Jen, if you can ever find it, a great little book is called "The View From Nebo."
Here's a page I scanned for you.
![[Image: view_Nebo_174.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i4.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy108%2Frschilla%2Fresearch%2Fview_Nebo_174.jpg)
The story is not what the OT puts out...surprise, surprise. In addition there was an amusing dispute between Israeli Archaeologists, Israel Finkelstein and Oded Lipschitz about the size of the contingent which came back from "Babylon" and re-occupied Jerusalem. The book of "Ezra" claims over 42,000.
Finkelstein did some math based on the re-built portion of the city and came up with..... 400.
"Not so fast," shouted Oded Lipschitz (probably in Hebrew) "I've done the math too and I get a total of....... 1,000."
The two of them, old friends and colleagues of course, are probably still quibbling but the point is that the rest of us can once again safely dismiss the bullshit claims of the bible for what they are. BULLSHIT.
Here's a page I scanned for you.
![[Image: view_Nebo_174.jpg]](http://s4.photobucket.com/user/rschilla/media/research/view_Nebo_174.jpg.html)
The story is not what the OT puts out...surprise, surprise. In addition there was an amusing dispute between Israeli Archaeologists, Israel Finkelstein and Oded Lipschitz about the size of the contingent which came back from "Babylon" and re-occupied Jerusalem. The book of "Ezra" claims over 42,000.
Finkelstein did some math based on the re-built portion of the city and came up with..... 400.
"Not so fast," shouted Oded Lipschitz (probably in Hebrew) "I've done the math too and I get a total of....... 1,000."
The two of them, old friends and colleagues of course, are probably still quibbling but the point is that the rest of us can once again safely dismiss the bullshit claims of the bible for what they are. BULLSHIT.
