Q&A: The Reliability of Tradition
The Reliability of Tradition
Question
I read what you wrote about the reliability of tradition. In my opinion there are many promises in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) that did not come true (in my opinion this can be proven. I’m not sending you a list because you’ll refer me to Bible scholars). I would like to ask you whether something like this does not undermine the reliability of tradition, if the prophecies stated by the transmitters of the tradition were disproven? Besides that, in the chain of transmission that Maimonides presents, there is a gap of many years between Baruch son of Neriah and Ezra. Doesn’t that undermine the tradition?
Answer
Prophecies that were not fulfilled certainly do undermine reliability. But each such prophecy has to be discussed on its own terms: whether it indeed was not fulfilled.
I do not rely on Maimonides’ lists. He is not obligated to mention every stage. He chose to present the central figures, and that definitely does not mean there was a break there.