OT numbers are often puzzling to modern readers. Sometimes they're round numbers, sometimes they're symbolic numbers, sometimes they're idiomatic descriptors.
https://www.scienceandchristianbelief.org/serve_pdf_free.php?filename=SCB+12-1+Humphreys.pdf
https://www.scienceandchristianbelief.org/serve_pdf_free.php?filename=SCB+13-1+debate.pdf
Interesting point of view, but I've read equally compelling arguments affirming the figures reported in the text as literal and accurate, plus I generally tend towards being skeptical of being skeptical of Biblical accounts, especially in "straight reporting" type texts.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't an argument of course, it's just one man's opinion.
Assuming fidelity in textual transmission (and numbers are quite susceptible to mistranscription), I agree with you that the numbers are accurate. The question, though, is whether the terminology is idiomatic. Do we know what eleph means?
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