Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kurt Noll" <KLNoll AT kwc.edu>]

Dear Liz,

Sensible discussions of this have been lodged, but one more nuance
might be added.

I think the linguistic-typology evaluation is the only really
compelling argument for a date of composition for "P."  Hebrew language
changed over the centuries, as did pottery styles and everything else. 
Unfortunately, the linguistic evaluation has been burdened by claims far
exceeding what it can actually accomplish, but the research is still
worth reading.  I can't list bibliography because I'm not at my desk. 
Start with Polzin's classic monograph.  (Recent statistical attempts are
less compelling because the number-crunching really doesn't provide
decisive results.)

But (and this is my main point), at the end of the day, our data permit
us to estimate earliest possible compositional date and latest possible
compositional date, and not much else.  For the typologically earlier
phase of biblical Hebrew ("JE" and "Dtr" and so forth), this range would
be from early Iron Age II to late Persian era, and for "P" and so forth
the range is late Iron Age II to well into the Hellenistic era.  In
other words, even the linguistic arguments really don't help very much
with respect to dates of composition.  

Several on this list have suggested that the concept of "P" is dead
weight, as is the concept of "Dtr."  I agree and disagree.  The
classical definition of "sources" and "redactional strata" are, in my
view, untenable.  But that there exist in the Bible such
linguistic-and-motif- coordinated clusters of text cannot be denied.  If
we retain the sigla we need to be cautious about what we say about the
sigla.  

So...
with respect to the original question (the book you are reviewing), my
two-cents is that if one speaks of a specific "source" dating to a
specific century, one is running the risk of writing fantasy rather than
history.  Yet, it is certainly plausible (highly probable?) to say that
a Jerusalem priesthood of the Iron Age II continued to edit texts well
into the Hellenistic era, and in that limited sense, "P" can be
considered to be material of various ages that were codified in received
form by a priesthood operating after the exile.  

Shalom,
Kurt



*********************************
Dr. Kurt L. Noll
Kentucky Wesleyan College
3000 Frederica Street
Owensboro, KY  42302
http://www.kwc.edu/academic/religion/index.html
(270) 852-3220
KLNoll AT kwc.edu

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
                                            - Upton Sinclair
**********
>From yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il  Wed Feb 26 12:30:19 2003
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] re: priestly stratum
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Rodney Duke wrote:
>
> 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.

The credit for this argument goes to Yehezkel Kaufmann, _The History of
Israelite Religion_, 1937 (Hebrew), with which all scholars conversant in
Modern Hebrew, including Prof. Milgrom, are familiar.
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren, Editor
Mo'ed - Researches in Judaic Studies
Center for Jewish Culture
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office
44905 Israel
Tel. 972-9-7476396