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  • From: dwashbur AT nyx.net
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Words adopted into Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary
  • Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:39:41 -0800

Karl,
While I would like to see an early date for the book as well, I'm not sure we
can establish
any kind of date for it, based on loanwords or otherwise.

On 10 Mar 2011 at 7:23, K Randolph wrote:
>
> Its opening verse is a historical statement that puts the book into
> a
> historical milieu. From other histories and looking at events
> portrayed in
> the book, we find a contextual match.

Actually, the king in Jerusalem, son of David, could just as well have been
Hezekiah or
Josiah or one of the other "good" kings of Judah before the exile. Solomon
would be the
most natural choice, but the writer seems only to be establishing his davidic
lineage, nothing
more specific.

> While those parallels are parallels in ideas, they are not parallels
> in
> language use. The language of Qohelet is Biblical Hebrew, that of
> Ben Sira
> is Hebrew, ... but strange.

Perhaps so, but the ideas in question need to be accounted for, since at
least some of them
don't seem to have been a regular part of pre-exilic Hebrew philosophy. Then
again, the
only sources we have for pre-exilic Hebrew philosophy are other biblical
texts whose dates
of composition are equally tenuous.

> OK, for the loan word, did it exist in other languages besides
> Persian? You
> can´t answer that because of lack of evidence. Your assertion that
> it didn´t
> is an argument from silence.

Arguments from silence always cut both ways. I'm afraid you're arguing from
silence as
well, and it seems to me that's the biggest reason that this conversation is
going nowhere.

Discussions like this one are the main reason I gave on the idea of trying to
date texts in
general. The older I get, the more satisfied I am just to examine them and
try to figure out
what they're saying. As always, YMMV.

Dave Washburn

http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur




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