The Genesis Fraud

[michaelsherlock]

Thank you for providing this very interesting article. Prior to this, the best attack on Ze'ev Herzog, by a Christian, was that Ze'ev was being manipulated and controlled by Muslims to say the things he said, in the words of the apologist: "we would not expect to find such a learned archaeologist, born in Israel to say these things" or words to that effect. This was much better. So firstly, allow me to thank you.
I do not have much time to spare on this issue so please allow me to address it over the coming weeks.

I should deal with the article you have presented, keeping in mind that you may be right. But here are some issues I have.

You said:

I would find Herzog's conclusions more interesting if he was honest.

What, apart from this article by the Christian apologist and pseudo-archaeologist, Hershel Shanks, makes you think Ze'ev Herzog is dishonest?

Let us compare the Resumes of these two people first, to see who is more qualified, keeping in mind that laymen like Hershel and even myself, are also qualified to provide logical arguments, based on evidence.

Ze'ev Herzog

Ze’ev Herzog (Hebrew: זאב הרצוג‎, born 1941) is an Israeli archeologist, professor of archaeology at The Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University specializing in social archaeology, ancient architecture and field archaeology. Ze’ev Herzog has been the director of The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology since 2005, and serves as archaeological advisor to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority in the preservation and development of National Parks at Arad and Beer Sheba.

Herzog took part in the excavations of Tel Hazor and Tel Megiddo with Yigael Yadin and in excavations at Tel Arad and Tel Be'er Sheva with Yohanan Aharoni. He directed the excavations at Tel Beer Sheba, Tel Michal and Tel Gerisa and in 1997 began a new exploration project at Tel Yafo (ancient Jaffa).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Herzog

Hershel Shanks

Hershel Shanks (born March 8, 1930, Sharon, Pennsylvania) is the founder of the Biblical Archaeology Society and the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review and has written and edited numerous works on Biblical archaeology including the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Shanks communicates the world of biblical archaeology to general readers through his magazines, books, and conferences. Hershel Shanks is "probably the world's most influential amateur Biblical archaeologist..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershel_Shanks#cite_note-0

Also keep in mind that Hershel is under quite a bit of psychological pressure to prove the stories in the bible are true, and this can be evidenced by his haste and stubborness in lending his support to the 'James Ossury,' which has now been shown to be a forgery.

Notwhthstanding the above, we do have some intuiging arguments from Hershel, ones which peaked my interest. For the truth is the truth, no matter whose toes it crushes.

I do have some issues with Hershel's arguments provided in the article you provided.

Let me address some of the speculative leaps, Hershel made regarding Herzog's findings and statements as they pertain to the "truth" of the biblical accounts in question.

Instead, Herzog begins to contradict himself. He admits that "many [Egyptian] documents do mention the custom of nomadic shepherds to enter Egypt during periods of drought and hunger and to camp at the edges of the Nile Delta." This suggests that it is at least plausible that the Israelites (or the Israelites in formation) were among these groups.

Ok, here Hershel is arguing that because Herzog admits that nomadic shepherds often came into Egypt to seek shelter from droughts and famines, at the Nile Delta (an oasis which which provided refuge to many over thousands of years) that this somehow implies that the Israelites were in Egypt, (as the bible describes; sneaky inference). This is a rather large leap, based on little more than speculation, and as Hershel admits Herzog saying; "this was not a solitary phenomenon: such events occurred frequently across thousands of years and were hardly exceptional."

Further, is it possible that those who wrote the relevent stories in the bible, knew that the Nile Delta was a common refuge for those seeking to escape drought and famine?




This is a reasonable question.

I do agree with Hershel in the sense that Herzog cannot make such definitive statements, like "the Israelites were never in Egypt," a better way to put this would be to say that the bulk of the evidence suggests strongly that the Israelites were never in Egypt, as the bible describes.

Hershel goes way off the charts and is a little sneaky, when he says:

All scholars agree that in the mid-second millennium B.C. Egypt was ruled by some Asiatic interlopers known as the Hyksos. All this—and much more—plausibly suggests a real, historical prehistory of the Israelites in Egypt.

This is a huge leap. Firstly, how does proving a group called the Hyksos, suggest a "real, historical" pre-history of the Israelites in Egypt? To establish this, you would first have to establish that the Hyksos were the Israelites, but proving that they were Asiatic does not in itself prove they were Israelites. There is no credible evidence that the Hyksos were the Israelites. Leap!

The cheeky part of the above quote is the use of the weazel "All Scholars agree...............real historical prehistory of the Israelites in Egypt" I know that there are other words in the middle, but this seems a little cheeky to me.