Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: James Christian
To: Arnaud Fournet
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] T-SADE


Hi,


in the question of dating the Vaticanus MSS I think the tsade issue is of 
minor importance. i.e. we are making a mountain out a molehill.
***
I think you are inverting the reasoning.
The issue is about dating this attestation of tsade as T-S from that of the 
Vaticanus MSS.
A.
***


I'm not a dating expert but as far as I'm aware dating was primarily a 
matter of philology via examining the style of the handwriting. Personally, 
I'm not sure how objective such a method of dating could be.

Obviously, nobody is about to give portions of ancient MSS to destructive 
(and unreliable) dating methods like carbon dating. In summary, if the truth 
be told we have absolutely no idea of how old the MSS is and don't really 
seem to have any real scientific basis for dating MSS other than MSS found 
in archeologically dated sites. But don't even these rely on pottery shard 
dating? Just how reliable a system is that?
James Christian
***
Yes we have the right to doubt everything; Maybe it's not a manuscript and 
it's not in Greek.
How much are we sure of that? Who saw that manuscript? and who can certify 
what he saw really was that particular manuscript...

Arnaud Fournet
***