Not Bronze Age Myths – let’s end this misleading cliche

Time and time again I hear Jewish and Christian beliefs described as “Bronze Age myths” on supposedly rationalist sites. This is rather silly and annoying, not least because they are not Bronze Age at all!

The most likely dates for the redaction of the Book of Genesis  is around the 950-450 BCE, with some material (the Patriarchal narratives) being based upon narratives from maybe 1200BCE. The LBA (Late Bronze Age) in the region is usually considered to have ended by at 1300 BCE, a century before the earliest suggested origin dates, which are based upon certain legal and cultural forms found in the Patriarchal letters which are known to us from Mitani sources. They may have an origin back then, but the material we have and the redaction is indisputably Iron Age, and not remotely Bronze Age. The earlier material also predates the tribal organization of the region, but I won’t get in to the cultural anthropology of the region unless you are interested – but the “bronze age myth” nonsense one hears repeated so often on sceptic sites merely shows the authors lack of familiarity with the history and archeology of the region, which saddens me. I keep trying to point this out, in my truly pedantic manner!

So next time you see someone write “Bronze age mythology” do the world a favour, and correct them. “Iron age mythology” sounds much nicer anyway. Oh, and refer the poor sod to the Genetic Fallacy, as clearly epistemology is not their strong point: it’s the belief that somethings value now is equivalent to its origin, displacing it from context. Here’s wiki on this:

Anyway, thought might amuse.