Talk:Pethor

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About the "Rebuttal"

Recently, User:Zwelola has added the following paragraph to this article. The previous paragraphs all contain footnoted references, and then there's a "rebuttal" paragraph that has no sources at all.

<<However, all of this makes for a lot of speculation. Adam is not a common place name in the Hebrew Bible, so it would be unlikely for one uncommon place name (Pethor) to be identified with another uncommon place name (Adam), following Shea's proposal of "Pethor in Adam". Nor is it likely that Balaam would have referred to his home as the "eastern hills" (Number 23:7), if he were coming from Deir Alla, which lies to the north. The region of "Aram Naharaim", as found in the Hebrew Bible text, includes the Euphrates River, and is to the northeast. Thus, a site in this region, such as Pitru, would fit all the descriptions of Pethor in the Hebrew Bible. A simpler explanation for the mention of Balaam and Pethor in the Deir Alla Inscription would be that Balaam, as a traveling prophet/diviner, had a prominent role at the site.>>

This looks like personal opinion (see WP:OR), and unless it can be verified with references (see WP:VERIFY), it causes the article to look like a personal essay, in which Wikipedia introduces some scholarly ideas and then offers someone's personal opinion on the question (see WP:NOTESSAY). For what it's worth, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the subject this looks like a pretty reasonable argument on its face, though I haven't read Shea's Pethor=Adam proposal. But even if Zwelola is right here, this is outside the scope of what Wikipedia is here for. We don't come up with arguments, even intelligent arguments, for particular conclusions. We just pass on what's been published already in reliable sources, with footnotes. And despite my beef with this particular paragraph, I'm glad to see that Zwelola, who has evidently read up on the subject, is working on this fairly obscure article. We need as many informed editors we can get out here in the outer reaches of WP:BIBLE material.Alephb (talk) 13:19, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]