I Disagree

"There are two kinds of biblical scholars, the kind who take the bible and associated writings as true and work from there, and the kind that assume no such thing and use written history backed up by archaeology to look for evidence of biblical figures there.  Beagles is a man of the first kind, and the second kind are the guys that have found no evidence of David or Solomon." - Uncle Ken - 12/5/18

I do not consider myself to be a Biblical scholar.  I have read all of it at least once, and some of it more than once, but that doesn't make me a Biblical scholar, any more than reading all the works of Shakespeare would make someone a Shakespearian scholar.  I do not take the Bible and associated writings as true and work from there.  Someone like that would be called a fundamentalist, which is one type of religious person, and I am not even religious.  I am a self styled Deist, I believe in God but not religion.

"I'm pretty sure that David and his son are mythical.  There is no historical record of him, which there would be if he was some big king.  Likewise the Queen of Sheba sadly." - Uncle Ken - 12/4/18

I have in my possession a book, "National Geographic Atlas of World History" by Noel Grove, prepared by the Book Division, National Geographic Society, Washington D.C.  This is not a religious publication, but it does talk about religion because religion is a big part of world history.  In an article titled "The Rise of Judaism" on page 40 it says, "Battles against the Philistines turned in Israel's favor under three powerful kings: Saul, David, and Solomon. King David united the many tribes into the nation of Israel. His heir, Solomon, built great palaces, fortresses, and the first temple in the capitol city of Jerusalem, and Israel became a political power."  I'm pretty sure that the remains of some of Solomon's construction projects have been excavated and studied.  Specifically, the famous "Wailing Wall" in Jerusalem is generally believed to have been part of Solomon's Temple.  That temple was destroyed by Assyrian invaders in 587 BC.  and subsequently rebuilt under the sponsorship of Cyrus II (the Great) of Persia after he conquered Babylonia, which had previously conquered Assyria, but Solomon was long gone by then.  The Queen of Sheba may indeed be mythical, but several African countries claim to be her birthplace, and I think there's a good chance that at last one of them is telling the truth.

I will take Uncle Ken's word about the mathematical stuff because I'm sure that he knows more about it than I do.  One thing, as I searched my memory banks last night, I think it was John and Mary, not Johnny and Susie, who were always passing apples back and forth.  I seem to remember that the school culture in those days did not tolerate the use of nicknames like Johnny and Susie.  I remember one day we had a substitute teacher who got all upset because somebody signed the attendance sheet  "Jim Shoe".  She didn't seem to understand that it was a fake name, all she cared about was that he signed "Jim" instead of "James".