Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

I've read Qimron.  I'll have to see what I have of DJD 10.  I examined it for 
my book, but
didn't really look that closely at the language discussion because it wasn't 
germane at the
time.

As I said before, I'm not in a position to have access to the journals at the 
moment (that's
not likely to change for a good 6 months) so I can't examine Smith's article. 
 But what I have
seen of material that uses the DSS to draw conclusions about popular language 
of the time
is generally (I emphasize this word) based on extrapolation from what's 
observable in the
scrolls themselves. I question the legitimacy of this extrapolation.  The 
majority of the
arguments I have seen say something like: these documents, although they are 
religious in
nature, show that Hebrew wasn't just a religious language, but was also a 
popular language.
The discussions that I've seen, though, never quite explain HOW this is so.  
Smith's study
that you mention may indeed do such a thing, and if I can get my grubby 
little hands on it, I'll
be glad to check it out.  To be continued.....................

On 29 Oct 2007 at 10:47, Ken Penner wrote:

> In response to Dave's position:
>
> > Again, I suggest that the DSS tell us nothing about Hebrew as
> > a common language of the era.
>
> The official publication of the DSS would suggest they do: E. Qimron, "The 
> Language," Qumrân Cave 4.V: Miq?at Ma?ase Ha-Torah (DJD 10; Clarendon: 
> Oxford, 1994), 78-80.
>
> Also, Mark Smith examined the time reference of the waw-consecutive
> verbs in a broad selection of Qumran texts (Pesharim, Rule of the
> Community, Rule of the Congregation, Rule of Benedictions, War Scroll,
> Temple Scroll, and Halakhic Letter). He concluded that two usages of
> tenses (literary and spoken) existed in both Biblical and Qumran
> Hebrew: the literary form preserved the use of the (past)
> waw-consecutive, and the spoken form discarded it.  (M. Smith, The
> Origins and Development of the Waw-Consecutive; "Converted and
> Unconverted Perfect and Imperfect Forms in the Literature of Qumran,"
> BASOR 284 (1991):1-16; and "4Q462: A Preliminary Edition," Revue de
> Qumrân 15 (1991-2): 55-77.)
>
> Ken
>
> Ken M. Penner, Ph.D. (McMaster)
> Acadia/Greek&Hebrew
> Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic vocabulary memorization software:
> http://purl.org/net/kmpenner/flash
>


Dave Washburn
Why do it right when you can do it again?