Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Dear Rolf,
You have made some cogent points in your pointing out our ignorance as
to when the actual autographs of various biblical books were written.
But we do have some terminus a quos:
There are several indications in the Torah that it could not have been
written before the First Temple Period. Take, for example, Gen. 36:31:
"And these are the kings who ruled over Edom before there reigned a king
over Israel (or: before their reigned an Israelite King [over Edom]).
This could not have been written before Saul and possibly not before
David.
R. Abraham ibn Ezra, writing in the 12th century, pointed out 12 verses
which were of post-Mosaic origin.
We also have such indications for other books of the Bible.
So you can't make this blanket statement:

"Frankly speaking, we know nothing about the origin of Hebrew Bible
autographs, and I see no compelling reason to reject the possibility
that
such manuscripts existed before the time of the oldest copies of
Athrahasis, Enuma Elish, and Gilgamesh."

-
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel