Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Litwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>]

Lloyd, let me suggest that the first thing that may be necessary is
to completely disconnect the date of any texts we have from the possible
time of their original composition.  It seems to me that some are dating
the texts based on our earliest copies.  A consistent method would then
have Aristotle first written around the 8th cent AD.  So, in trying to
attach dates to texts or events, we should first seek to determine when
the author(s) lived.  We also should, if my first premise is granted,
allow for he possibility that the chronology that one can reconstruct
from the texts may be the best source for "dating" events or texts. 
Some on this list place a great deal of stock in other ANE texts.  Just
because those texts exist in a form we can hold from an earlier date
does not make them any more prima facie more reliable or better for
historical reconstruction.  Finally, may I suggest that while
archaeological (as opposed to epigraphic data which may be heavily
doctored based on ideology) may be of use in showing what did exist in
a  given period (if we can date things accurately, as opposed to many
finds at Megiddo, for example, because of the way it was excavated),
archaeology should not be used for a n argument of silence.  One may
wish to predict finding certain changes in the archeological record with
reference to certain events.  The apparent absence of that data,
resulting from a very narrow amount of digging, _only_ shows what was
not dug up and can never show conclusively that something did or did not
happen.  When it comes to dating events, the biblical texts should be
given the same sort of evaluation that other texts get.  How do we
"date" Hannibal crossing the Alps? There is no a priori reason to make
the Davidic monarchy _any_ different. Archaeology can NEVER prove there
were elephants on the ALps and it may never be able to prove from
physical remains that SOlomon had a palace.  That lack of physical
evidence is not that significant for dating of evens.  We date events
all the time without physical evidence.  I'm not telling you what dates
to assign for things, but merely suggesting some caveats in trying to
date events that I think are important.  I think it is whooly possible
to suggest a reasonable chronology for events that respects the texts as
we perform the role of good historiographers.  


Ken Litwak