Post by eckadimmock on Jan 27, 2009 9:16:17 GMT
This is an interesting article countering Christopher Hitchen's rude remarks about the ten commandments. What caught my eye was this bit:
Hidden away, an earlier, more plausible story exists, long missed in English translations. To find it, you need to know that the Old Testament is written in "ordinary" Hebrew; a few sections, however, are composed in more archaic language. To the trained eye, these sections are as different as Chaucer and Hemingway.
The archaic version says nothing about walls of water. Indeed, it says nothing about crossing a body of water at all. Instead, it suggests a story in which Egyptian soldiers, chasing after escaping slaves, ventured into the water on barges to catch them, and were flipped over in waves, or perhaps found their chariot wheels bogged down in marsh. Such accounts could easily have been distorted by centuries of retelling.
Is this correct? I can't say I've noticed it, but perhaps you have to read the original Hebrew.
Hidden away, an earlier, more plausible story exists, long missed in English translations. To find it, you need to know that the Old Testament is written in "ordinary" Hebrew; a few sections, however, are composed in more archaic language. To the trained eye, these sections are as different as Chaucer and Hemingway.
The archaic version says nothing about walls of water. Indeed, it says nothing about crossing a body of water at all. Instead, it suggests a story in which Egyptian soldiers, chasing after escaping slaves, ventured into the water on barges to catch them, and were flipped over in waves, or perhaps found their chariot wheels bogged down in marsh. Such accounts could easily have been distorted by centuries of retelling.
Is this correct? I can't say I've noticed it, but perhaps you have to read the original Hebrew.
