Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>]

        Dear Waalter,
        You are ignoring your oft-repeated statement that certain cities,
such
        as Heshbon and Dibon, were not settled until the Iron Age. So, first
of
        all, why not place the Isreaelite traditions reltaing to them in the
        Iron Age?
        Secondly, why do the Biblical traditions about the Exodus and the
        traditions about the conquest of Heshbon and Jericho have to be
those of
        the same groups?
        I could make a case for the Transjordan Conquest traditions being
from
        the same stream tradition as the Jacob-returning-from-Aram
traditions,
        and posit a settlement/conquest of Northern Transjordan by peoples
close
        to the Arameans ethnically and linguistically - amd derive evidence
from
        the language of the Deir Alla Inscription. This immigration/conquest
        would be a another wave in the same line as the Moabites and
Ammonites
        (who are descedndants of Lot, Abraham's kinsman, and also from Upper
        Mesopotamia.
        More later.

        --
        Jonathan D. Safren

        Jonathan and Walter,

        would you use the mentioning of Mycenae in Homer to date Homer's
poems (remember that the traditional view is 8th century, Mycenae gone for
4-500 years; 'revisionist' as some would say dates it even later. Probably
no one earlier)? Does a place need to exist 'in the flesh' in order to live
in a tradition-oral or literary? Are we, e.g. in Europe ignorant of ruined
places that attract the attention of storytellers and singers and become
famous places, inhabited by the ghosts of the past, fairies, demons of
deceased kings etc. etc.? The only necessary thing in order to mention
Heshbon in a literary piece of work is that this Heshbon must have existed
as the name of a place, whether a ruin or a still thrieving and inhabited
place. So you cannot really use this kind of material for dating except as a
terminus a quo.

        NPL