This blew me away"The distant between Egypt and the promise land" (page 5)

ziddina

"...it was, between 220-250 miles. ..."

EX-cuuuuse me????

Crap, when my husband does "Ride the Rockies", he rides that far on his bicycle in three to four days... And walking at a rate of 10 miles per day - which is a snail's crawl, by the way - that would come to 25 days at the most...

trevor

Having read through this thread, I am left wondering...

One would think that a divinely inspired account of God's chosen and rescued people, wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, would contain some detail.

All those years of people being stoned to death for kindling wood on the sabbath or walking too far and not a mention. Perhaps a papyrus map of the lost nations movements?

The Hebrew desert god should have provided google sooner!

Leolaia

The Epic of Gilgamesh which I read only a few weeks ago almost spooked me. It is much older than the Hebrew account. Not only is there a great flood but some of the details are identical to Genesis or, rather, Genesis is in accord with Gilgamesh. Besides historical account, Gilgamesh is truly a great work of literature.

The Mesoptamian stories of the Flood are more original. For instance, there is a narrative problem in the biblical story -- the purpose of the Flood is so God would wipe out the life he had created, both man and animal, yet inexplicably he preserves man and animals from the same destruction he has planned, without any acknowledgement that God is mitigating his own actions. This problem does not exist in the Mesopotamian stories; there is instead conflict between Enlil and Enki/Ea, with one god bringing destruction on the earth and the other god helping save human and animal life behind the other god's back. The problem only arose when the original polytheistic frame of the story became monotheistic (or henotheistic with the bringer of the Flood identified with the creator). One could also note how the directions on building the ark in Genesis are filled with hapax legomena (signs that the story came from another source), with one of the words kpr "pitch" occurring nowhere else in the OT but identical to the word (kuppuru) used in the Epic of Gilgamesh at the same point in the story.

The Jews were influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh. There are faint echoes in the Book of Giants (one of the Enochic literature) found at Qumran and later used by the Manichaeans; one of the anediluvian giants was named Gilgamesh, and other characters bear names similar to those in the Epic of Gilgamesh (Atambish = Utnaptishtim, Hobabis = Humbaba). Enoch's journey to the edge of the world and through the underworld to a land of jewels in the Book of Watchers also is likely an echo of Gilgamesh.

jam

Vidiot; It,s funny you mention, Leolaia the historical badass,agree.

Just today while playing around of golf I got into A discussion with

my brother about the facts and exchange of thoughts made on this

site. His words , you can not believe everything you read on the net,

If I have A question I will ask my minister. OK, three months ago

remerber the discussion we had on the Exodus and I told you it

was only A myth and you told me It was true. Well two

weeks ago his minister sermon, Is the Exodus account to be taken

literal, in fact he joke how stupid the Israelites were to wonder

for 40 years.

cuckoo in the nest

Back in the nineties when I was at college, I was talking with a jewish friend about the Exodus, and she came out with this priceless remark ; "Moses? Don't talk to me about that schmuck. If he'd turned right instead of left, we'd have had the oil and the arabs would have had the oranges".

OnTheWayOut

If the whole Exodus story itself is unhistorical we can safely dismiss the other parts of the story: the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven and the supply of water from the Rock in Horeb as mythical addition to an already fictitious account.

Either that, or we can do as many Christians do: Declare the Bible philosophically or morally accurate and allegorically written. It's close enough.

I prefer to call a fiction a fiction.

processor

Don't forget that according to the Bible, there was ONE "private place ... outside the camp" where they were allowed to ease nature. If there really were 3 million people plus their flocks, the camp might have had a diameter between 30 and 100 kilometers. That means that the walk from their tents to the privy might have taken hours, day or even weeks every time.

cameo-d

Oh, the promised land, the promised land! It's just ahead, the Promised Land! (carrot and stick methodology)

Why do most people not get the real gist of the story?

THEY NEVER GOT TO THE PROMISED LAND.

It was always just a carrot dangling on a stick.

Wasn't Moses supposed to be god's favorite? Didn't Moses waste 40 years of his life and everyone else's stomping around in a desert on a speculation? According to the story wasn't Moses devout and obedient to god's every whim? And in the end, it was all a cruel joke. You can see it, but you can't have it.

I see JWs living in a desert of their own making, following the dangling carrot of ridiculous doctrine. Filling out time cards every week to "prove" their obedience and hope for a reward in the end. The green pastures of family and education are right in their faces and they trample it because they prefer the desert and "the next life".

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/196167/1/The-Promised-Land

jam

Recently a minister told me, God blinded them. Now wait, does

that make sense? Hell, all they had to do is go north west. They

didn,t have a problem in finding other cities and wiping them out.

So he blinded them for 30-40 years, but directed them to other

communities to be slaughtered before he open their eyes.

Make a lot of sense. I guess to pass the time while walking

around in a circle, Oh hell go kill a few people.

This blew me away"The distant between Egypt and the promise land"

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