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  • From: Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Iron and Curses in Deuteronomy 28
  • Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:46:49 -0800

George wrote:
I can't speak for Karl, though I suspect he would join with me on this. I think you've read a little too much into my (and probably Karl's) comments. I'm not going to comment upon the inspiration of the text on this forum (though feel free to contact me offlist). However, the text uses words, phrase, and concepts which were commonplace throughout the region for a very long time. And Deuteronomy is not alone in this.
If I have misunderstood you, then please let me know.


My last post was mostly addressed to Karl's characterization of Deut.28. He wanted to explain what I see as a worked-over text as the result of the "informal" or "off-the cuff" nature of the speech. What I tried to do was show that the text is messed up in some way, even if you believe that Moses spoke those words.
Part of my argument is that the section matching curses in sequence from Esarhaddon interrupts a more coherent set of blessings and curses. So it isn't just a question of "words, phrases and concepts", but of a whole series of complete sentences, sometimes as close as an Akkadian-to-Hebrew translation as could be expected. The coherence of that series betrays a separate source, even if the editor who incorporated it was Moses himself.

Here's something else to consider. Another piece of "sloppiness" on the part of someone is that verse 18, which is the partner of verse 4, leaves out the reference to cattle found there. You could attribute it to Moses, but a Qumran version of the text has the "cattle" phrase in verse 18, just as in verse 4. I assume everyone will accept the simplest hypothesis here, namely that the phrase was lost by scribal error in the MT. But here again we are on a slippery slope to the hypothesis that there were originally more coherent subtexts than what we have now.


Gabe Eisenstein





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