"A" in "ANE-2" = Antisemitism?

In keeping with the guidelines for Yahoo's ANE-2 group, which misleadingly claims "to provide a forum for the exhange [sic] of ideas on [Ancient Near East] topics", I've decided to reveal another message rejected by the falsely impartial, objective, unbiased moderators named in my blog last week.

That message was a response to Bob Whiting (the high priest of Helsinki), & the rejection from the moderators was forwarded by Niels Peter Lemche (the Copenhagen cult leader). I submitted this one back in May in response to a couple of remarks by Lemche (Messages #1495 & #1498), & the rejection from the moderators was forwarded by Whiting (apparently they work like a pro wrestling tag team in defense of their dogma):

> We have to discuss on the basis of available evidence
> Niels Peter Lemche

But what evidence is there for Socrates & Manetho aside from quotes by later writers & copies of copies? The difference between them & Moses is about 1,000 years of time--the same span from the DSS to the Leningrad & Aleppo codices, & the core writings attributed to Moses didn't change much over that period. It should not seem unreasonable to form scholarly opinions based on this long-term, consistent copying. It's fascinating how Mesopotamian cultures were conquered & their core literature (e.g., that Marduk-Slaying-Tiamat nonsense) was not propagated by their remnants, yet the Jews somehow managed to preserve theirs. A consistent body of literature spanning thousands of years is impressive (especially when so many hands were messing with it as you ANE scholars are well aware). Wouldn't that count as evidence in a court of law?

> So no discussion about Moses as a historical person
> Niels Peter Lemche

If we were to discuss the composition of The Song of Moses, who would be the likely candidates? I'd nominate someone from the -Meses/-Mosis (18-19th dynasties) timeframe who had a grudge against Egyptians, & I'd respect your right to believe it was some late, anonymous fiction writer. At some point logic has to be considered as evidence in the absence of an external contemporary text or autograph. Which other ANE culture would have preserved any texts of Moses besides Israelites & Jews? If he existed, he was not very popular among the Egyptians while he lived there, & he was dead before the Israelites crossed the Jordan.

Numerous OT voices (Sam/Kings, Chron/Ezra/Neh, Isa, Jer, Dan, Mic, Mal, & Psalmists galore) unanimously respected & repeated the theme of that guy NPL says never existed & his old Hebrew song about an event that NPL says never took place. Would Moses be more historical if the Jews had never preserved texts about him?

George Michael Grena, II
Redondo Beach, CA

*******

According to the united ANE-2 moderators, the message above was rejected due to its being "puerile" & "completely unacceptable in a scholarly forum."

Out of the kindness of the moderators' hearts, I was given an analogy between belief in Moses & belief in Santa Claus. Apparently it doesn't bother them that we don't have a 2,000-year-old corpus of literature for Santa Claus, including references to more ancient historical events such as the confrontation between Hezekiah & Sennacherib, with detail that could not have been possible without a literary archive contemporary with the events. Oh, & the fact that no reasonable adult has ever believed Santa exists!

Apparently all people (especially Jews) who believe Moses was a real person should be treated as gullible children. Thus saith the Cult of Copenhagen. Let's all bow before the high priest of Helsinki.

The moderators' response was merely another way of saying, "You're right; we're wrong, & we can't think of any logical rebuttal, so it's our duty to put tape over your mouth." What the banner of ANE-2 should say based on the moderators' prejudice is, "Send us your ideas as long as they ignore or demote the historicity of the OT record (i.e., the history of Jews prior to the Roman era) because we're afraid of the implications if the Jews actually did keep an accurate record of their history."

Apparently, censoring/burying alternative ideas is considered a scholarly duty by some academicians. Does my calendar actually say "2006"?

Same song as last week (I figure if the shoe fits, play it): "Javert's Arrival - Little People" by Les Misérables Dream Cast (click the song title to visit Amazon; click here for a 29-second sample; 360kb).
G.M. Grena