Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

In reply to Mr. Washburn's most recent comments challenging my position that
Genesis is a fifth century BCE creation I have assembled a list of what I
consider to be "historical markers" indicating Genesis was not written by
Moses in the 15th century BCE as he maintains:

Please note that all these "markers" are not of the 2nd millenium BCE, they
are of the 1st millenium BCE:

Cities:

Calah, of no importance till the 9th century when it becomes a capital of
Assyria.
Nineveh, becomes a capital 705-612  BCE and thereupon achieves "world
renoun".

Nations (Peoples):

Gomer (Assyrian Gimirraa) appear for the first time on the historical scene
in Assyrian records of the 8th-7th centuries BCE, terrorizing Anatolia,
Ararat, Media and Assyria.

Media takes on no importance till the 9th,8th and 7th centuries BCE when she
struggles against Assyria.

Magog, has been suggested by some scholars to be Assyrian mat-Guggu (the
land of Gog, alluding to Gyges of Lydia), if they are correct, this is a 7th
century BCE marker.

Meshech, Assyrian Mushki, makes its first appearance historically in
Assyrian annals of Tiglath-Pileser I (ca. 1100 BCE)

Tubal, Assyrian Tabal, mentioned in Sargon's annals ca. 706 BCE.

Lud or Lydia is unknown to the Assyrians before Asshurbanipal's time, the
7th century BCE.

Put (Lybia) is first attested in Neo-Babylonian documents of the 7th century
BCE.

Heth, the Hittites is derived from Assyrian "Khatte," a designation of the
later Persian Abar Nahar region which includes Canaan (p.407, Redford).

Pathrusim (in Egypt) is common in the form cited (i.e., with the article)
only in Demotic from 600 BCE onwards (cf. p.406, and note 49, Redford).

"Saris," an Egyptian title (Ge.37:36) according to Redford (p.425), may have
been introduced when Egypt was under Assyrian rule, it is attested though
only in the Persian period, the 6th century BCE.

Personal names:

Moses is derived from Egyptian affix, -mose, as in Thutmose, Amenmose, in
the New Kingdom it was pronounced -mase, and in the first millennium -mose,
but Redford notes the sibilant entered the Hebrew no later than the 8th
century BCE (p.418, Redford).

Cain, Hebrew qayin, is suspected by some scholars to be derived from the Old
South Arabic, qyn,  meaning a smith (as in a metal-smith). This root
appearing as qyn, is attested only in the first millenium, as the title of
an administrator. The earliest attested use as a personal name is qynw
(Qainu), a Qedarite (biblical Kedar) dated to circa 450 BCE (pp.24-25,
Hess). Hess concludes that if qyn is the onomastic background to Hebrew
qayin, then Cain could be dated to the latter half of the first millenium,
i.e., after 500 BCE (p.35, Hess).Hess does note Cain might be derived from
qinah, "song", but qinah does not appear in a qatil form (p.25).

Japheth, associated with the Greek Titan Iapetos by some scholars, is
unattested outside the Bible until he appears for the first time in the
works of  Homer and Hesiod, dated variously between the 9th-8th centuries
BCE.

Nimrod, from a root, mrd,  meaning "we will rebel," is unattested in West
Semitic onomastica. It occurs in later Palmyrene (mrd) and epigraphic South
Arabic inscriptions (p.74, Hess), that is, after 500 BCE. If Nimrod is a
deliberate distortion of the Assyrian warrior-god Ninurta, then the period
could be much earlier.

Serug is attested in 7th century BCE in texts from the Harran area as uru
sa-ru-gi (p.85, Hess).

Hess concluded that many of the names found in Genesis (not listed by me)
could be attested in 2nd millenium texts, but he also noted that some of the
names are attested only in first millenium texts, and some were quite late,
after 500 BCE.

I go by the rule of thumb that says the latest elements date the
composition. I have identified Madai's (the Medes) descent from Japheth with
the Athenian Greek Medus myth, created not earlier than the 6th century BCE
and cited by Datis the Median general of Darius I as a reason for invading
Greece in 490 BCE, and thus date Genesis to the 5th century BCE; this seems
to fall in line with Hess' observations about Cain, (qynw/Qainu) and Nimrod
(mrd) as being attested only in the latter half of the first millenium BCE.

Redford is an Egyptologist, he concluded on the basis of his research that
Genesis was written in the Post-Exilic period:

"The Egypt that shows through in the Table of Nations is the Egypt of
Psammetichos I and his descendants, the 26th Dynasty. To contend that the
Hebrews must have been familiar with Egypt from high antiquity is to belabor
a truism. But the post-Exilic editor was publishing for his contemporaries;
and the Egypt he felt obliged to explain for them was the Nilotic power of
his own time." (p.408)

My research, quite independent of Redford's, and following a different line
of inquiry (Madai's descent from Japheth) arrived at the same conclusion,
Genesis is a Post-Exilic creation.

I want to make it quite clear to the viewers of this post that although I
argue for a 5th century BCE Genesis as the text presently stands, I am not
saying that Genesis through 2 Kings does not contain any factual evidence of
the Pre-exilic period. Quite the contrary, this "Primary History" contains
many allusions to concepts and beliefs mirrored in Pre-exilic Assyrian and
Babylonian texts.

In conclusion, texts do exist before Moses' time, circa 1440 BCE, but they
do not mention the above places or individuals.

I would be most grateful if Mr. Washburn would be so kind as to provide me a
list with citations showing that "all of the above" names and places I have
cited are in fact in pre 1440 BCE (Exodus) ANE works that would back up his
contentions.

Sources Cited:

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Princeton
Univ. Press, 1992,
ISBN 0-691-00086-7.

Richard S. Hess, Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11, Verlag
Butzon & Bercker Kevelaer, Neukirchen-Vluyn,
ISBN 3-7666-9869-9.



All the best,

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany