King Josiah's death...

Brian Malcolm brianm1@home.com
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 13:15:43 -0800 (00922936543, 000401be7bbb$a2e574c0$0700640b@sttls1.wa.home.com) 

FOREVERLIVE
"I don't think your atheist friends are hearing me.  Indeed, the Hebrew
means mortally wounded."  But they haven't answered my analogy of an
ambulance and someone dying on the way, but being pronounced dead at the
hospital.  The same is here.  Josiah was pronounced dead at Jerusalem,
though he died at Megiddo. Again, it has to do with the perspective and
intention of the author of the book in the Bible.  Why do your atheist
friends have a problem here, but no problem in courts with eyewitness
testimonies that seem to be contradictory?"

POOBAH
Well, the problem here is that your friend gives a hypothesis, but no
evidence. I'll admit this is a possible explanation. Now your friend will
need to convince us this is a *probable* explanation. First question: why is
it that every translation says "died" when your friend says the hebrew says
"mortally wounded"? Why should we take your friend's assertions without
explanation when there is a good deal of evidence to contradict his
position?

Next question: Does he have any evidence that Hebrew writers used the "died
in transit" sense of died? If this is the only occurrence, which explanation
is more likely: that ancient Hebrews imprecisely used an idiom that didn't
come into fashion until the twentieth century, or the two accounts are
contradictory? Remember, we wouldn't say "they took him to the hospital. He
died" in the case your friend is describing, we would say, "they took him to
the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival." Big difference that.

As far as I can tell, the only reason your friend offers this explanation is
to avoid a contradiction. That's not enough of a reason to accept this
explanation.

Finally, I don't think your friend wants to use the court analogy. Remember,
in American courts at least, it is reasonable to assume that if a witness is
unreliable in one set of details, he may be considered unreliable in any of
his details. So if even a single contradiction can be shown in the Bible, it
throws all of Christian theology into question.