Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Christian M. M. Brady" <cbrady AT tulane.edu>]

On 3/16/01 4:13 PM, "Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it> wrote:

>> Thank you, Ian. You make it difficult for me to answer by claiming 
>> copyright
>> on your posting, a first as far as I remember. So I can't quote it back to
>> you without your permission. I don't propose to ask for that.
>> 
> I simply don't want this new work going out to anyone without recognition 
> for
> it. There was absolutely no restriction cited other than that. So, don't
> worry, there, there is no reason for you to degrade yourself to ask for
> permission. The alternative to posting with a copyright notice was not to 
> post
> at all. Which would you have preferred?

Do really want an answer to that? :-) Seriously Ian I have to say that the
copyright notice seemed a bit... well, unnecessary in this context.

>> I'm not sure what you think you gain from quoting three documents whose 
>> dates
>> are almost totally unknown.
>> 
> There are very many dating indications for Ezra:
> 
> 1) No-one in second temple times knows the work (the first person to cite 
> the
> Ezra tradition was Josephus and that was 1 Esdras); a. A strong argument 
> from
> silence is the lack of Ezra in Ben Sira's list of worthy men, where, had 
> there
> been such an important tradition, one should have found Ezra;

As you correctly note this is an argument from silence. You cannot say that
"no-one in second temple times knows the work" since you have not been able
to ask everyone in second temple times. You have not even been able to ask
all those authors whose work we do have, Ben Sira, for example, if he knew
of Ezra, but had reason not to include him in his work.

Therefore no weight can be give to this. In fact, this is the kind of
argument that you are routinely chastising others for. Why do you allow it
in your case?

As for the argument about the Aramaic of Ezra as presented in the article on
your website, lets just say that such a position is debatable and does not,
as far as I can tell, have much weight either. The primacy of 1 Esdras is
also circumstantial. There can be many other explanations...

But here I will "cop out" and leave that for others who are more inclined to
demonstrate.

Cb
cbrady @ tulane.edu
-- 
"An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience."
                    Don Marquis, 'archy & mehitabel', 1927