Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Charles Hutchesson <MC2499 AT mclink.it>]

Peter wrote:
> Ian, have you read Psalm 110 in Hebrew recently? It is full of 
> the
> sort of obscurities which are usually taken as evidence of earlier
> dating. How do you account for that? 

Obscurities are not necessarily a sign of age. They can be of some unknown 
dialect difference. Perhaps a scribally-compromised text. Perhaps an attempt 
at antiquity.

> I would account for this by
> suggesting early dating, that this was indeed a psalm addressed 
> to
> David (rather than written by David) from the period when he 
> took
> Jerusalem and became its priest-king. See 2 Samuel 6:17-18, 24:25 
> for
> David acting as priest as well as king in Jerusalem.

When were these "Davidic" bits written? About the time of the Hasmonean 
priest kings perhaps? (Did Josiah actually do away with the high places as 
written in the histories or was it more Hasmonean propaganda for when John 
Hyrcanus did it?)

> There is a simple reason why this psalm (and the Melchizedek 
> story in
> Genesis) might have been omitted from the Qumran collections: 
> its
> theology (which puzzled the Pharisees: Matthew 22:41-46 and parallels)
> was not to the liking of the Qumran sect(s), perhaps because 
> it was
> being used by their enemies in Jerusalem to justify their rule.

Pull the other leg, Peter. Melchizedek is present in Qumran and, as the DSS 
are not anti-Hasmonean (see the praise for King Jonathan in 4Q448), one might 
expect to find him there. Remember 11QMelch?


Cheers,


Ian