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  • From: Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Gezer Calendar and 6-Month "Year"
  • Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:24:42 -0400

Jim:

Even if we were to take /kl/ in line 5 in the sense of "to complete," as Lemaire does by assuming a base /klh/, you still would have no support for a 6-month year in the 10th century BCE. Albright may have rejected a 1909 proposal from Ronzevalle, but new data coming to light since Albright's time suggests Ronzevalle was right all along and line 5 should be read /kl/ from a base /kyl/ ("measuring"), a reduction of the diphthong /ay/ to /e/ (see Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions I [Oxford, 1973], p. 2). The "month of harvest and measuring" (yrh qsr wkl), or Albright's "harvest and feasting" (he restored a gimmel to /wgl/ and rejected kaph /wkl/), is the 9th month enumerated in the GC. Regardless of the precise season month 9 corresponds to in Israel the GC is a calendar which measures time using more than 6 months. For your theory you need to bring forward evidence of a calendar with 6 and only 6 months in it. That just can't be done with the GC.

Tory Thorpe

On Oct 23, 2007, at 3:10 PM, JimStinehart AT aol.com wrote:


Tory:
You wrote: "The line in the GC where you see "feasting," which is
Albright's old reading of line 5, should be rendered "month of harvesting and
measuring" (cf. Renz, Die althebräischen Inschriften, 30-37; and Talmon, JAOS 83
[1963], p. 183, and note 48). M. Cohen's book uses the older/ outdated translation
of the GC proposed by Albright."
This is a very important point to me, but I'm afraid I'm not quite following
your analysis. I believe everyone agrees that the word "harvest" is there.
The question is what the other word may mean: (i) "feasting" or
"festival", or (ii) "termination", or (iii) "measuring". Albright says "feasting".
Philologos in Forward.com on August 20, 2004 says "(wheat) harvest and
festival". A 1909 proposal (discussed by S. Talmon) had suggested "two measure".
S. Talmon's footnote 48 seems equivocal to me. S. Talmon's footnote 48
includes the following key statement:
"The word [wkl] can be derived either from klh 'to terminate, to end,' or
from kwl 'two measure'."
If it means "to terminate, to end", that would be consistent with the ending
of one 6-month year, with the start of a new 6-month year to be celebrated
at that time. Thus in a calendar context, "to terminate, to end" could be
associated with a "feasting" or "festival", celebrating the beginning of a new
New Year (be it a 6-month "year" or a 12-month year).
But if the word means "two measure", then I'm afraid I do not follow the
analysis here.
Why wouldn't a harvest season naturally be associated both with (i) a
termination or end, and (ii) the time to celebrate the beginning of a New Year with
feasting and a New Year festival? That all seems logical to me.
To the extent Talmon says "to terminate, to end", that's great from my point
of view. Are you sure that scholars today are siding with "two measure" as
the proper meaning? That is a 1909 suggestion. 1909 is awfully old, much
older even than Albright. I am reluctant to go with a 1909 proposal that does
not seem to make much sense, instead of the various post-1909 proposals I have
seen, which suggest either "termination" or "festival", either of which
would be great readings from my point of view.
Thank you so very much for cluing me in to this issue. Is there anything
more out there on this particular topic?
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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