40 Years of Wandering and the Exodus Population
avatar8 errancy@infidels.org
Tue, 18 May 1999 14:15:58 -0300 (00927065758, 3741A04E.26D0BD1@sympatico.ca)
> Joe Alward
>
> Till's rebuttal above implies that he believes that the American Heritage
> supports his use of "column" as a synonym for "row"; it doesn't.
>
> Till intended to describe the Hebrews marching 200 abreast, with 15,000
> persons marching behind each of the 200 men in front. I have no objection to
> this picture, but it is clear that Till thought he was saying that each
> person is three feet behind the man walking ahead of him, but wasn't saying
> that at all. Till evidently misunderstood the term "column"; he mistook it
> for "row". He said that there was "three feet between each column", which
> actually means that the marching horde was about 600 feet across its front.
> What Till would have said--if he knew the difference between row and
> column--was that there were 15,000 rows (or lines) of men--not columns, and
> there was "three feet between each row", not column.
>
> Till pretends that the American Heritage supports his use of "column"; it
> certainly does not. The dictionary uses "column" to refer to a body of
> troops arranged in rows; the word "column" in its definition does not mean
> that the editors think that "column" and "row" are the same thing. When this
> dictionary says a column is "A formation in rows or ranks, as of troops", it
> is referring to marching "columns" such as the three marching columns drawn
> below:
>
> Column A Column B Column C
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
> XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
>
> These are not the "columns" Till had in mind. What he had in mind was the
> following, with the direction of march pointing to the top of this post.
>
> 1 1 1 1 1
> 2 2 2 2 2
> 3 3 3 3 3
> 4 4 4 4 4
> 5 5 5 5 5
> 6 6 6 6 6
>
> Thus, Till thinks the troops labelled "1" are in Column 1, those labelled "2"
> are in Column 2, and so on. This is not how the word "column" and "row "
> are used, ever.
>
> Below is the manner in which columns and rows are labelled, always, whether
> in the military, or elsewhere (again, with the direction of march pointing to
> the top of this post):
>
> 1 2 3 4 5
> 1 2 3 4 5
> 1 2 3 4 5
> 1 2 3 4 5
> 1 2 3 4 5
> 1 2 3 4 5
>
> We have above five columns of six men each; thus, the men labelled "1" are in
> Column 1, et cetera.
>
> To speak of men 200 abreast, in 15,000 columns--as Till did--is nonsense; the
> two statements are mutually contradictory, and Till hoped-for support from
> his dictionary is non-existent. Till should admit his mistake and take up a
> much more important question:
>
> Does the Bible says that the Hebrews were *lost* in the wilderness? I've seen
> references to "wandering", but I've not seen any that make it clear that they
> made continuous efforts to find Canaan but failed.
AVATAR
I have a solution to this trivial problem: The next time you get the
chance to see 15,000 "rows" of soldiers marching past you, and you are
facing the same direction, looking at their backs as they are marching
by, try turning 90 degrees towards them. Miraculously, the 15,000
"rows" have just become 15,000 "columns". Gotta love it!