This had been sticking in my brain for whatever reason after I sent my best recollections, and since I was home sick (not with COVID I’m pretty sure) I figured I’d dig it up for you. Hail the Glory of the WaybackMachine! It was indeed as I remembered, the part you have is the response from DEX, the missing information can be found in the link below.
Since it is super slow to load, I’ve copied Cecil’s response in it’s entirety.
Cecil Adams replies:
Normally I don’t comment on Mailbag items, but John Brown’s beef is so spectacularly off base that I feel obliged to respond.
I don’t edit the contributions of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board (Little Ed does that), nor do I read them before they are posted. I read them all eventually, however, and I have re-read Dex’s ark commentary just now. In my view he has handled a complex and frankly pretty esoteric topic with extraordinary thoroughness, fairness, and tact. I would have done very little different had I answered the question myself, although I doubt I would have shown the same patience with the insufferable attitude displayed by some of the Teeming Millions, in particular John Brown.
Let me put the matter plainly. At the Straight Dope we try to explain the facts as completely and accurately as we can. This does not mean we are “objective,” whatever that means, and only a fool, or someone who has never read the Straight Dope, would think otherwise. On the contrary, I have argued as forcefully as I could for various positions over the years, and to a lesser extent so has the SDSAB. Naturally one considers all sides, weighs the arguments, etc. But in the end, when possible, a judgment is made. This is what Dex has done in his articles about the Ark of the Covenant.
Now comes some churl with the temerity to complain that Dex, who has never made any secret of the fact that he is Jewish, has not considered the “whole” Bible, in particular a passage from the New Testament–and this in reference to a matter having to do with the Old Testament. My instinct would have been to say: The New Testament is not part of the Jewish Bible, you idiot. Dex, in contrast, showed remarkable restraint in making only a jesting reference to “that appendix that you call the New Testament.” The affronted John Brown then shoots back, “Who is Dex to say the New Testament is not the Bible?” The answer, of course, is: He is a Jew . How hard is this to understand, you twit? He is a Jew . He is not obliged to think the NT is part of the Bible just because Christians think it is. Nonetheless he has done a commendably evenhanded job of addressing the NT issue, and I am well pleased with him. There is someone here who owes a public apology, but his name is not Dex.