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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew List <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Potiphar's title
  • Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 14:35:56 -0700

On 10/07/2003 14:06, Michael Banyai wrote:

Dear Peter,

Akkadian is a large word. Since not even the worst adepts of a maximalist
view would sustain the idea, that biblical hebrew antedated the Akkadian, the
fact whether saris is or not an Akkadian loan-word uninteresting to pinpoint
the bible on the 7th century.

Should you try to become more specific, and say saris is a word existing only in the
neo-Assyrian begining by the 7th century, than of course its loan ought postdate this
evolution within the "Akkadian".

Othwerwise we should state frankly, there is no subject for this thread.

About Akkadian we speak beginning by the empire of Sargon of Akkade. At which
time point did it penetrate into the Hewbrew lexic? Can you make a concrete
statement about this time point?

Second, Walter´s was that the loanword itself would mark the date of creation
of the work, what I doubt. How can you demonstrate the redactional evolution
of the work in your sense?

All the best,

Bányai Michael
Stuttgart



Michael, I am not trying to support Walter here. Probably saris is a loan word from Akkadian. But that tells us very little. I don't think we can tell when it was loaned. Obviously 8th-7th centuries BCE was a time of close contact between Israel and Assyria when the loan might have taken place, but there was some contact much earlier. And then, as you pointed out so clearly, an earlier text may have been redacted in the 8th-7th centuries or later. So this being a loan word does not prove that Genesis is late. And conversely, those who wish to defend Genesis as earlier have no need to rely on arguments like "we can't be sure that this really is a loan word".

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/






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