In "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov we have a scene of the Galactic envoy and the head of the foundation discussing the "Origins" question. They base all their discussion on comparing authorities, and when the mayor suggests an archeological expedition, pooh pooh the idea. This tendency to rely on earlier work and not re-examine the basic evidence and look for further evidence is the primary weakness of library research. It is not, however without value, in that at least it may suggest worthwhile places to look.
Somehow theory is now, at the turn of the millennium, being offered as fact.
With library research alone, this cannot be corrected. For most things, each of us can only use library research, not having the resources to do experiments or field observations. Test methods are needed.
Three examples of library research follow:
1) In the Sinai area many inscriptions are engraved in the rocks. Theories are: produced by Egyptians; produced by the Israelites as they crossed the area; produced by later pilgrims and/or peoples.
Compare the early work with the more recent work:
http://stbap.org/vsog.html
It is far too easy to see what one wants to see. The high probability IMHO is that there is a mixture of various sources, and more archeological work should be done. We now have better methods of making and distributing copies of whatever is found.
2) Numeric patterns in Hebrew and Greek originals.
Several decades back, a book was found which claimed that in the original texts of Old and New Testaments, there is a pattern in which interlinked multiples of the number seven are seen for each given passage. Hebrew, I couldn't even attempt. However, I noted that in the Greek, the book's pattern would show multiples of seven in the different forms of the word "the" in the greek, which is easy enough to check. Transcription errors would introduce some changes, but probability math would easily allow calculating the odds of a present passage having a given number of seven multiples by chance alone.
With a free day, I listed the various greek forms, picked three passages (the controversial ones at Mark's end and John eight's start and another, now forgotten) and did counts for each form in each passage. The Mark and other passage showed low probability of chance, the John passage did not show such.
This does not prove anything, and I've never had enough interest to do the work needed to follow up on this. The overall probability, using all three passages, came to roughly one chance in fifty thousand of being accidental.
A prize of a thousand dollars was offered by Ivan Panin for any proof that his work was incorrect - no takers. With modern computer capabilities it should be simple to test this one in detail in much less time. The book stated that the original research consumed about fifty years of daily time. Since such work would only involve testing the text for interlinked multiples of seven numeric patterns (including checking spelling variations), and not for meaning, it is not beyond our current computer capabilities. If an interlinked pattern was shown to exist which placed each letter in its proper place and still made a readable text, it would be important.
Note that any such pattern would be like the "decorative" lines on paper money, which only establish that it is not a counterfeit. It would be nice to locate any report of such work being done recently.
3) I read that some early Chinese ideographs show events from before the tower of Babel. This one is easy to check since many bilingual dictionaries exist. The book stated that the first one found was "boat" consisting of "eight," "names," and "vessel," the number of humans on Noah's ark. This checked out, and so did a number of the others. None of those tested did not pass the test. We are told that some dozens of the early combination ideographs show this, I checked less than a dozen.
This only indicates an early historical connection between the Hebrews and Chinese. However the subject which shows this connection relates to the early part of Genesis and is unlikely to be a chance happening.
In each case, the use of library research only points to where to find further evidence. Some theories, such as the pattern of sevens and Chinese, are simple to check, since they only need known facts. For others, more field work should be done.
PS The information age helps by allowing better access to the known field work. It would help if people were more careful to provide ALL the field information
