Greetings,
I have only recently been looking at notes on this server, but I could not help
but note the following on the missing day.
I am afraid this is testimony that the same issues go round and round!
Back in 1970/71 there was a missing day version cast in a NASA computer
format. The story was NASA ran their computers to calculate orbits or something
backwards in time and they -- the computers --
came to a halt at about the time of Joshua, and were perplexed. The conclusion
was much the same as this contemporary version.
If my memory serves me, Bob Neuman traced the story through some minor
character by using the Washington archives, and I would guess he could fill in
details. (Bob Newman, Biblical Theolog. Seminary). It clearly was a gross
hoax and if you think about it, one needs to trace two precise time bases
backward to find something missing, and of course it may be missing in both.
The the general christian public of a certain sort thought it just had to be
true, so for those trying to bring scientific credibility to the affair, it was
a lose-lose situation.
ON TYRE:
I also have noted some of the comments on Tyre. Long ago I could read some
Hebrew and worked through Ezek Ch 26. Indeed the change in articles is
distinct between he (Nebuchadnezzar) and they (many nations).
As I worked through this, it would seem that a characteristic of biblical
prophecy is that it is often complex in its temporal fulfilment -- why sould we
expect things to be so simple and punctiliar?
In any case, I was struck that indeed Nebuchadnezzar did sack the old City OLD
TYRE, but that they relocated on the island, with the OLD city left in ruin.
Then in Alaxender's invasion, Tyre was an early major conquest. There were
contemporary historians who report the events. Their works were lost, but
recorded by 4 tracks of greek or Roman historians who followed.
The (what I find at least to be ) amazing feature is that these greek
historians -- with little reason to defend Ezekiel -- report that since Alex
had no navy, he built a causeway to the island Tyre, using the ruins of OLD
TYRE. They report that he dumped the stones and timbers from the old city, and
of course the geography has been permanantly changed.
Note that 26.12 says THEY will throw your stones and your timbers and
your depris into the water. etc.
Well, I had heard a trite rendition of this story and simply did not believe
it. So I myself dug into the historical material, and well, I come out amazed.
I then noted that some critical comentaries emphasized that Ezekiel simply got
it wrong, and we should expect no less. However if we stand back a bit, I
would conclude that Ezekiel could not have gotten it much closer to the target,
even though the exegesis of the passage is difficult and necessitates
interpretation from our historical perspective.
So my conclusion is that this is one way -- certainly not the best -- that we
can put to the test the claims of a prophet and test his veracity. I don't
want to claim too much, but certainly the possibility that we have something
quite profound in these writing is plausable.
FOr what its worth, I thought I would share the above. I may not be sending
this to the correct place on the list server, so we will see what happens.
Sincerely,
Bob Manweiler
Dept. Physics
Valparaiso University
Former ASA member, but I am afraid I have not been very active in recent years!