Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

karl, fred, 

just a couple of side remarks: 

> that faith, not fact, dictates whether hebrew, hurrian, hittite or some
other language was spoken & written in hebron ... in 882 b.c.

1. if i am not wrong, the period of david and solomon in particular is an
archaeological black hole, in the sense (i think) that no archeological 
finding can be linked directly to their kingdom. some recent israeli 
archeologists even went as far as doubt whether these historical 
figures did exist. if this is the archeological picture, fred, your 
question may remain without any significant answer. we are reduced 
to studying names of biblical people and places, whose interpretation 
(as seen in this forum) is often unclear.

2. i think it is pretty established, on the basis of archeological 
findings, that semitic did form a linguistic continuum from 
ethiopia to messopotamia. perhaps the most interesting pieces of 
evidence, as far as the bible is concerned, are the mesha stone and 
the story of gilgamesh. 

regards
nir cohen