Biblical Hebrew Forum

["jason silber" <uzisilber AT gmail.com>]

Dave,
as a Hebrew speaker i can tell you that 'bayamim hahem' implies that a long
time had past. it implies another era.

in a world which was much slower, place names didn't just change.  even
today, in the regions of Judea and Samaria many place names are Arabicized
Hebrew names.  in other words the place names haven't changed in 3000
years.

the writer is communicating to contemporaneous readers or listeners place
name information they wouldn't know..







On 11/5/07, dwashbur AT nyx.net <dwashbur AT nyx.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 5 Nov 2007 at 15:26, jason silber wrote:
>
> > Jim,
> > throughout early genesis, especially in the Abraham cycle, there are
> several
> > references to 'bayamim hahem', 'in those days', confirming that that the
> > writer (or editor) had compiled the information much later -- id guess
> > during the eras of Hezekiah or Josiah. (or 700 years after the purported
> > events were supposed to occur?)
>
> Why "much" later?  The phrase need not mean several hundred years, or even
> a hundred
> years.  It's nonspecific and could mean just about anything.  If we could
> establish when
> towns' names changed, or how long a certain location or monument endured
> ("It's there to
> this day") and that sort of thing, we might be able to sort it out in
> greater detail.  But simply
> "bayyamim hahem" tells us virtually nothing.
>
> Dave Washburn
> Why do it right when you can do it again?
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