Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Thursday 10 June 2004 21:06, david.kimbrough AT charter.net wrote:
> Harold,
>
> I would point out that according to traditional
> chronologies the Isrealites were in captivity in Egypt at
> this time.  An unlikely place and population to influce
> Sumerian poetry.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean here.  Are you saying that the Israelites 
were captives in Egypt during the entire patriarchal period?

> We can only go on the evidence at hand.  There is no
> evidence of any kind for the existence of the Hebrew
> language or Hebrew versions of Job-like poems around 1700
> BC. If new evidence arises, it can be considered.  Without
> evidence of some sort, it is just speculation.

As I pointed out in another post, there's no evidence that there wasn't such 
a 
language or body of poetry, either.  Arguments from silence get us nowhere, 
but it amazes me how many folks like to lean on them.

> > From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
> > Date: 2004/06/11 Fri AM 02:49:42 GMT
> > To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Job & Sumer
> >
> > Dear David K.,
> >
> >       In support of Dave Washburn's possibility thinking,
>
> some ancient
>
> > orderings of the biblical books put Job right after the
>
> Pentateuch,
>
> > and this may be due to the thought that Job lived in the
>
> patriarchal
>
> > times. A popular conservative dating for Abraham puts his
>
> birth in
>
> > 2166 B.C. By that scheme, if Job had been contemporary
>
> with Abraham,
>
> > then his story could have been written prior to 1700 B.C.
>
> I've
>
> > recently been reading about the canon, and the fact came
>
> up that the
>
> > ancient rabbinic Jews had several conceptions about when
>
> Job should
>
> > be dated, and a patriarchal date was one of them.
> >
> >                             Yours,
> >                             Harold Holmyard
> >
> > >Sure, why not?  We're dealing with what I call the
>
> accident of preservation,
>
> > >for one thing.  The LXX and DSS were done on parchment
>
> or papyrus, whereas
>
> > >the Sumerian documents were done on fired clay.  Is one
>
> likely to survive
>
> > >longer than the other?  I would hope so.  Furthermore,
>
> the DSS are not the
>
> > >oldest examples of "recorded Hebrew writing" that we
>
> have.  ISTM that the
>
> > >paragraph below has one standard for Sumerian and
>
> another for Hebrew, which
>
> > >is not a valid procedure.  We have no real idea how old
>
> the Hebrew language
>
> > >is, and were it not for the accident of preservation, we
>
> wouldn't have any
>
> > >idea that Sumerian ever existed.  Basing such crucial
>
> decisions on the whims
>
> > >of nature seems like shaky ground to me.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> David Kimbrough
> San Gabriel
>
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-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Learning about Christianity from a non-Christian
is like getting a kiss over the telephone.