway back to Pat Roberts. Since faith requires no proof why not just accept the science and recall that one believes YHWH is the creator and has a hand in ALL things. Why present 'evidence' for a young earth. Its kind of pointless and even Pat Roberts can see that.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum