From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Tue Nov 18 2003 - 14:00:06 EST
DC>> On the other hand, it seems quite reasonable to assume that the author of a particular passage in its current form thought that it provided a coherent, internally consistent account (with the caveat of possible problems in transmission). However, this assumption does not tell us how the original author would have harmoinzed. E.g., two versus seven animals within the Flood account could be a general statement (2), with some exceptions (7), or both numbers could be regarded as symbolic rather than actual counting.
GM> Yes, there are different types of concordism. Trying to read biblical texts as modern scientific accounts may not be the same as trying to unify separate accounts into a single historical narrative.
>But in your last paragraph above you are begging the question by assuming that
> a) the texts (like the Flood story) in question had a single "author" &
> b) whoever put the account together in the form we now have it was concerned about historical harmonization.
DC: Actually, my intent was not to assume these in that paragraph. I was thinking of "author" broadly to mean whoever put the text in approximately its present form, regardless of his sources, and meant to include possibilities that he thought it was internally coherent because he considered them to be, e.g., theologically rather than historically significant.
>> Likewise, independent accounts of the same event ought to agree. Again, this does not tell us how to arrive at agreement.
> They ought to agree in our overall theological view but not necessarily as historical or scientific accounts.<
Yes, though I was thinking more about historical accounts (whichever they may be) which describe the same incident and thus ought to agree. E.g., if (as seems reasonable), all accounts of Gadarene demoniacs refer to a single historical incident, either one or two individuals were cured, though one can try to account for neglect of a second individual in some accounts (e.g., he left like the ungrateful lepers).
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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