Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk"<peter_kirk AT sil.org>]

Agreed. But your methods can only give you a latest possible time for 
the finalisation of the Pentateuch, and so for you to say that the 
split between Judea and Samaria came after that tells you nothing 
about the dating of the latter. Don't fall into the trap of assuming 
that latest possible dates are actual dates.

Perhaps the argument works better in the other direction. Now I know I 
am not an expert in this field. But it seems that we could read the 
Elephantine texts as suggesting that there was already a split between 
Judea and Samaria. Does that not imply, by your own argument below, 
that the Pentateuch was finalised before the date of the Elephantine 
texts?

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: SV: historiography (TLT)
Author:  <mc2499 AT mclink.it> at Internet
Date:    13/01/2000 23:00


Dear Thomas,
<snip>

..While you correctly -- I think -- point out that any difference between 
Samaria and Jerusalem was more a matter of location and tradition, we must 
note that both positions accept forms of the Pentateuch that belie minimal 
differences in content, ie they must have shared a common heritage down to 
the time when very much of that material was finalised.

<snip>