Russell Gmirkin did not argue that ALL of the books of the Jewish Bible originated in the Hellenistic era. When I began to post on the earlywritings forum that "Why the Hellenistic era for ALL "Old Testament" books should be taken seriously" I was attempting to set out why it is both possible and pl| Vridar
To follow on from my Part 2a comment ….. The biblical works have traditionally been understood as the product of an evolution over centuries, usually said to be from the ninth or eighth to the third centuries, under the influence of Mesopotamian, Hittite, Syrian, Ugaritic, Egyptian cultures. There is a serious problem with that view, … Continue reading "Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 7"| Vridar
Why the Hellenistic era .... Part 2a In this post I will explain "my personal reason" for strongly suspecting a Hellenistic origin of the biblical literature -- though I am sure I have come across the same ideas throughout different books and articles over the years. It follows on from #5 in the pr| Vridar
By the way, I have informed Stephen Goranson that he is welcome to respond here to my resposting of his criticisms of Russell Gmirkin — despite my earlier prohibition on his posts to this blog. For this series alone I have lifted my relegation of SG’s comments to spam. In Part 4 I pointed to … Continue reading "Defending Russell Gmirkin’s Hellenistic Dating of the Old Testament – Part 5"| Vridar
Stephen Goranson has been a regular critic of Russell Gmirkin. Stephen posted the following points (in the earlywritings forum) that he claimed gave reasonable grounds for dating the entire Hebrew Bible (he referred to the "TaNaK") before Hellenistic era: There are reasons to consider some TaNaK te| Vridar
I've addressed the Documentary Hypothesis several times before (see a list of post beginning here). The DH is the basis through which the Hebrew Bible is understood to have begun its development as early as the days of David and Solomon, and in the time of the Babylonian Captivity and through to the| Vridar
In response to the post that I copied here, one consistent critic of Russell Gmirkin's thesis in particular (and of the Hellenistic era hypothesis for the creation of the Hebrew Bible more generally) posted the following response: Elephantine is the site of a Persian era garrison settlement of| Vridar
Since I don't expect to have much time to write new posts again before the end of the year, I will from time to time copy what I once posted on another forum in defence of Russell Gmirkin's thesis dating the Old Testament books to the Hellenistic era. The orthodox view is that biblical books abou| Vridar
By now many of you will have learned of Russell Gmirkin's sudden passing. I am still trying to process the shock. I was privileged to have had frequent communications with him in the past few years and he was on my short list of people I had hoped to meet in person. His website: https://russellgmirk| Vridar