Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jason:

On 11/5/07, jason silber <uzisilber AT gmail.com> wrote:
> Jim,
> throughout early genesis, especially in the Abraham cycle, there are several
> references to 'bayamim hahem', 'in those days',

I just did a quick electronic search, and that phrase is found only
once in Genesis, in Genesis 6:4, i.e. referring to the antediluvian
epoch. The exact phrase is not used once concerning Abraham through
Jacob's sons.

The other 38 verses in Tanakh where it is found include Moses writing
about himself Exodus 2:11, concerning the future Deuteronomy 17:9,
19:17, 26:3 Joshua 20:6, Joel 2:29, etc. The phrase is nonspecific,
could refer to any time period other than the present.

> ... 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?)
>
What references am I missing? Or rather, did my computer miss?

> there are also references to towns being known differently at one point )
> and Beit El which was once luz, and hevron nee kiryat arba)
>
Or is it that many towns may have had an official name, but
unofficially known by other names (e.g. "Windy City", "Babylon by the
Bay", "'J' City", etc.)?

> the semi mythical nature would explain the multiple versions of events, the
> doublets, the same events featuring different characters, the rounded
> numbers (in baylonian style) of 180, 120, 40.
>
That is most descriptive of the book of Judges where, except for a few
stories which were written down, most information gives the impression
of being recalled from oral stories later. Hence much of the history
is very sketchy.

> so wouldn't you agree that while some of the semi mythical information may
> originate from sources from, say, the 15th century, that the writer who
> ultimately put this fathers cycles together would have lived in the 8th
> century BCE at the earliest?
> uzi
>
Not with the information you have provided so far.

Karl W. Randolph.