Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

Hold on, surely the actual evidence is that the Iron Age in the area in
question started much earlier than the 8th century, perhaps the
12th-13th century or even earlier with the invasion of the Sea Peoples.
So even if we accept Ian H's line of argument it tells us only that
Genesis was written no earlier than the 12th-13th century. This is not a
very strong claim, it doesn't even rule out authorship by a 13th century
Moses.

Peter Kirk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yigal Levin [mailto:Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu]
> Sent: 04 September 2002 16:21
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: Iron and Bronze.
> 
<snip>
> >
> No, but the point is (forgive me for butting in) that the mention of
Iron
> is neither a proof of the antiquity of iron or of the lateness of the
text.
> Both have to be evaluated independantly, and then combined. But if it
> could
> be established that iron was not known (or at least not used) until
the
> 8th
> century, this would be proof that at least that part of that redaction
of
> that particular text did not reach its present form until the 8th
century.
> 
> 
> Yigal
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dr. Yigal Levin
> Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
> 615 McCallie Avenue
> Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
> U.S.A.
>