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  • From: "R. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Song of Deborah
  • Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:36:23 +0100

There always are allegedly new claims to "prove" that the Song of Deborah is
young and late. If you read German, you would learn that almost not a single
"argument" is really new, some arguments are already challenged a hundred
times, also some are already refuted methodologically. Some might say so,
some different. With a look on older German literature, i.e. of the 20th
century, one would have also learned already that it is always easier to
claim that a text is young or late than to prove it's old age.

Anyway, MY OPINION for a bunch of mainly philological reasons is that it is
old, maybe 10th or 11th, and maybe also dialectal.

As for the other question:
> 2) In determining the date of composition of the Song of Deborah, how much
> weight, if any, should be given to the proper names in the received text?

Nothing. What's in a name? Names are long-living, even if they contain
log-vanished Gods as theophoric. Names are worth almost few if anything when
pondering the age of a text. With names, you can only prove that a text is
young - see above.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann
Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
lehmann AT uni-mainz.de
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de
http://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/297.php
Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis (SILO):
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/182.php
10th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH):
http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php




> Based on its substantive content and the nature of its proper names, I
> myself see the Song of Deborah in chapter 5 of Judges as being a 12th
> century BCE composition that reflects the peculiar circumstances in Canaan
> in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE. That has long been the majority view:
>
> ?A broad and longstanding consensus of modern biblical scholars holds that
> the so-called Song of Deborah in Judg. 5.2-31a??may be one of the most
> ancient works of the Hebrew Bible?. Studies and commentaries, including
> those published in this century, overwhelmingly either argue or assume that
> this text came into being, as a whole or in part, in the eleventh or even
> twelfth century BCE?. Modern studies and commentaries routinely claim that
> the sociohistorical situation presupposed by Judg. 5.2-31a is that of the
> eleventh or twelfth century BCE?.? Serge Frolov, ?How Old Is the Song of
> Deborah??, JSOT, Vol. 36.2 (2011), pp. 163-164, 175.
>
> The above-cited article, however, argues for a very late dating of the Song
> of Deborah. Here?s the abstract for this controversial article:
>
> ?The article challenges the conventional view of the Song of Deborah (Judg.
> 5.2-31a) as an originally independent composition from the pre-monarchic
> period (twelfth or eleventh century BCE). Based on a comprehensive
> examination of the fragment?s internal parameters (grammar, syntax,
> vocabulary, intertextual links, outlook, and agenda) as well as of the
> external conditions of its production and circulation, the article argues
> that the Song of Deborah best qualifies as a late pre-exilic, exilic, or
> early post-exilic piece and an integral part of the Deuteronomistic corpus.?
>
> The article makes no analysis whatsoever [none] of the fascinating names in
> the Song of Deborah: Shamgar, Ben Anat, Heber, Jael. Thus the article
> never asks the most important question I would ask: How on earth could an
> ?early post-exilic piece? come up with the proper names that appear in
> chapter 5 of Judges? Were post-exilic Jews capable of effortlessly coming
> up with a non-Semitic personal name like Shamgar that is redolent of the
> Late Bronze Age?
>
> 1) How old do people on the b-hebrew list think the Song of Deborah is?
>
> 2) In determining the date of composition of the Song of Deborah, how much
> weight, if any, should be given to the proper names in the received text?
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>





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