Starship Asterisk*

FloridaMike wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:One of the oldest written records of our Moon in a written form is found at Genesis 1:16 where this object is referred to as "the lesser luminary for dominating the night". I'm grateful that our lesser luminary exists and that its orbit is such that eclipses are so wonderfully varried.

Bruce

Please note correction.

It's a tough crowd Bruce

FloridaMike wrote:It's a tough crowd Bruce

Chris Peterson wrote:Genesis only dates to a few hundred years BCE. There are Babylonian cuneiform tablets with astronomical data for the Moon that considerably predate that.

BDanielMayfield wrote:Chris, you have great credibility as an accurate source when it comes to astronomy. But Moses, the writer of Genesis who was educated in the court of an Egyptian Pharaoh is thought to have completed this book by about 1513 BCE, not a just "a few hundred years BCE", and he may very well have been compiling from earlier written records.

Chris Peterson wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:
Chris, you have great credibility as an accurate source when it comes to astronomy. But Moses, the writer of Genesis who was educated in the court of an Egyptian Pharaoh is thought to have completed this book by about 1513 BCE, not a just "a few hundred years BCE", and he may very well have been compiling from earlier written records.

Moses is not recognized as a historical figure, but rather a mythological one. Even if the character is based on an actual person, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been literate. Scholars call the writer of Genesis "the Yahwist", and date the book to somewhere between the 5th and 6th centuries BCE. Of course, the stories are certainly part of an oral tradition stretching much further back than that, but we are discussing writing here. There's little doubt that orally transmitted stories about the Moon extend to the earliest men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#Psychology wrote:
<<Sigmund Freud, in his last book, Moses and Monotheism in 1939, postulated that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman who adhered to the monotheism of Akhenaten (ca. 1335 BC). Following a theory proposed by a contemporary biblical critic, Freud believed that Moses was murdered in the wilderness, producing a collective sense of patricidal guilt that has been at the heart of Judaism ever since. " Egyptian origin of Moses and of his message has received significant scholarly attention.>>

neufer wrote:If the character is based on an Egyptian nobleman,
it's quite possible that he would have been literate:

Chris Peterson wrote:
I'm quite sure that imaginary characters don't write anything!

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1289066&pageno=2 wrote:

• THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER. [_As given in the original edition_.]
  
  The author of these Travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and
  intimate friend; there is likewise some relation between us on the
  mother’s side. About three years ago, Mr. Gulliver growing weary of the
  concourse of curious people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made
  a small purchase of land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in
  Nottinghamshire, his native country; where he now lives retired,
  yet in good esteem among his neighbours.
  
  Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father
  dwelt, yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire;
  to confirm which, I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury in
  that county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers.
  
  Before he quitted Redriff, he left the custody of the following papers in
  my hands, with the liberty to dispose of them as I should think fit. I
  have carefully perused them three times. The style is very plain and
  simple; and the only fault I find is, that the author, after the manner
  of travellers, is a little too circumstantial. There is an air of truth
  apparent through the whole; and indeed the author was so distinguished
  for his veracity, that it became a sort of proverb among his neighbours
  at Redriff, when any one affirmed a thing, to say, it was as true as if
  Mr. Gulliver had spoken it.
  
  By the advice of several worthy persons, to whom, with the author’s
  permission, I communicated these papers, I now venture to send them
  into the world, hoping they may be, at least for some time, a better
  entertainment to our young noblemen, than the common scribbles of
  politics and party.
  
  This volume would have been at least twice as large, if I had not made
  bold to strike out innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides,
  as well as to the variations and bearings in the several voyages,
  together with the minute descriptions of the management of the ship
  in storms, in the style of sailors; likewise the account of longitudes and
  latitudes; wherein I have reason to apprehend, that Mr. Gulliver may
  be a little dissatisfied. But I was resolved to fit the work as much as
  possible to the general capacity of readers. However, if my own
  ignorance in sea affairs shall have led me to commit some mistakes, I
  alone am answerable for them. And if any traveller hath a curiosity to
  see the whole work at large, as it came from the hands of the author,
  I will be ready to gratify him.
  
  As for any further particulars relating to the author, the reader will
  receive satisfaction from the first pages of the book.

Chris Peterson wrote:In any case, however, the important point is that there's nothing to suggest that Moses even existed...

Beyond wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:In any case, however, the important point is that there's nothing to suggest that Moses even existed...

I'm sure he wished that was so, because of the hard time the Isrealites gave him. :mrgreen:

Chris Peterson wrote:

Beyond wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:In any case, however, the important point is that there's nothing to suggest that Moses even existed...

I'm sure he wished that was so, because of the hard time the Isrealites gave him.

You mean, as opposed to the good times Pharaoh gave him...