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February 11, 2005
Be Careful Not to Say Too Much
Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Cultural Wars has been carrying on a dialog with one Christopher L. Colegrove. In comments about Ed Brayton's latest thumping of the Worldnutdaily (aka. The World Net Daily), Mr. Colegrove has argued that the biblical Nephilim built the pyramids around the world. I'm not going to comment on Mr. Colegrove's thesis or the similar thesis of the book reviewed by the World Net Daily. Both opinions are beyond reasonable comment and Ed Brayton has said what needs said on that subject. I am more interested in Mr. Colegrove's exposing his factual ignorance about the ancient book he references as part of his argument and about simple facts of paleoanthropology. He says,
Try the Book of Enoch (non-biblical, but an interesting Hebrew read from antiquity), which--I believe--says they were "9 ells" in height. Bones have been unearthed of giants with human genetic makeup over 7 feet from thousands of years ago, so why not?
Well, exactly where did he read Enoch in Hebrew? As far as I know, the only Aramaic, not Hebrew, portions of the Book of Enoch are from fragments found at Qumran. Many scholars believe it was originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew but there are no early versions in Hebrew and only those few Aramaic fragments. The most complete ancient versions are in Ethiopic and Greek. My guess is that Mr. Colegrove read it, if he did read it, in English. To be fair, he does not exactly claim that he read Enoch in any language. He only believes that it says something in support of his thesis.
And exactly what are the bones he references? The tallest Neanderthal skeleton known is shorter, but more robust, than most modern Humans are or, for that matter, shorter than contemporary Cro-Magnons (H. sapiens). None is "over 7 feet tall" and, so far, it is only from a few Neanderthals and a few Cro-Magnon that genetic material extracted. As far as I can tell, Mr. Colegrove was referencing nothing.
When someone says things like Mr. Colegrove said, it raises concerns not just about his knowledge but also about his veracity.
I'll need to watch out for this as I continue to write these blogs.
Posted by Duane Smith at February 11, 2005 3:39 PM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |
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