Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

At 06:42 PM 7/15/2003 +0100, Larry Swain wrote:
>    Care to offer summaries for those of us who do not have access?
> 
Neither say anything new to those who followed the discussions, especially
on the ANE list. Cross gives a transcription and translation and then a
line-by line commentary, pointing out the irregularities in spelling and
meaning which the forger was apparently no aware of. The "howler", as Cross
puts it, is in line 11, where the forger used the word "bdq" in it's late
(even modern) meaning of "repair" instead of the biblical meaning of
"broken/damaged". Cross points out that the forger combined information and
terms found in either the 2 Kings or the 2 Chronicles stories but not in
both, and that his script is not 9th century Hebrew (how would he know?)
but rather a combination of letters taken from Mesha, various Phoenician
inscriptians and perhaps Tel Dan. 

Eph'al begins with showing how the writer took phrases from the two
accounts and that of the building of Solomon's Temple. He states that he
will refrain from commenting on the geological report because that is not
his specialty and refers us to a forthcoming article by Yuval Goren. He
then comments on the words bdq, hlwlm and nx$t )dm ("Edomite copper),
showing why all three are used wrongly.

   
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.