Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>  We have `elyon standing alone, in compound with El, in 
>compound with Elohim, in compound with YHWH and in parallel 
>with YHWH.  [..]
>
>We are not finally interested in the semantic range of Elyon 
>but with it meaning in this particular context.   Since I accept
>the LXX reading, the immediate context relates Elyon to (bene) El.  
>Also, Elyon is used in Gen 14:20 with El, lending credence and 
>confirmation to the contextual argument.

The use of 'el `elyon in the OT/HB needs to be analysed more than Lloyd
seems interested in doing. It should be noted that of the datable texts
that use 'el `elyon, all basically belong to the second century BCE: think
of Jubilees, Judith, Ben Sira, GenApoc, Daniel. The usage in GenApoc is
consistent throughout the work and it is in this text that Melchizedek
makes his first documented appearance -- there is no evidence of Gen14 in
the DSS. The important news about the find of Melchizedek in GenApoc is
that while it is at home there -- the God Most High is the common means of
referring to God in the text --, it is only in Gen14 that Genesis uses the
epithet of God as God the Most High. This is a passage that is inserted
into another about the king of Sodom and *does not fit well there*.

It is insufficient to say that: "well, there's nothing strange about the
use of the God Most High in Genesis -- after all the parts have been used
before; this is just another combination." Means of referring to God are
quite selective. Do a search for "the Lord thy God" and you'll find 90% of
its usage in Deuteronomy. The combination, adonay yahweh, is mostly
restricted to Ezekiel. The evidence says that the combination of 'el `elyon
was used alomst expressly in the second century (and early first century)
BCE terminating with the Hasmonean use of the phrase: the Assumption of
Moses refers to the Hasmoneans as the kings who were called "priests of the
God Most High". Josephus refers to Hyrcanus II as the high priest of theos
hypsistos (God Most High). The term fell into disuse with the fall of the
Hasmoneans.

While the Gen14 passage cannot be dated, nor can the Asaph Psalm 78, all
datable indications for el elyon is second century BCE.


Ian

Strangely, Psalm 110 has not been found among the DSS either. (The
imortance of the DSS is that it is quite a representative body of
documents, which don't show any sectarian bias -- despite common
misconceptions and retrojections of rabbinic ideas onto early Judaism.)