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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen vs. "Pharaoh" and "Pithom" and "Ashur"
  • Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:38:28 EST


Yigal Levin and Yitzhak Sapir:

1. (a) Yigal Levin wrote: “The name "Ashur" (Assyria) was borrowed into
Hebrew fairly early, at a time when the Assyrians and others were still
pronouncing the "sh" sound. By the late Iron Age, the Assyrians themselves
had begun
pronouncing the same sign as "s". Thus, by the time of King Essarhadon
(682-669 BCE), whose name was spelled "Ashur-ahhe-iddina", what the Hebrews
actually
heard was "Assur-ahhe-iddin",
which was rendered "Assarhedon", spelled with a Samekh. His kingdom,
however, was still spelled Ashur, with a Shin.”

(b) Yitzhak Sapir seemed to largely agree that “Ashur” came into Biblical
Hebrew early, as he wrote: “Ashur was borrowed earlier, perhaps when Hebrew
[s] had not yet developed to a [$], but possibly even when [s] and [$] could
not
be differentiated in
Hebrew near high vowels ([i] and [u]).”

2. “Ashur” is present in the Patriarchal narratives, at Genesis 25: 18.
And we have two Amarna Letters written from Ashur-Uballit of Assyria. So on
my
view that the Patriarchal narratives were composed in the mid-14th century
BCE, at the time of the Amarna Letters, of course “Ashur” is very old, and is
in
the old form of the 2nd millennium BCE.

3. Yet on the 100-year-old Wellhausen view, which posits that the entire
Bible was composed “late” (that is, at various times in the mid-1st
millennium
BCE), why would “Ashur” be in the Bible in old 2nd millennium BCE form,
instead of in the late, 1st millennium BCE form “Assur”?

4. Let me now be brave and ask you two experts a dangerous question. Are
there words in the Patriarchal narratives that are “late”? We have seen that

Pharaoh” and “Ashur” are old, being in 2nd millennium BCE form, not in 1st
millennium BCE form. But are there counter-examples in the Patriarchal
narratives, that would support the Wellhausen view?

5. As I see it, “Pharaoh” and “Ashur” in the Patriarchal narratives are
hard to explain on the Wellhausen view, while being self-explanatory on my
view
that the Patriarchal narratives are much older than the rest of the Bible.

I honestly do not see what objective facts that either of you two are relying
on in insisting that the Patriarchal narratives, like the rest of the Bible,
were composed “late”. True, neither of you has taken a step yet toward my
position that the Patriarchal narratives are truly ancient. But why oh why
can’
t you point to some objective evidence that the Patriarchal narratives are “
late”?

I will readily grant you that the Book of Exodus is “late”. But in my
controversial view, the Patriarchal narratives, by sharp contrast, are very
“old”,
and are not “late”. What objective evidence do either of you have to the
contrary?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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  • [b-hebrew] Wellhausen vs. "Pharaoh" and "Pithom" and "Ashur", JimStinehart, 01/02/2008

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