Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Harold Holmyard wrote:

The Sopherim are believed to have established the text, and
they finished their work in about 300 B.C. So textual evidence of what
existed before their work should not be expected in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Where are you getting this information from, Harold? I'm not sure we can talk 
about an 'established' text in 300 BC. There is a Proto-Masoretic family of 
texts, along with the LXX Vorlage, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and other 
non-aligned text types. Are you perhaps thinking within the Masoretic 
tradition? And if you are, even then, your claim seems to overstate the 
situation as best as we can determine it from available evidence.


Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au