Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

that's what it means now.  It didn't necessarily mean "several hundred years" 
back then.  
That's not a valid extrapolation.

On 5 Nov 2007 at 16:11, jason silber wrote:

> 
> 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 listenersplace 
> 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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> 
> 
> 


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