Is Diogenes a pretentious bombast?

[septimus]

Perhaps I forget that multi-poster threads have more than two posters, imagine a 2-person dialog, and get frustrated when this unrealistic expectation is unachieved. To that extent, I’m at fault and my complaints are somewhat misplaced.

@Diogenes_the_Cynic

I’m still not clear on what the OP even wanted a cite for in that other thread. He seemed to want me to prove that the Hyksos were the Hebrews or something, which is something I never claimed in the first place, so I really don’t know what he was asking for.

I’ve read and understood several of Diogenes’ posts on early Canaan and the Exodus questions; indeed he answered me directly with the post shown below. I do understand what he writes on the matter. I have a bad habit of assuming others know I’m not ignorant or imbecilic, so may write using abbreviations that can be misconstrued.

@Diogenes_the_Cynic

The Hyksos hypothesis requires no special pleading, but the Akhenaton one does. The evolution of tribal legends, over centuries, is completely normal and expected. The Hyksos hypothesis is considered the most plausible because it best accords with the evidence/ It provides the basic outline of a semitic, Canaanite people migrating into Egypt, gaining power, coming into conflict and leaving.

The Akhnaten hypothesis has nothing to really support it, and (in my opinion) the biggest problem with it is that it ignores the fact that the Israelites were not originally montheistic. They originally used the Canaanite pantheon, then became henotheistic (somewhere aroind the 8th Century BCE. They didn’t become truly montheistic until after the Babylonian exile, so there is no continuous line of monotheistic belief or practice from Akhnaten into Canaan. The Israelites didn’t get their monotheism from Egypt, but from Zoroastrianism 800 years later. There is a about a 200 year gap between Akhnaten and the emergence of the Israelites, with no pre-Israelite Canaanite practices during that time, and not even any Israelite monotheism for another 600 years after that. There is simply no connection between Akhnaten and Jewish monotheism, and without that commonality, there is nothing at all to connect Akhnaten to Israel.

This is all very interesting; I’d love to believe it; I’d love to learn more. I’d like to read about the specific archaeological evidence that supports the points Diogenes makes. But he provides no citations. My Googling skills are weak (and would be likely to lead me to crackpot sites :dubious: ). This is my big objection to Diogenes’ posts. Perhaps he posted detailed citations for years before I came to SDMB, and doesn’t want to repeat himself. Fine; suggest some search terms then.

I don’t think asking for evidence or citations is unreasonable. Even if I had 100% confidence in Diogenes’ expertise (and having seen a grand total of zero citations in his posts to date, I’m reluctant to commit to that) I’d still be interested to get a glimpse of the evidence.