Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Yitzhak:

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 12:42 AM, K Randolph wrote:
>
> > When I first read this posting, I decided not to answer it. But now that
> > Yigal has, I will add a bit.
> >
> > First of all, I think this question is off subject matter for this list,
> as
> > it is a historical question, not a linguistic one.
>
> Dear Karl,
>
> You keep saying that.  But don't you think that if the question was
> discussed by Yigal on list then it is possibly NOT necessarily off
> subject matter for the list?  Just something to consider.
>
> Best,
> Yitzhak Sapir
> _______________
>

No, still off list. Unless the rules have changed.

When I first started on this list, I made a comment concerning a
linguistic/literary pattern that becomes evident if one assumes the internal
dates for those books that have dates listed in them as for their authorship
are accurate. I concluded that if one does not make that assumption, then
that pattern is not evident. I did not urge anyone to accept my observation,
just that I noticed it. I was threatened with banishment for that posting,
because of its historical content.

The reason is that historical arguments have too little evidence to prove
any view of when the books were authored, therefore could lead to endless
arguments that get nowhere. The same concerns the accounts recorded in those
books. Therefore, historical arguments were ruled off topic.

Now we have a question that is primarily historical and people will disagree
based on their perceptions of history. While I agree that it can be
mentioned, I also say based on previous actions on this list that this is a
subject that is off topic.

Do you remember the arguments we had concerning the value of Ugaritic in the
study of Hebrew? That Ugaritic preceded any Hebrew writings? I disagreed
based on a different historical model that places the Torah as having been
written prior to Ugaritic. And recently I came across a site that claims
that, based on archeological findings, Ugaritic was written about the same
time as Jeremiah and its main value is in illustrating some of the apostasy
so hated by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Which is accurate? All we can say for
certain is that there is too little evidence for proof.

Therefore, historical arguments were ruled off topic for this list.

Karl W. Randolph.