Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

George:

What do we know about Hebrew prior to "putative Moses"? Only what is 
referring to earlier events written in Hebrew. Did Moses edit those earlier 
stories to make them conform to the Hebrew of his time? There is no way that 
I know of that we can tell, either way.

As for the dating of the Ugaritic texts, there was a debate in this forum not 
long ago concerning the accuracy of traditional dates. But even the earliest 
dates for the Ugaritic literature that I have seen (ca. 1200 BCE) is still 
well after Moses (who wrote ca. 1450-1400 BCE). If Rohl and others like him 
are correct, even that date is a couple of centuries too early.

As for the literary style I referred to, it was not unique to Hebrew, rather 
it was one shared by other cultures as well, where the title and author were 
listed at the end of a document, not the beginning. There are several places 
in Genesis that hint, if not more, at inclusion of documents using this style.

As far as *your* dating is concerned, in the absence of historical documents 
other than Tanakh that can either confirm or disprove the accuracy of Tanakh 
as a historical document, how can your dates be anything other than 
theologically based?

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: gfsomsel AT juno.com

> 
> On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:31:24 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> writes:
> > George:
> > 
> > When was the earliest Hebrew written? The earliest Phoenician? 
> > 
> > Since the earliest historical records of writing in Hebrew were on 
> > what we today would call leather scrolls, the earliest specifically 
> > mentioning writing before 1400 BCE, wouldn?t that put it earlier 
> > than the earliest Phoenician writing? And even though Genesis does 
> > not specifically mention writing, that it preserves a literary style 
> > that went out of style before Moses, that implies writing centuries 
> > before Moses.
> > 
> > The next question, do you trust the historical records, and why? I 
> > would not be surprised that if you don?t trust the records, it is 
> > for theological and not historical reasons.
> > 
> > Karl W. Randolph.
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: gfsomsel AT juno.com
 
> ____________
> 
> How do you know what Hebrew may or may not have been prior to a putative
> Moses?  Do you have any examples of Hebrew to support your argument that
> Genesis displays a style of writing prior to such time?
> 
> How about the Ugaritic materials?  These were prior to any supposed Moses
> and were of the region concerned.   Also, reminiscences common to
> Ugaritic material are found in the Tanak.  This is likely material common
> to the NW Semitic region.  It has been preserved at Ras Shamra due to the
> fact that it was recorded on clay tablets as were the Akkadian and
> Babylonian writings.  I think your dating is purely theologically
> motivated.
> 
> george
> gfsomsel
> 

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