HARVEY: <how do angels travel faster than light...
<Have no answer? <Then you must think there are no angels...
TILL: Harvey said this to illustrate his claim that not having an explanation for a discrepancy in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean that it is a discrepancy.
I don't exactly understand his answer, but it needs a response. First, I will say that I definitely do not think that angels exist, and Harvey cannot present any kind of tangible proof that they do exist. However, even if we agree to accept the Bible as proof, I wonder how he got the idea that angels travel faster than light. What scripture even suggests this? His defense of biblical inerrancy got off to a bad start.
HARVEY: <How does electricity travel down wires? DonThenIt is obvious pharez wa born while Joseph WAS ON HIS goes... that proves there is no electricity...>
TILL: Electricity travels down wires, because metal is a conductor of electricity. What's so hard about that? Now if Mr. Harvey will interpret the rest of his statement, I will try to respond to it.
HARVEY: <This is how the following proof >>The records involving the descent of Jacob's family into Egypt are typical of the >>numerical inconsistencies that characterize many
OTOBVIOUSLY ??(I disagree, this is NOT a translational expr stories.>
TILL: Say what?
HARVEY: Really? THERE are no numerical errors proven in the Bible... errors are DIFFERENT than unexplained inconsistanciesSo maybe your placement of the wedding is wr..
TILL: And I suppose that just saying something isn't true settles the matter?
Again, I will have to ask him to interpret the final statement in this quotation.
HARVEY: If the Bible says JACOB had 3 sons by lea then another book says Jacob had 7 sonmsNow for details... by leah, then that would be an error...
TILL: In his inimitable way, I think Mr. Harvey may have been trying to say that if one book in the Bible said that Jacob had 3 sons by Leah and then another book said that Jacob had 7 sons by Leah, he would consider that an error.
Well, okay, if this is what he is trying to say, I will give him a biblical error that meets his own criteria and then ask him to explain why it isn't an error.
1 Chronicles 2:13-15 states that Jesse had seven sons and that David was the seventh, yet 1 Samuel 16:10-11 teaches that Jesse had eight sons and that David was the eighth. No doubt Mr. Harvey will have an explanation.
HARVEY: <There are no errors in numbers in the Bible, ....
TILL: Well, if you say so, of course that settles it.
HARVEY: P.S USING TO LET HIS READERS KNOW WHEN JUDAH'S MARRIAGE H. show me other of these MANY inconsistencies.. Just because you can
TILL: ????????
HARVEY: <For years they could not explain how Jesus could both be coming from and unto Jericho to heal Barteamaeus, AT THE SAME TIME and cholars thought that was an error also... But it wasn An unexplained count does not prove error... There are many possibilities....>
TILL: Now we know that this wasn't an error, because Mr. Harvey said so (I guess. Who can really tell what he is trying to say?) If there are "many possibilities" to explain an "unexplained count," it would be nice if Mr. Harvey could give us a few.
HARVEY: The best possibilitie"And it came to pass at that time, that Judah w I see is this...
TILL: Please try to state clearly what you are trying to say.
HARVEY: <<TAKE IT JUST AS IT READS BECAUSE THE BIBLE HAS NO ERRORS...>>
TILL: Oh, well, sure, why didn't I realize that.
HARVEY: <Acts 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore". . hayah:H1961 . . . . 'eth:H6256 . yehuwdah:H3 and fifteen souls.>
TILL: I think he may have been trying to make an appeal to Hebrew here, but who knows?
HARVEY: <Genesis 46:26 states that 66 souls "came with Jacob into Egypt," so that Joseph and his two sons who were already in Egypt, along with Jacob himself, made a total of 70 Israelites who went into Egypt (Gen. 46:27). >>
TILL: Yes, that's right, so what's Harvey's point? In Acts 7:14, Stephen said that Joseph called 75 souls into Egypt. So which figure is right?
HARVEY: Acts says JOSEPH CALLED 75 souls.... Genesis says: 66 came.... Now what is so hard about that...?
TILL: Obviously (please notice the spelling of this word), Harvey wants to quibble.
Joseph called 75 souls into Egypt but only 66 of them answered the call and actually went. Yeah, sure, why didn't I think of that. Now let me explain the real reason why Stephen used the figure 75. The Septuagint Bible states that nine sons had been born to Joseph in Egypt (Gen. 46:27, LXX) rather than the two sons claimed by versions dependent upon the Masoretic text. NT writers used the Septuagint (primarily), so Luke presented Stephen as a quoter of the Septuagint Bible. Now Mr. Harvey might like to explain why this significant variation existed between the Hebrew text that the Septuagint translators had before them in the 3rd century B. C. and the Masoretic text that has come down to us today.
HARVEY: Did any die? Did any not come? Did any COME LATE?
TILL: Harvey is the one suggesting that these are possible explanations, so he has an obligation to present reasonable evidence that these happened. However, let's take his question, "Did any die?" Genesis 46:12 listed Judah's sons Er and Onan and explained that they died in the land of Canaan and so did not make the trip into Egypt. If the Genesis writer explained this of these two, then why didn't he tell us that others had died too if this is the explanation for this discrepancy?
The truth is that Harvey is merely grasping for straws in a futile attempt to defend biblical inerrancy. Genesis 46:26 says, "All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all." (Jacob and Joseph and his two sons already in Egypt would have made 70.) Verse 27 says, "All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy." So did any die? No, because the text says that 70 went. Did any come late, no because verse 26 gave the count of 66 and said that these were the number that went WITH Jacob into Egypt. Any who went later would not have gone into Egypt WITH Jacob.
HARVEY: You know, Reuben was always late, his wife had a hair problem... who knows?
TILL: Yes, ha, ha! That makes the problem go away, doesn't it?
HARVEY: TAKE IT AS IT READS...
TILL: Well, okay, let's do that; let's "take it as it reads." In the passage that I quoted above, "it reads" that 66 went into Egypt WITH Jacob. Now is Harvey going to take this as it reads or is he going to just give us more quibbles?
This is quite enough for one posting. I may continue this later.
F. Till