Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Since, as you say, you can't tell anything about the date of the original
material (but only of its latest redaction) from the linguistic form, what
evidence can you offer for your assertions below about the authorship of
Moses' blessing and the Balaam oracles?

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Banyai [mailto:Banyai AT t-online.de]
Sent: 08 March 2001 13:29
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: nehemiah, minimalism: giuseppe, ian (fwd)

<snip>

I propose a more relevant method: there are several pieces in the biblical
texts,
who are put in the mouth of prominent personalities. For example
Moses´blessing
or the prophecy of Balaam. Such texts will prove on an attentive analysis to
be
wrong attributions, that is: Mose is not the author of Moses´blessing,
Balaam had
nothing to do with his prophecies.
It is on the other hand quite easy to identify the originators of these
wrongly
attributed texts and locate them within the time frame.
This allows much more interesting conclusions pertaining the sources on
which our
bible drove, than one may hope from a linguistic analysis.

I find the minimalist contribution as enriching our scholarly practice,
forcing
us, however we may stand, to seek a higher standard for our arguments.

Best regards,

Bányai Michael