Chat with a creationist

[Justtristo]

May I ask are there any scholars who would argue for the Old Testament originally being written in Greek, rather than Hebrew and Aramaic in some sections (such as the book of Daniel).

It probably was not written at all until the Greeks came along. Many religions begin as oral tales in the hands of priests. The fact that we have no texts...or even inscriptions in tombs argues against any great literary tradition. Perhaps Philip R Davies would be the best place to start.

I have read Philip R Davies about the relatively late date of the writing of the Old Testament (Persian going into Hellenistic times). However Davies did not remember did not arguing anything about the Old Testament books being written in Greek first then later translated into Hebrew (and Aramaic in the Book of Daniel).

I could argue that the original documents of the books of the Old Testament (written in Hebrew) have been lost. Much the same situation is true of the original copies of a lot of ancient texts. The earliest surviving copies of ancient texts we have were written down centuries after the originals.

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Why do you make such baseless assumptions? Are you aware that it was the Greeks who ordered the Greek translation of the bible from Hebrew as a "scholarly writing"? So obviously the scriptures had to have been around for quite some time.

Actually it was Jews living in Alexandria who probably started the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Because they could not understand the Hebrew written in it.

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Here is a link to the Khirbet Qeiyafa home page

http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/

People who do not want the Bible shown to be true love to sit in their chairs and just deny. They refuse to present any evidence to the contrary as it is easier to deny than do their own work.

Here is a link to the ostracon page

http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/ostracon.asp

I have heard about this discovery but have not had the time to investigate more fully but I have no problem with it being an example of 10th century BC work. Seems that I. finkelstein has written on the topic as well and his position is of no surprise because he needs to protect his low chronology. If the discovery stands it destroys Finkelstein's theory.

http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/...l-qeiyafa/

However the rest of the archeological record which is very extensive in that part of the world, don't show really much difference between the "Hebrews" and their "Canaanite" or "Phoenician" neighbors. For example you get in supposedly "Hebrew" sites dating from the 8th and 7th centuries statues of Baal or Yahweh as a bull and those of Astarte (The wife of either El or Yahweh).