Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Walter,
> Mr. Washburn has brought up some interesting points. He is quite right about
> many scholars distancing themselves from Ussher's chronology. I referred to
> Ussher for the benefit of the viewing audience, many of whom I assume are
> Christian, and many of which are familiar with this chronology from the
> still popular King James Version of the Bible.

Actually it's only some editions of the KJV, but that's hardly a topic 
worth spending bandwidth on.  Most of us are familiar with Ussher's 
chronology, but I don't know of a single Christian, scholar or 
otherwise, who actually accepts it.

> Another point taken by Mr. Washburn, is that some of my interpretations are
> uniquely my own and not shared by the scholarly community at large, which is
> quite true.

Sort of like my view of the wayyiqtol, eh? :-)

> I do not subscribe to the JPDS theory which among other things posits parts
> of Genesis to have been written by a Jahwist in the court of King Solomon
> some time in the 10th century BCE. My research, as indicated in my earlier
> post, contradicts this notion. If Genesis is really 10th century BCE why
> isn't Asshur mentioned as the leading city of Assyria, which it was from the
> 14th century BCE until eclipsed by Calah being made the capital by
> Assurnasirpal II ( 885-859 BCE) in the 9th century BCE, followed by Nineveh
> becoming the capital under Sennacherib in 704 BCE ?

I too reject the DH.  As for Asshur, Gen 10:11, 12 may hint at it 
since the text says Nimrod went there and in that region built 
Nineveh and the other cities.  I find it easy to see "Asshur" here as 
the name of a city-state rather than a region, or at least I don't see 
anything that particularly rules it out.

> How could the Jahwist in 960 BCE not know of the capital city ofAsshur,
> famous since the 14th century BCE (Asshur the city is never mentioned in the
> Bible, as pointed out by Grayson) ?

Where would you expect to see a reference to it and why?  The 
Pentateuch stories revolve around Haran, Canaan and Egypt.  It pre-
settlement times I wonder how major a power Assyria/Asshur was; 
if it wasn't much and didn't have a whole lot of influence, there 
would have been no good reason to discuss it in the context of the 
Pentateuch.  Asshur the city/region/whatever is mentioned in 
passing in Gen 2:24, but if there wasn't any particularly powerful 
Assyrian empire at the time of writing (i.e. assuming 14th-century 
writing) then it would seem that a) this does indeed refer to the 
city, and b) a passing reference used merely as a geographical 
marker is about all the mention it would warrant.

> Grayson makes the following observations about the city Asshur:
> 
> "The city Asshur, which was the original capital of the kingdom of Assyria,
> is also never specifically referred to in the Bible...In the 14th century BC
> Asshur became the capital of a land which was for the first time called
> Assyria...Asshur continued to be the capital until the 9th century BC when
> Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) moved the capital to Calah. Then in the 7th
> century BC the capital was once again moved, this time by Sennacherib
> (704-681 BC) to Nineveh." (cf. p.500, Vol. 1, A.K. Grayson, "Asshur," David
> Noel Freedman, Ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York, Doubleday, 1992,
> ISBN 0-385-19351-3)
> 
>  How could Moses in 1440 BCE or the Jahwist in 960 BCE know of Calah ?
> Grayson observes about Calah:
> 
> "...Calah was of no significance in the 3d and 2d millenium BC. It was
> singled out for importance only in the 9th century BC when Assurnasirpal II
> chose it as his capital. Assurnasirpal totally transformed the insignificant
> village into a metropolis which was suitable to be the center of the empire
> he created." (cf. p.808, Vol.1, A.K. Grayson, "Calah," David Noel Freedman,
> Ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday, 1992)

Neither of these cuts any real ice with me.  In the first place, as I 
have pointed out, it's possible the Pentateuch does in fact refer to 
Asshur the city.  Second, why should Calah's lack of prominence 
prevent Moses or a contemporary from knowing about or consulting 
an ancient record or tradition about the city's founding?  Once 
again there's an awful lot of assumption going on here with no real 
substance to establish it.  The point in Gen 10 is not the relative 
importance of Calah, but the (assumed) fact that Nimrod was its 
founder; IOW, the focus is on the person, not on the city.

> It is just as unlikely that Moses or the Jahwist knew of Lud/Lydia in
> 1440/960 BCE, when according to the testimony of Asshurbanipal, this nation
> was unknown and unheard of by "his fathers", remarking on the fact that
> Gyges of Lydia/Luddu has sought him out, seeking to be his vassal, and
> offering captured Gimmerai (biblical Gomer) warriors as a token of esteem ?
> My research seeks to establish plausible historical allusions within the
> text to establish the date of the text.
> 
> Bury on Lydia and Assyria, citing Asshurbanipal's own words preserved in
> cuneiform:
> 
> ""Gyges, king of Lydia, a district which is across the sea, a remote place
> of which the kings my fathers had not heard speak of its name. The account
> of my grand kingdom in a dream was related to him by Assur, the god my
> creator: "Of Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, the beloved of Assur, king of
> the gods, lord of all, his princely yoke take." (cf. p. 840, notes to p.
> 104, citing a cuneiform translation by G. Smith, History of Asshurbanipal,
> p. 64, 73, in  J.B. Bury, A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the
> Great, New York, the Modern Library, Random House, 1937)

And how reliable is Asshurbanipal on this point?  Didn't these guys 
often tend to exaggerate their own significance and others' relative 
insignificance?  I would also be interested in hearing from some 
Akkadianologists about whether this is an idiomatic expression for 
"it was no big deal."  In any case, one line in Asshurbanipal is 
hardly enough to clinch it for me.

> Genesis has a variety of historical markers dating it. Allusions to a flood
> myth originating with the Sumerians in the 3rd millenium BCE; allusions to
> cities that did not possess "world-renoun" until after the 10th century BCE;
> allusions to nations not known to exist prior to the 7th century BCE like
> Lydia (at least the Assyrians were not aware of it); allusions to Madai's
> (Medes) descent from Japheth, which I have ascertained to be a 5th century
> BCE reworking of the 6th century BCE Athenian Medus myth by the Persian
> royal court.

This seems like more speculation.  We assume we know who 
Madai was, but this also is far from certain. 

I have yet to see anything that definitively nails down the date of 
the Pentateuch, early or late.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
                                   Psalm 86:11