Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Litwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>]

Dating Hebrew:

As Francis Anderson has shown, there are clear changes in the Hebrew
Bible from the Pentatuech to "alter" books.  For example most of the
spellings in Exodus and Leviticus in particualr or defective.  BOoks
that are traditinally assumed to be "laer" show plene spellings. Qumran
Hebrew, of which I've read a fair amount personally, are clearly at the
total opposite of the specturm from Exodus or Leviticus.  The spelling
of words, lack of defective spellings, and whole word endings totally
unknown virtually anywhere in teh TaNaKh argue strongly that Hebrew in
the 2nd Century BCE was radically differentl orthographically and
morpholigocially from biblical Heberw, especially taht of the
Pentatuech.  I see no way to claim, based solely on empirical evidence,
that anything in the TaNaKh could have come fromt he same period as the
DSS.  


Ken Litwak