Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

My apologies to Dave for forgetting to change the address when I sent this 
previously.  It was intended for the list.

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• From: Polycarp66 AT aol.com
• To: dwashbur AT nyx.net
• Subject: Re: second century etc.
• Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 22:23:21 EST

In a message dated 12/23/99 9:47:32 PM Central Daylight Time,
dwashbur AT nyx.net writes:

<<
[snip]
> This mail is principal in character. I do not say that there cannot
> be anything older than the 2nd century BCE. But it is hard to prove if we
> have no data, as you may see it. the oldest MSS for the Hebrew texts are
> still DSS, i.e. presumably 1 cent. BCE, or perhaps 1st cent. CE, which
means
> that the ungoing discussion about the dating of the DSS is very important
> also for the dating of biblical texts. Whenever we moves beyond the time
> limit set by the date of the earliest manuscripts, we are depending on
> personal ideas, wishes, guesses etc.

NPL,
Looking for a clarification here about methodology, so hopefully the
analogy I use won't seem too terribly off-topic. Westcott and Hort
argued that the phenomena they saw in certain NT manuscripts of
the 4th century CE enabled them to place the text underlying the
mss around the second century, based on a number of criteria that
would take us too far afield to list. Am I correct in understanding
that you question this kind of methodology? IOW, if 4th-century
mss are all we have, a 4th-century text is all we can discover? If
I've misunderstood you here, please correct me.

>>

That makes two of us. I have hesitated to say much regarding this having
only recently joined the list. It seemed that I must have come in on the
middle of the discussion so I was not certain that I was correctly
understanding your position. I think, however, that such a late dating is
not a very tenable position even though I do not subscribe to a Mosaic
authorship of the Pentateuch (or any part thereof). Perhaps you could refer
those of us who are new to the list to prior posts which would clarify your
position.

george

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