Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:35 PM, Bryant J. Williams III wrote:
> Dear Yitzhak,
>
> Thank you for your response.
>
> I do understand the early writing of Ruth since it does correspond to other
> evidence, all circumstantial as well, but when put together lends support 
> for an
> early dating (David or Solomonic period, but probably not later than that).
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

Just to clarify, Bryant.  When I say early, it could still date to the
early Persian
period.  Just not to the late Persian period (again, this is very
circumstantial).  Now,
it might date much earlier than the early Persian period, but my
suggestion had to
do with a particular orthography that was current in the late
pre-exilic/early exilic
periods (the -ty 2fs suffix).  However, if one accepts that the orthography 
was
modernized at some periods of time, there is no problem seeing  the work date
much earlier, including the 10th century BCE.

Yitzhak Sapir