Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Mark" <davidjoelmark AT gmail.com>]

Why is that? Is it our lack of knowledge about ancient Hebrew? After all as
a native English speaker I am reasonably confident that if you put before me
various texts of standard English prose I would do a reasonably good job
distinguishing 20th century writing from let us say 17th century.

On 10/29/07, George Athas <george.athas AT moore.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> > The book of Ruth, though it is a simple
>
> > narrative, shows linguistic evidence of
>
> > pre-Exile authorship, possibly David or
>
> > before.
>
>
>
> Actually, dating a book on linguistic grounds is very perilous indeed.
> The old distinction between Early Biblical Hebrew (EBH) and Late
> Biblical Hebrew (LBH) can no longer be sustained on chronological
> factors. They are distinct types of Hebrew, yes. However, close
> analysis reveals that both existed at the same time. You can find
> features of both types of Hebrew in books associated with both the
> pre-exilic and post-exilic eras. In other words, they were
> contemporary of each other, one being perhaps the more conservative
> (EBH) and the other a bit freer (LBH). But we probably need to find
> some new terminology to talk about these types of Hebrew.
>
> Look out for a book on this topic next year by Young & Rezetko, and a
> follow-up volume by Young, Rezekto & Ehrensvärd.
>
>
>
> Best Regards,
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney)
> 1 King St, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia
> Ph: (+61 2) 9577 9774
>
>
>
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