Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

First of all, thanks for the link, that was a fun read.


> And here's a topic for discussion: as I'm sure most of the members here
> know, the story of Ruth is set "in the days of the Judges". Jewish
> tradition, and I think Christain as well, credits the prophet Samuel with
> the compostion of the book, together with Judges itself. Most modern
> scholars assume that the book was composed much later, in the post-exilic
> period, perhaps as a reaction to Ezra's "isolationist" policies. Now my
> question is, is there any LINGUISTIC evidence that would point to either an
> early or a late date? Since I won't be checking my computer over the
> holiday, I'll see your answers sometime tomorrow night.
>
>
>
> Yigal Levin
>
> Interesting question. And I think very hard to pin down with certainty. To
what would we compare it? Yet I think it has signs of being pre-Exilic. But
some of those signs are more literary than linguistic.

One of the problems in trying to compare it with post-Exilic Biblical
literature is that much of the post-Exilic literature tried to imitate
pre-Exilic literature, even copied pre-Exilic literature to incorporate it
within itself. A good example of this is 1 & 2 Kings (e.g. 2 Kings 18 taken
from Isaiah).

One of the signs I noticed in pre-Exile speech that was almost totally
lacking in post-Exile speech is what I call round about expressions. An
example is Ruth 3:14, where instead of saying “while it was still very dark”
(a straight forward statement) it says, “before a man was able to recognize
the face of his neighbor”. This type of expression was especially common
among late pre-Exile writing such as Jeremiah (which is why I think Job was
late pre-Exile). Another example is Ruth 3:9 “spread out your cloak upon me,
for you are a redeemer.” which in simple terms meant “fulfill your
responsibilities as a redeemer and marry me.” or in Ruth 2:12 “…who you have
come to take refuge under his wings” for to serve God.

The rest of it I have trouble putting into words, beyond that it has a sort
of feel that indicates pre-Exile writing. Not late, but a simpler prose
style, could even have been written by David.

Karl W. Randolph.