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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew as a holy language

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  • From: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew as a holy language
  • Date: Sun, 24 May 2009 19:48:11 +1000

I think the point that Petr was trying to make (correct me if I'm wrong,
Petr) is that there is a logical leap from saying that because Genesis
**apparently** portrays events in the Early Bronze Age and it does so in
Hebrew, that Genesis is therefore evidence for the state of Canaanite or
Semitic languages in the Early Bronze Age. If that's Petr's position, he's
absolutely right. There is a big leap in logic there.

Firstly, let's assume that the events portrayed in Genesis are staged in the
Early Bronze Age (EBA). Though I doubt that's the case, let's assume it is
for the moment. The most we can say is that the characters in the book of
Genesis, who occupy the world of the text, speak Standard Biblical Hebrew.
Logically, you have to argue the case that you can then extend the world of
the text to the real world of the real EBA of the real past such that
Standard Biblical Hebrew becomes a language of the EBA. You can't simply use
the text to do it, because that's completely circular evidence: "The biblical
text speaks about the EBA, so the biblical events look like the EBA, and
therefore when we look at the EBA it looks just like the biblical text.
Therefore, the Hebrew of the biblical text is EBA Hebrew." That line of
reasoning is trying to hold itself up by its own bootstraps. It doesn't work.

You have to look for some kind of anchor point outside of the text to test
the hypothesis. And there is virtually no evidence, as far as I know, of
Hebrew in the EBA. In fact, if anything, the linguistic trajectory that
Hebrew seems to be on suggests that Semitic languages in the Bronze Ages
looked a little different to what they did in the Iron Age and the Persian
Era.

Furthermore, there are good arguments that the biblical texts were written
during Iron II and the Persian Era, with some final redactions occurring in
the Hellenistic Era. References to Chaldeans, Sheba, and probably a good few
of the other names in the Table of Nations (Gen 10) smell like the 8th or 7th
century BC. There's barely much evidence to put them any earlier. The result
is that the long distant past of Genesis looks a lot like the 7th century BC
(or so). It's a bit like those Renaissance paintings of biblical scenes,
where everyone is wearing Italian garb of the 15th and 16th centuries. It's
not difficult to make the case, therefore that the Hebrew spoken by the
characters of Genesis is at home in the 7th century BC.

Finally, the claim that many of the dates in the biblical texts co-ordinate
with 164 BC is not all that far-fetched and baseless. It's a case of doing
the math. What you make of the calculations is a different matter entirely,
but the observation is intriguing. And no, it does not mean that the biblical
texts were invented in the Maccabean Era. All it means is that the numbers in
the final form of the text might have been reconfigured in the Maccabean Era.



Regards,

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




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