Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: Was: Re: burial, etc (Very long)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu, mc2499 AT mclink.it
  • Subject: Re: Was: Re: burial, etc (Very long)
  • Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 11:38 -0500 (EST)


I can't answer all of this now, and I don't want this to get even
longer. As you say, our positions are so far apart that we can hardly
reach agreement in such a debate. But just a few points:

Your objections re "Philistines" and "Dan" can be met by assuming just
a few places in which the text has been "modernised" at some time
after the conquest (of Canaan by the Israelites), e.g. perhaps during
the early monarchy. Now the Bible (if you want to treat it as one
voice!!) is not silent on the coming of the Philistines - see
Deuteronomy 2:23, which is even in the correct historical setting of
shortly before the conquest. So quite possibly an original "Avvites"
has been replaced by the contemporary "Philistines" in Genesis 21 and
26. (Or could "Philistines" have meant "inhabitants of the area known
as Peleshet" rather than having any ethnic designation? In Deuteronomy
the invaders are known as "Caphtorites") And then in Genesis 14:14 we
must simply assume that an original "Laish" has been replaced by the
contemporary "Dan" (cf. Judges 18:29).

As for `Elyon, it is used as a name of God (admittedly without 'El) in
Deuteronomy 32:8, which is generally regarded as an early poem, also
in Numbers 24:16, where `Elyon is in parallelism with 'El. So this is
hardly evidence for late dating.

If I found in an otherwise reliable text a reference to "Ephron the
Martian", I would have to take it seriously. I would probably rule out
that he came from the planet Mars - but then there is a difference
that we know know, or think we know, that Mars is uninhabited, whereas
we cannot assume that the Hittite country was uninhabited in the 19th
century BC. But I might start thinking, was there a city called "Mars"
somewhere else where this Ephron might have come from? If there is no
evidence of such a city, I simply have to conclude that the reference
to "Ephron the Martian" is no evidence for or against the reliability
of that text, that it could be an error or a later correction, but
that we simply don't know.

Peter Kirk




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page