Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

Sujata,

I may have misunderstood, but I took Kevin's point this way: Kevin is  
asking about people's understandings of the concept of "inspiration"  
_during a particular time span_. He is interested in "pre-exilic  
Hebrew understandings" of the notion, if we have any data for that.  
Since the end of the "exile" is dated to c. 538 BCE (the "Edict of  
Cyrus," per Ezra 1), and since the New Testament letters to Timothy  
were definitely written no earlier than c. 50 CE (and probably at  
least a couple of decades later than that), Kevin is merely stating a  
historical fact to say that "[2 Timothy] was written 500+ years after  
the [Babylonian exile]." In that light, 2 Timothy sheds no light on  
what Kevin is asking about: "pre-exilic Hebrew understandings" of the  
concept of "inspiration." I don't believe that your harsh dismissal  
of his statement is warranted, since all he is trying to do is limit  
the historical scope of his inquiry.

Best wishes,

Chris

On Aug 1, 2005, at 9:11 PM, Sujata wrote:
> > "It was written 500+
> > years after the event"
>
> Now that is a very scholarly statement, isn't it? I
> think NOT.

--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California 90263-4352
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
http://www.iTanakh.org
http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info