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  • From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • To: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aramaic to Hebrew language switch?
  • Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:39:10 -0500



--------------------------------------------------
From: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 8:32 PM
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Aramaic to Hebrew language switch?

Hi Jack,

It is logical to apply to modern scholarly work
the same critical approach that one applies to ancient
texts such as Joshua or other HB books.

Therefore it may be worthwhile to check other modern
scholarly opinions about the complex issue of dating
the composition of biblicsl books. These are
controversial subjects.

Even the dating of archaeological strata is
disputed, as we know. For instance, the 10th - 9th
centrury controversy is well known. Cf. the Finkelstein
- Mazar charming dialogue in book form on the matter.

Absolutely, Uri. I have, of course, read the majority of respected scholars (and some unrespected ones) on the issue of dating the composition of the books of the Tanakh. This is not a scientific area and relies almost solely on the objectivity of the scholar who may have his/her own agenda and/or biases easily couched in scholarly jargon. Even I have my tendency to lean in the Albrightian direction, since he taught me, and I have to force myself to set aside the great respect I had for him to consider more "modern" approaches. So the first thing in considering scholarly opinions, outside the evidence, is the standard "consider the source." I know that a "minimalist" is almost always going to have a skeptical view of a new found artifact that might be 1st temple period. If a find is a piece of epigraphy, the flood gates really open wide. Since inscriptions are my thing and I am also a scientist, my views on the ivory pomegranate as well as the "James ossuary" were both the same since they both came to light. If the patina is genuine and can be found within the incised inscription, it is genuine. Period. I sat back and watched the cacaphony from scholars who shouted, "hoax! Fake! Forgery!" when most had never examined the artifacts themselves. Erroneous viewpoint on orthography and grammar were easy to dismiss. My view remains the same. They are genuine and there are numerous "modern scholarly opinions" with which I disagree. Of course, things have come a long way in the last 50 years, since your 1964 paper, in the development of of scientific and technical manpower and capabilities in Israel along with breakthrough methodologies in radiometry and analysis. The Biblical texts, however, do not have patinas or any physical characteristics (apart from the DSS) to examine.




Of course not everything had been excavated yet.
Even in Jerusalem suprising findings keep occurring.
I'll only mention one here: the Reich-Shukron discovery
of a bullae hoard which preceded Hezekiah's date by over
a century, and points to wider literacy at a considerably
earlier stage than had been assumed till then.

Yet I have read opinions by some scholars that the provenanced bullae with names from the City of David dig were forgeries and "salted" into the dig. Reich and Shukron's discovery was fascinating since they appear to be "blanks" prepared in advance in an administrative building not unlike blank business cards found in the human resources department of Halliburton for new employees. As I recall, the dating of them was subject to lively disagreement. Later, the Rafayahu Shalem bulla was found dated to the 8th century BCE. I am constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for the latest from Professor Mazar.


Which leads me to my final point: the literary form
dated by some to the sixth century is polished in
comparison, say, to Mesha. Such literary polish cannot
spring up over night. The presumption that it required
generations to develop can not be far fetched. Thus
valid earlier material may well have been preserved
in these texts, whenever they attained their final form.

One of my points over the years is that often modern literate scholars, born and raised in a literate culture, do not relate to an ancient ORAL culture and its means of information transmission. The extremely small percentage of the population that was literate were setting down oral poems and songs, centuries old, to writing. How literate was the guy that incised the Mesha stela? Was he just well crafted on the script and followed a scribe's written template? Does epigraphy give us a sufficient sampler to determine the development of "polish" over time?


I suggest, as I said, that other authorities be consulted
on the geography of the Place Names in Joshua.
Incidentally a moderator of this list
published serious work on biblical toponyms.


I have read some of the more serious arguments to Finkelstein and Silberman on the Joshua sites (I avoid apologist arguments) but in the end I still see a system of 48 towns that did not exist as occupied sites in the late Bronze Age. Some, like Mephaath were not settled until Iron II at the end of the 7th century BCE (taking the position that Umm-er-Rasas is the site of Mephaath but the same date of occupation would hold for Tel-Jawa. Arad, to me, is more concise. The Canaanite city, supposedly the one mentioned in Joshua 12:14, was abandoned in the EBA (2650 BCE) and resettled in Iron II by the Israelites. Considering the 7/6th Century BCE flags and allowing the time for collective national memory to forget when these towns were built or resettled, I cannot see these texts having been written later than the latter half of the 6th century. Always open to have my paradigms refashioned (after all, being shown to be mistaken is also progress), I would be very interested in any work on these toponyms but the archeological data is daunting.

Regards,

Jack

Jack Kilmon
San Antonio, TX



Best,

Uri Hurwitz Wilmington. VT





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