Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 10/08/2004 08:55, Yigal Levin wrote:

> ...
>
> > Except for 1 Kings 10:12 and 2 Chronicles 9:11 and 35:25, all the other
> >    
> uses of $RYM is by authors who were writing before or were born and reared
> before the Galut Babel.
>  
>
> > All the uses of M$RRYM is post Galut Babel.
> >
> > This is a case of language shift over time.
> >
> > Karl W. Randolph.
> >
> >    
>
> That's assuming that both the Deut. History AND Qohelet are pre-exilic,
> which most scholars would have reservations about.
>  

Their reservations might evaporate if they took this kind of linguistic 
evidence seriously. There are real linguistic differences between the 
clearly post-exilic books and the rest of the HB, which imply at least a 
different time of composition and suggest a period of instability 
allowing rapid language change. (On this hypothesis, Esther has to be 
explained as deliberate archaising.)

But I won't push for a pre-exilic Qohelet.

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