Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Gad,

While it is true that many scholars have claimed that such poems as the Song 
of the Sea and the Sond of Deborah and others as well, are "old" or "contain 
archaic language", the is really no way to prove this. The main problem is 
that since we have no extra-biblical examples of "early Hebrew" there is 
nothing to compare them with. The similarities between Hebrew poetry and 
that of Ugarit, for instance, does not prove anything about the date of the 
Hebrew poetry. And we should always remember, that poets aften tend to use 
"achaic" language.

In the specific case of the Song of the Sea in Ex. 15, the mention of Edom, 
Moab and Philistia, none of which, based on archaeological evidence, were 
around as nations before the very late 13th century, might indicate 
something, but who really knows for certain?

Yigal Levin



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G. Zack" <atdgz AT hotmail.com>

> At any rate, as it is a Biblical Hebrew Language  Forum, most pertinent to 
> the forum is the text of Miriam's song, which, to my understanding, can be 
> __shown__ to be one of the oldest in the bible alongside the later dated 
> Deborah song (curiously--both are women-poets...-) and, I believe, even 
> dated.
>
> I am surprised no reference was made to this point inthis forum and 
> context.
>
> Can someone comment on that (which would also assist in dealing with the 
> issue of the date of Exodus...)?
>
> Gad Za"k