Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>]

Walter Mattfeld argues for a very late (somewhere +/- 560 BC) redaction of 
the
Pentateuch. 

This is a refutation of the methodology which generally is usually employed 
to
demonstrate such or similar allegiances.

Nobody contests, there are numerous anachronisms of younger date, 
eventually
even fitting a late date like proposed by Mr. Mattfeld. One can not deal 
with
each one, so let them all be accepted...
However what makes the date of redaction of the material compiled in the 
Pentateuch is the oldest datable element, showing the Pentateuch has got 
the
form of a book. 
Perhaps you don´t understand me, so I´ll exemplify, vulgo, say a 
datable dedication to the patron paying the making of the book, or a 
datable
prolegomena. The date and quality of the quoted material is subject to 
discussion but we have a definitive datum post quem.

Of course you´ll say there is nothing of the kind. But you would be, as I 
can
show, than surely wrong.

There are plenty of such texts, but I´ll concentrate myself on a single 
one, in
a quite simple case, that is the socalled bless of Moses, Deut. XXXIII.
It closes the Deuteronomium and is for sure an anachronism by its 
attribution to Moses.
What makes it peculiarly interesting is but the fact, that this attribution 
is false, there are clues that the subject of the socalled bless of Moses 
was in fact the coronation of Gideon.
The points to be made are following (I´ll quote out of easiness in 
german):

Deut. 33,5 and Deut. 33, 21 - "und ein König erstand in Jeschurun - als 
sich die Häupter des Volkes versammelten...", " Gad ... Das erste Stück hat 
er sich ausgesucht, denn wo der Anteil des Anführers war, da versammelten 
sich die Häupter des Volkes..."
is a parallel to Judges 8,22-23 whose action is to be set at Sukkoth 
conform to the precedent Judges 8,13-16: "Die Israeliten sagten zu 
Gideon:werde du unser Herrscher, du und auch dein Sohn und dein Enkel...".

Deut. 33,12 introduces Benjamin not at the canonical place behind Josef. 
The ground is simple: it is a later time correcture since the paragraph 
referrs the placement of the principal Jahweh temple. This was beginning by 
Salomo at Jerusalem, earlier till its destruction by Abimelech in 
Schechem.
The imposture is easy to demonstrate since the sentence speaking about the 
the temple uses the same play with the synonim Schechem/Shoulder as Genesis 
48,22.

Genesis 48,22 "Ich gebe dir einen Bergrücken schulterhoch über deinen 
Brüdern, den ich der Hand der Amoriter mit Schwert und Bogen entrissen 
habe." (Schechem)
Deut. 33,12 "...täglich wacht über ihn der Höchste, und zwischen seinen 
Schultern wohne er."

The conclusion is clear: this part too, later attributed to Benjamin, 
pertained to Josef.

Since it speaks about a still existing Schechem temple, we have a datum 
ante quem, Abimelech.
>From the first reference we have on the other hand a datum post quem 
Gideon.
So the text, clearly a dedicational text at the end of the Deuteronomium, 
is to be dated in the period of Gideon.
Does such a date generally make sense? Well we have quite oft reference to 
cities resisting the Israelite conquest still at the date the Pentateuchal 
texts were written. Such cities, which later during the united kingdom were 
surely under Israelite controll.

Best regards,

Banyai Michael
Leonberg
Banyai AT t-online.de