Biblical Hebrew Forum

[decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Vincent DeCaen)]

hi liz,

i will begin radio silence today. but before i go....

the order i have the torah sources should not be surprising: D > JE > P.
after all, that would be consistent with jewish traditions of exile and
the mission of ezra, etc, etc.  and a version of deuteronomy was
definitely current in Josiah's time....  moreover, it might not be
surprising that kings was initially coming together in the 7th century.
(see further, finkelstein and silbermann, the bible unearthed, on the
priority of the deuteronomist and deuteronomistic history, 700-600 BCE.)

but the ordering is based on purely formal linguistic criteria: primarily
variation in verbal morphology and pronominal variations. the computer
sorts...., and i let the chips fall where they may. ;-) i get the same
strata appearing over and over again....

one quick example, which sorts *all* five strata: the form of the first
person sequential. variations of two sorts:

                #I      #II     #III    #IV     #V

                -->     apocopation     -->     suffixation (anagogic -H)

(1) strong:     W)KTB                   -->     W)KTBH

(2) weak:       W)HYH   -->     W)HY    -->     W)HYH 

with two transitional phases (50/50), you get a total of five distinct
dialect profiles. now, you just keep compiling and correlating such very
fine and unstudied distinctions, and the convergence becomes very
striking.... usually, you get cut-offs between II-III, and between III-IV.
stratum III would reasonably be the exilic period, so this is hardly
surprising.

hope that helps for now.....

sholom,
V-- 
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Dr Vincent DeCaen     <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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Love work. Hate authority.  --Shemaiah, from Avot