Julia M. OBrien

I share your views about the relative futility of addressing issues rasied by the prophets through a search for "facts". (I have the same attitude about your blog in March hat I'll comment on seperately.) I fully understand why people yearn for facts that will help them see through difficult issues, but also note that there are at least two major problems with that approach.

One is that the likelihood anyone can unearth (literally?) defintiive facts about such ancient people is low and teh results are likely to change over time. Second, I observe that we can't even agree on facts that are current (e.g. climate change) despite tremedous efforts to do so. I agree that the themes and issues raised by the prophets (minor or major) should be examined in their own light without a false reliance on historical data.

As a parallel, I have just read an interesting piece about William Shakespeare which discusses recent investigations into the old notions about who "really" wrote the plays attributed to him. As part of the treatise, the author points out that the fascination with the personal histories of authors is a 20th century phenomenon and never mattered to those who saw and read the plays for the first 300 years after they were introduced. Apparently people from that era were more focused on the messages in the plays than the facts about Will. May be something to learn from them....