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  • From: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Thomas L. Thompson" <tlt AT teol.ku.dk>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] VS: Samaritan script/proto-hebrew
  • Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:23:29 +0000

About a half year ago, Prof Thompson wrote with regards to the
Samaritan discussion, and my points regarding Hurvitz:

> I have an explicitly inadequate, but nevertheless positive response to
> Polzin and Hurvitz in my The Origin Tradition of Ancient Israel (p.191
> -194). Hurvits has not really done much more on the dating of ancient
> Hebrew than what I accept here. Much criticism of Hurvitz' position has
> been published in many places. I would hardly identify that with a
> "minimalist camp".

Dear Prof Thompson,

I had originally apparently misunderstood what you wrote above
and with the book being apparently missing in the nearby library
(listed on-shelf in the computer, but not on-shelf), I was unable to
check it myself. Thanks to a list member, I had now read what
you wrote, and evidently you appear to accept Hurvitz's claims,
at least partially. I am not sure whether you think so today (the
above book is published almost 20 years ago). I evidently mis-
understood what you meant by "positive response." I thought you
meant "effectively answer" and I could not see how this could be
done in just 4 pages. I was referring to datings of later than 6th
century in my label of "minimalists," which at least with respect to the
above cited book would not make you a minimalist. It is with respect
to these claims, especially the Greek period, which is attested in
abundance in the DSS, that I feel Hurvitz's criticisms especially
apply. Having reviewed slightly Ian Young's book, I would now
move that period slightly later - datings later than 5th or 4th
century, perhaps.

I suppose that many of Hurvitz's articles will do, but the following
article explores the linguistic criticisms without going into his own
method of dating:

Hurvitz, A., "The Relevance of Biblical Hebrew Linguistics for the
Historical Study of Ancient Israel," Proceedings of the Twelfth World
Congress of Jewish Studies. Division A: The Bible and Its World
(Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1999) 21*-33*

I also note now the following book (of which I read small parts this
morning):

Ian Young (ed), Biblical Hebrew: Chronology and Typology (JSOTSup;
Sheffield Academic: Sheffield, July 2003).

Reviewed here:

http://bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4084&CodePage=4084,2557
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review180.htm
(especially Zevit's review in bookreviews.org)

and will try to read it more.

Yitzhak Sapir



  • Re: [b-hebrew] VS: Samaritan script/proto-hebrew, Yitzhak Sapir, 09/16/2005

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