Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] song of Deborah III

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] song of Deborah III
  • Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:58:44 -0800 (PST)

 
  David Steinberg wrote:
     
The language, in fact tells you nothing about the
date of composition, early or late.

    David, Why don't you test this statement on
yourself when you read English texts written in the
18th or 19th centuries? or in Elizabethan times?     
                                              UH

     

  David Steinberg wrote further:

   The fact that ancient names are used proves nothing.
Look at the Iliad or the Nibelungenlied...

   ....Thus the persistence of ancient names neither
proves or disproves the possibility of an early date
for the poem.

    David,  Since you go far afield geographically,
permit me to me go far afield chronologically. 
The latest list of the ten most prpular names given
to Jewish boys and girls in Israel ( 2010 ) was
published recently. Interestingly, many of the names
simply did not exist a couple of generations ago.
This fact simply refutes your assertion.

   Returning to the subject matter of this list,
the dimissal of the value of language as one of the
tools for dating a text, is premature.
Of course this tool must be used with caution but it
is valid. Cf. the important work on this subject by
Richard Hess and others.

   Uri Hurwitz                         Great Neck, NY














Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page