Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Exodus and the Philistines

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>
  • To: b-hebrew
  • Subject: Exodus and the Philistines
  • Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 16:54:7


Walter Mattfeld argues for a very late (somewhere +/- 560 BC) redaction of
the
Pentateuch.

This is a refutation of the methodology which generally is usually employed
to
demonstrate such or similar allegiances.

Nobody contests, there are numerous anachronisms of younger date,
eventually
even fitting a late date like proposed by Mr. Mattfeld. One can not deal
with
each one, so let them all be accepted...
However what makes the date of redaction of the material compiled in the
Pentateuch is the oldest datable element, showing the Pentateuch has got
the
form of a book.
Perhaps you don´t understand me, so I´ll exemplify, vulgo, say a
datable dedication to the patron paying the making of the book, or a
datable
prolegomena. The date and quality of the quoted material is subject to
discussion but we have a definitive datum post quem.

Of course you´ll say there is nothing of the kind. But you would be, as I
can
show, than surely wrong.

There are plenty of such texts, but I´ll concentrate myself on a single
one, in
a quite simple case, that is the socalled bless of Moses, Deut. XXXIII.
It closes the Deuteronomium and is for sure an anachronism by its
attribution to Moses.
What makes it peculiarly interesting is but the fact, that this attribution
is false, there are clues that the subject of the socalled bless of Moses
was in fact the coronation of Gideon.
The points to be made are following (I´ll quote out of easiness in
german):

Deut. 33,5 and Deut. 33, 21 - "und ein König erstand in Jeschurun - als
sich die Häupter des Volkes versammelten...", " Gad ... Das erste Stück hat
er sich ausgesucht, denn wo der Anteil des Anführers war, da versammelten
sich die Häupter des Volkes..."
is a parallel to Judges 8,22-23 whose action is to be set at Sukkoth
conform to the precedent Judges 8,13-16: "Die Israeliten sagten zu
Gideon:werde du unser Herrscher, du und auch dein Sohn und dein Enkel...".

Deut. 33,12 introduces Benjamin not at the canonical place behind Josef.
The ground is simple: it is a later time correcture since the paragraph
referrs the placement of the principal Jahweh temple. This was beginning by
Salomo at Jerusalem, earlier till its destruction by Abimelech in
Schechem.
The imposture is easy to demonstrate since the sentence speaking about the
the temple uses the same play with the synonim Schechem/Shoulder as Genesis
48,22.

Genesis 48,22 "Ich gebe dir einen Bergrücken schulterhoch über deinen
Brüdern, den ich der Hand der Amoriter mit Schwert und Bogen entrissen
habe." (Schechem)
Deut. 33,12 "...täglich wacht über ihn der Höchste, und zwischen seinen
Schultern wohne er."

The conclusion is clear: this part too, later attributed to Benjamin,
pertained to Josef.

Since it speaks about a still existing Schechem temple, we have a datum
ante quem, Abimelech.
>From the first reference we have on the other hand a datum post quem
Gideon.
So the text, clearly a dedicational text at the end of the Deuteronomium,
is to be dated in the period of Gideon.
Does such a date generally make sense? Well we have quite oft reference to
cities resisting the Israelite conquest still at the date the Pentateuchal
texts were written. Such cities, which later during the united kingdom were
surely under Israelite controll.

Best regards,

Banyai Michael
Leonberg
Banyai AT t-online.de




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page