Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

At 14.10 01/12/99 +1100, George Athas wrote:
George wrote:

>Of course Gen 2 should come after Gen 1
>because of the thematic developments in each. What I originally intended
to highlight was
>that Gen 1 and Gen 2 were different accounts of creation and probably
weren't even
>associated together originally. Rather, it was by the deliberate choice of
a scribe that
>Gen 1 and Gen 2 were brought together. So, it was only by a compiler's
design that Gen 1
>preceded Gen 2, not because both chapters were written by the same
original author.

I seem to be inexorably coming to the conclusion that the seventh day
sabbath was instituted in the second century BCE. Notice the way that 1 & 2
Maccabees handles the sabbath as though the conflict of handling military
problems on the sabbath hadn't been faced before. Consider the order from
Hosea 2:11 New Moons, Sabbaths and Feast days. This is the order of Ps81:3
New Moons, Full Moons and Feast Days. The parallel making the connection
between sabbath and full moon -- which is not too strange given the
Mesopotamian usage of the term shapattu -- and we should remember that the
important festivals start in the middle of the month -- the time of a full
moon. So if sabbath originally meant full moon to the Hebrews, it would
follow new moons in a list of cultic occasions, but if it meant the seventh
day, being more frequent one would expect it to precede new moons. We get
late works such as Chr which gives Sabbaths, New Moons and Feast days. If
the logic here is correct then the seventh day sabbath is a good dating
indication for relative chronology of the development of biblical texts.


Cheers,


Ian