Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Cynthia Edenburg <cynthia AT oumail.openu.ac.il>]

Peter Kirk wrote:
         was suggesting that the language differences show that Samuel-Kings
was written some time either before or (less probably) after Chronicles. But
a century or so time difference is more than long enough, especially if the
traumatic events of the exile and return come between the two books.

Difference in language in different compositions hardly necessitates
concluding that they represent historically different states of language.
Consider, for example the language differences of works assumed to have been
composed around the time of Chr's composition: Esther, Qohelet, and Ruth
(for those who choose to see the book a polemic against the exclusivity
expressed in Neh.).
To date, no one has proved on the basis of language comparison of
Chr/Sam-Kgs that Sam-Kgs was composed earlier (or later) than Chr. (Re)read
Polzin and Hurvitz. What they have done is to characterize the language of
Chr as more similar to MH than Sam-Kgs, and since it is more similar to MH
it is labeled LBH. Neither attempted to prove one work is earlier than the
other, but based themselves upon the assumption that Chr is a rewriting of
Sam-Kgs. However, given the fact that works in good classical Hebrew were
being composed at the same time as the composition of Chr, it is difficult
to conclude that the language of Sam-Kgs establishes diachronic relations
between Chr. and Sam-Kgs.

Cynthia Edenburg

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