Historical Criticism A Guide For The Perplexed Profile picture
Australian progressive Christian utterly fascinated by historical criticism, archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and Second Temple Judaism.
Aug 21, 2019 4 tweets 2 min read
Despite its recondite subject, Eugene Ulrich's "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible" is one of my favourite books given how it pulps fundy beliefs on the composition of the OT. This passage is an elegant demonstration of this fact. Fundys often appeal to Qumran as proof that the OT once written was preserved with meticulous accuracy over 2500 years. There's no doubt that the MT we have closely resembles proto-MT text forms at Qumran, but what Qumran shows is that variant literary forms of books existed.
Sep 19, 2018 19 tweets 3 min read
Ever wondered why Christian fundamentalists aren’t taken seriously? Take archaeology. Turns out there’s no convincing evidence for the Conquest of Canaan. Enter renown archaeologist Bill Dever. From “Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?” (2003: Eerdmans)