Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

There is, of course, no logical reason why פרדס could not have been known to 
a 10th century BC Solomon. However, it would be highly unusual for a single 
word from Persian indicating a luxury estate to be so widely known that it 
made its way into Hebrew and was able to describe an equivalent phenomenon 
known in Judah at a time when Persia was a measly little kingdom up in the 
Zagros Mountains away from major highways and trade routes. It makes a lot 
more sense that this word was disseminated through a number of languages when 
Persia was actually able to influence them.

The thing that worries me about discussion of loanwords is assertion without 
solid evidence. Yes, there are lots of possibilities, but in making an 
argument for something we really need to talk about probabilities. All too 
often I've found discussion of loanwords driven by a concern to preserve 
early dates for biblical books, usually in the attempt to associate them with 
a particular author. This unfortunately compromises an honest evaluation of 
the available evidence, leading some to propose what is a 'logically 
possible' situation (e.g. פרדס entered Hebrew before the 10th century BC) and 
attempt to pass it as either the most valid working hypothesis, or as the 
conclusion. The argument that says 'Nothing prevents X from being early' is 
not very strong. Far better is the argument that says, 'X is early because of 
A, B, and C.' The former is based largely on silence, while the latter is 
based on more specific evidence.

I'm not committed in any way to early or late dating of texts (it's neither 
here nor there for me), but I am concerned that our arguments acknowledge 
their strengths and weaknesses.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au