Yonatan’s argument seems water tight. All except for a purely artificial academic distinction between intellectual and cultural history in his conclusion. Maintaining that distinction makes sense for his initial data driven research but in the conclusion it seems to make ZERO sense that the Torah or scrolls of the Hebrew Bible could have existed in their present form before the Hasmonean period. No one would write an expensive scroll, like say the contents of Leviticus at a time prior to it being taken up for observance in the Hasmonean period. He should be more brave and at the very least assert the likelihood that the Hebrew Bible scrolls came into their final form, in the period he asserts practising Judaism emerged. There is no need to maintain this distinction in his conclusion. The social history of the Hebrew Bible itself is non existent without a thriving cultural application at some level. Granted that many parts of its content existed in differing forms much earlier. The final observant parts were surely not in their known form until then.
Yonatan’s argument seems water tight. All except for a purely artificial academic distinction between intellectual and cultural history in his conclusion. Maintaining that distinction makes sense for his initial data driven research but in the conclusion it seems to make ZERO sense that the Torah or scrolls of the Hebrew Bible could have existed in their present form before the Hasmonean period. No one would write an expensive scroll, like say the contents of Leviticus at a time prior to it being taken up for observance in the Hasmonean period. He should be more brave and at the very least assert the likelihood that the Hebrew Bible scrolls came into their final form, in the period he asserts practising Judaism emerged. There is no need to maintain this distinction in his conclusion. The social history of the Hebrew Bible itself is non existent without a thriving cultural application at some level. Granted that many parts of its content existed in differing forms much earlier. The final observant parts were surely not in their known form until then.
Education will soon be a hobby not a means to get a decent job..
Started in Babylon..