Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 15/07/2004 16:37, Dave Washburn wrote:

> On Wednesday 14 July 2004 14:22, david.kimbrough AT charter.net wrote:
>  
>
> > I have to disagree.
> >
> > 1) The earliest that Genesis 32 could have been written was during the
> > exodus by Moses.  This means the conversations of the Adullamite with the
> > unspecified individuals occurred hundreds of years prior, at the ealiest. 
> > It seems unlikely that Genesis 32 is a verbatim transcript of the
> > conversations.
> >    
>
> No, the earliest that the form of Genesis 32 that we have could have been 
> written was then.  But there is no reason why this author, whoever one may 
> assume that s/he was, wouldn't have used written sources from at or near the 
> time of the events.  It's possible that Gen 32 is a summary or an author's 
> construct, but it's equally possible that it is in fact a "verbatim 
> transcript" that Judah's family had preserved in a family record of some 
> kind.  We don't know, and we can't really assume one way or the other without 
> emphasizing that we are in fact assuming.
>
> [snip]
>
>  
Also, the story may have been preserved verbatim (or more or less so) by 
oral tradition over those several hundred years.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/