Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 20/03/2005 21:18, Chris Weimer wrote:

> > Yitzhak, I don't want to open up another long discussion on this 
> issue.
> > My rather quick reply to Chris was based more in the terms which 
> I think
> > he would understand i.e. taking the text of the book of Kings fairly
> > literally. And I realise that this is not an entirely safe thing 
> to do.
> > Even in 2 Kings itself e.g. 23:15-20 there is evidence that the 
> Samaria
> > district was under the control of Jerusalem after the end of the
> > northern kingdom.
> Hold on a minute, how do you get that I take Kings historically? Let 
> me clarify myself a bit, I was referring to the myriad Asherah and 
> Baal inscriptions that the Yisrael was a polytheistic country, while 
> the southern Yahwists didn't really exert their control until after 
> the exile, and then not even right away (the number of deportees 
> largely exaggerated). What are the latest inscriptions of other 
> deities in the North.
Chris Weimer, I was not referring to you but to Chris Watts(?) who 
started this thread about Samaritan. Sorry for any confusion.
...

> > This is perhaps a latest possible date for the split, but it is 
> not an
> > earliest one. There is no particular reason why the already 
> separated
> > Judeans and Samaritans could not have used the palaeo-Hebrew 
> script in
> > parallel from say the 5th to the 1st century BCE, at least for 
> religious
> > puposes to preserve the already centuries-old tradition. In fact it
> > seems that the Judeans came to prefer the Aramaic-based Hebrew 
> script at
> > least towards the end of this period, perhaps simply because it was
> > different from the Samaritans' preferred script.
> Which is why I put it at the 3rd century, a reasonable time placement.
Not when there is strong evidence that there was already a deep 
(although not necessarily irreconcilable) split in the 6th-5th century.

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



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