Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rodney K. Duke" <dukerk AT appstate.edu>]

Since I receive the all-in-one posting of b-hebrew, the discussion on 
the priestly stratum has already progressed past the comments that I 
would have made to the first post by Lisbeth S. Fried. Moreover, it 
seems that her questions were somewhat rhetorical in the sense that 
she already had her own answers for them.

A couple of points that I would like to add:

She is correct when she mentions that some methodological circularity is 
present: the dating of the Pentateuchal sources is directly tied to the 
reconstructing of the history of the Israelite priesthood, which is tied 
to dating sources as well as to other presuppositions regarding the role 
of the high places, Josiah's reform, Ezekiel's program in ch. 40-48, and 
the nature of cultic development in general. Wellhausen's key texts and 
theses all revolve around the history of the cult: place of worship, 
sacrifices, sacred feasts, priests and Levites, and the endowment of the 
clergy.

One name that has not yet been mentioned is Jacob Milligram 
(particularly his seminal work, (Levitical Terminology). I think that he 
and others have convincingly demonstrated that the language in Ezekiel 
40-48 presupposes the technical cultic language and practices of P and 
thus topples one of the linchpin arguments for the relative dating order 
of JEDP.
Rodney
--
Dr. Rodney K. Duke
Dept. of Phil. & Rel., Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC 28608