Just a very few, very short comments:

1. I am aware that the word 'satan' appears in Job. It seems to be used there is a generic sense, not referring to a specific, supernatural being.

2. Here are just a few of the contributors to the Biblical Literature section of the 'philosophically biased, overwhelmingly agnostic' EB:

Rev. Krister Stendahl
Dean, Harvard Divinity School, 1968-79
Professor of Divintiy, Harvard, 1981-84
Bishop of Stockholm, 1984-88

H. Grady Davis
Professor of Functional Theology
Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago

Nathan M. Sarna
Prof. Em. Biblical Studies
Brandeis Univ.

Robert M. Grant
Prof. Em. Early Christian History
Divinity School, University of Chicago

David Flusser
Prof. History of Religions
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Emilie T. Sander
Assoc. Prof. New Testament
Yale University

3. 'We have the coming of His kingdom with power...' I suspect that you are referring to the Transfiguration here. Three Jews (plus Jesus), mountain-climbing and seeing a vision for a few seconds hardly fulfills this prophecy. And when, 'before the people now living have all died', did the darkening of the sun and moon, and the stars leaving their orbits occur?

4. 'Where do you think you saw that...' You are correct, that was my typo; it should have read 'Also, he (Luke) identifies Mary's family as Levites'.

5. 'You've accepted some absurd modern myths...' Well, caf, there isn't anything much more absurd than claiming that the human race is only about 6000 years old. Let me get this straight: You're saying that every anthropologist in the world, people who have devoted their lives to the study of the origins of mankind, is 'absurd' because their research differs with two pre-scientific Biblical accounts, both of which were plagiarized from pagan myths in the first place. And this is 'making God out to be a liar'.

Caf, a short train ride from here there is a city called Gotha (pronounced goat-a, as in 'time to go t' bed'). Gotha is best known as the ancestral home of the princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, from whom Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, and hence all subsequent British royalty are descended. The area has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, with many of the cities over a thousand years old.

Outside Gotha there have been archaeological digs for many years. They have uncovered several ancient civilizations, one beneath the other, each easily dated (approximately) by several methods. The TOP LAYER, the most recent civilization before the present, co-incidentally, dates back about 6000 years, give or take a century or two. Below that are several more, with the earliest discovered so far (they're still digging) going back about 150,000 years. Now caf, if the top layer below the surface goes back to Adam's time, and that was the beginning of mankind, where did all the lower layers come from? Did Old Scratch himself put them there to lead us astray? Is Gotha discussed in any of the 'creationist' textbooks? There are MANY similar digs all over the world - I picked this one because it's right here in the area and I know a little about it.

I haven't seen a lot of 'creationist' material - and there IS a lot of it - where there's money to be made, everybody wants a piece of the pie. What I have seen is silly almost beyond belief, making outrageous assertions that are about as transparent as Brittney Spears' latest blouse. The books all seem to have lots of beautiful color pictures. They look really nice until you start reading them.

Looking forward to your reply to my previous post, then I hope we can 'wrap it up.'