Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

>This describes the retaking of the Temple in 167 BCE which the author
argues was a sort of replacement >Tabernacles.  What do the people do,?
They take "branches, and boughs, and palms" (Beneton's >translation).  This
description could cover Nehemiah or it could cover Leviticus--with the
exception of citrons. >Now, Josephus (Whiston text) describing the reign of
Alexander Yannai (104-78 BCE--see ANtiquities Book >13, Chapter 13: 5)
tells of how he performed the water ceremony on Sukkot in the "wrong" way
whereupon the >people in the Temple pelted him with citrons which they had
because it was Sukkot.

it would help and save time if you could cite original vocabulary when
citing such incidents. 
on history, all that the above might show is that citrons had become the
accepted interpretation by yannai/josepus' day. you see leviticus calls it
"pri `ets hadar" while that is now called "etrog". as for josephus, i don't
know what a kitrios could cover in the ancient world. at least we know it
wasn't a grapefruit.
development is taking place but it is difficult to date by itself.
braxot
randall buth