Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi all,

the claim has been made that Genesis 30:20-30 are late additions to the
Torah. Internal evidence would seem to suggest against this hypothesis.
Consider Genesis 30:24

And these are the sons of Zib´e·on: A´iah and A´nah. This is the A´nah who
found the hot springs in the wilderness while he was tending the asses for
Zib´e·on his father.

This suggests a story which would have been familiar with the readers to
help the readers understand who the people in this list are. This is the
hall mark of a late composition in the sense of later than the people in the
genealogy but not late in the sense of more than 1,000 years later when
nobody has even heard of some Horite who found some hot springs in the
desert.

James Christian