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Is The Bible The Oldest History Book? - Page 3

Name: JJ
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Comments: What about the tablets of Summaria? It isn't a book as such but there are some early writings in them.

Book History Oldest Bible Is

The question is it the oldest history book? no.
Is it the oldest history book considering it begins from the beginning? It contains the oldest history as we know it.

Is The Bible The Oldest History Book? Revealed Bible The

The question actually is...

It is interesting that the Bible actually starts from the 'Beginning' before the world was formed but it obviously was not written then. The actual writing took place many years after but you have to wonder in the almost century of Adam's life it is likely he may have created a book even if we do not have it now. Adam was not a cave man so he must have kept records for those who he would leave behind. Maybe the question could be...

Is the Bible the oldest available history book?

What makes up the Bible are writings on scrolls and parchments - those make up the 'book' known as the "Holy Bible".perhaps we need to look at the scrolls and their origin and if they were kept as books.

Page 3 Book History Oldest Bible Is

Konquererz: I know it's been a while since you posted that initial comment, but I just saw it and felt I needed to point out a few things to you.

While the bible does carry a great deal of faith requiring information, the vast majority of it is an historical account of the times.

No evidence of an Israelite nation? I suggest you do some research on the Mesha, Tel Dan, and Merneptah stele. Both the Mesha and Tel Dan are "non-Hebrew" accounts of regional history that are right in line with the biblical account of the same time. A 9th Century BC Moab ruler, having his conquest over the King of Israel, carved in stone, sort of counts as evidence. The Merneptah is Egyptian, from the 12th century BC, writing about King Merneptah's conquest of Israel.

This is the problem today. Because many people still have a belief in the faith based issues contained within the Bible, many people fed only by their need to disprove the faith based portion, are willing to toss out the rest of it.

To try to discredit writing, based on the religious points within it, is a little shortsighted. We would lose half of our knowledge of all ancient history if we were to do that to other writings. Toss out the majority of Egyptian writing, Greek writing, Chinese writings, and Mayan writings? All are FILLED with mysticism, religion, and the supernatural. Yet we seem to have acknowledged their importance as lessons in history. Seriously, how many Egyptian historical figures are only known through Egyptian writing in which deities are also referred to? Yet we are willing to accept that as written history.

It is a history book. Just as much as a 1300's geography book is still a geography book when it uses images of sea serpents at the "edge of the world", or astronomy books that show the earth as the center of the solar system.

On a final note. As for no evidence of Egyptian enslavement: I think you might be caught up in the ignorant argument regarding Hebrews building of the pyramids. Obviously there is not a lot of evidence to this, as it was never a biblical statement. However, there is a large amount of evidence of Egyptian enslavement of several people's, including Hebrew.

Book History Oldest Bible Is

If you mix fiction with history though is it still a history book? History books are generally though to be an account of what actually happened.

Is The Bible The Oldest History Book?

Name: Jon
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Comments: For generations, Israelites used a system of songs and stories to pass on their histories. It was not until about 500BC that they developed a written language and, as the Chinese have texts dating back 6,000 years, it is most certainly not the oldest history book.

The content of the bible (OT) is those traditions and 'histories' as heard by the scribes themselves at the time of its commitment to paper (or papyrus). Like any such system, it has been subject to three forces:

The first is that history is written by the victors and two opposing observers will make different assessments. Where the Israelites say they escaped, the Egyptians may say they were chased off.

The second is the fallibility of Human memory (you may be aware of the effect of 'Chinese Whispers'). For example, the 7 plagues 'visited upon' Egypt have a basis in fact. They are all natural consequences of the eruption of a super volcano, however the bible gets them in the wrong order.

The third is mis-translation. Look at the difference between the next two sentences: "I say to you, This day you will be with me in paradise", and "I say to you this day, You will be with me in paradise". The position of the comma makes all the difference. It is interesting to note that ancient Hebrew had no commas. So one or indeed both of these sentences could be mis-translated.

So you could argue that the Bible IS a history book - it relates the history of a small middle-eastern nation/country/state/people, albeit subject to Human error and agenda, but definitely not the oldest.

Is Bible Oldest History Book - Page 3

JoePublic:

The only major problem I have with your comment is the idea that China has texts dating back 6,000 years, and that the Hebrews didn't have a written language until the 6th Century BC. Neither is accurate.

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet dates back to the 10th century BC/BCE.

The furthest back any verifiable Chinese texts have gone, is 1600BC. Unless we are going to start considering simple carvings on turtle shells as being a written language, then we would have to start considering cave drawings as a written language.

Simply because Current Chinese text is still based largely on representative symbols (like Egyptian hieroglyphs were), that does not mean we can accept every shape drawn as being Chinese text.

If we uncover a carving of a bird from 6,000 years ago in Egypt, we cannot simply point to hieroglyphs and say 'See, it is a written text'... It might simply be a carving of a bird.

I've lived in China for nearly 10 years, and the common theme here is to always try to put China as the cradle of history.

Is Bible Oldest History Book The Bible Revealed - Page 3

The Bible spans around 1500 years of writing as far as how long it took to write, it maybe considered the longest it took to write, as for oldest I'm not familiar with 6,000 year old Chinese writings. What are the names of these writings?