Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim West" <jwest AT highland.net>
To: "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 6:05 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] logograms--an ode to Hebrew


> At 03:15 AM 12/24/2004, you wrote:
>
> > Of course that isn't exact.  I could write a book claiming that Henry
> > Kissinger wrote it, but that wouldn't make it so.  In the same way there
> > are apocalypses written in the name of Adam, Enoch and others; but I
> > hardly think you would grant that any credence.  When a claim to
> > authorship is challenged, the challenger is obliged to submit evidence
> > which falsifies that claim.  Anyone wishing to deny the challenge is
> > obliged to submit evidence falsifying the falsification.
> >
> > george
>
> I think what some are missing is the simple fact that the books of the 
> Hebrew Bible NEVER claim authorship by anyone!  Anywhere!  The 
> superscriptions are centuries later.
>
> Jim


I am going to take this just a tad bit further than my good friend Jim in 
this period just prior to the moderator halting this thread.  The existing 
evidence and lack of evidence strongly suggests Moses and the Exodus as a 
pious fiction, or at most a gross exaggeration,  constructed in the 8th-7th 
centuries BCE (IMO, under Josiah) to give "history" to the group.  To 
discuss the language of Adam is tantamount to discussing the arctic 
furniture style of Santa Claus.  I have been fortunate to read some of the 
most informative expositions and debates on Hebrew style, grammar and 
orthography on this list but must admit that I am taken aback by what I have 
read recently regarding the perceptions on the stemma of the NW Semitic 
languages and the appearance of Hebrew in that line of development.  The 
Iron Age literary style was to attribute a text to one's favorite hero.  The 
next thing under discussion is the language of the talking 
snake...Nahashese?

Jack