Biblical Hebrew Forum

["R. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>]

There always are allegedly new claims to "prove" that the Song of Deborah is 
young and late. If you read German, you would learn that almost not a single 
"argument" is really new, some arguments are already challenged a hundred 
times, also some are already refuted methodologically. Some might say so, 
some different. With a look on older German literature, i.e. of the 20th 
century, one would have also learned already that it is always easier to 
claim that a text is young or late than to prove it's old age.

Anyway, MY OPINION for a bunch of mainly philological reasons is that it is 
old, maybe 10th or 11th, and maybe also dialectal.

As for the other question:
> 2)  In determining the date of composition of the Song of Deborah, how much 
> weight, if any, should be given to the proper names in the received text?

Nothing. What's in a name? Names are long-living, even if they contain 
log-vanished Gods as theophoric. Names are worth almost few if anything when 
pondering the age of a text. With names, you can only prove that a text is 
young - see above.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann
Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
lehmann AT uni-mainz.de
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de
http://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/297.php
Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis (SILO):
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/182.php
10th  Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH):
http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php




> Based on its substantive content and the nature of its proper names, I 
> myself see the Song of Deborah in chapter 5 of Judges as being a 12th 
> century BCE composition that reflects the peculiar circumstances in Canaan 
> in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE.  That has long been the majority view:
> 
> ?A broad and longstanding consensus of modern biblical scholars holds that 
> the so-called Song of Deborah in Judg. 5.2-31a??may be one of the most 
> ancient works of the Hebrew Bible?.  Studies and commentaries, including 
> those published in this century, overwhelmingly either argue or assume that 
> this text came into being, as a whole or in part, in the eleventh or even 
> twelfth century BCE?.  Modern studies and commentaries routinely claim that 
> the sociohistorical situation presupposed by Judg. 5.2-31a is that of the 
> eleventh or twelfth century BCE?.?  Serge Frolov, ?How Old Is the Song of 
> Deborah??, JSOT, Vol. 36.2 (2011), pp. 163-164, 175.
> 
> The above-cited article, however, argues for a very late dating of the Song 
> of Deborah.  Here?s the abstract for this controversial article:
> 
> ?The article challenges the conventional view of the Song of Deborah (Judg. 
> 5.2-31a) as an originally independent composition from the pre-monarchic 
> period (twelfth or eleventh century BCE).  Based on a comprehensive 
> examination of the fragment?s internal parameters (grammar, syntax, 
> vocabulary, intertextual links, outlook, and agenda) as well as of the 
> external conditions of its production and circulation, the article argues 
> that the Song of Deborah best qualifies as a late pre-exilic, exilic, or 
> early post-exilic piece and an integral part of the Deuteronomistic corpus.?
> 
> The article makes no analysis whatsoever [none] of the fascinating names in 
> the Song of Deborah:  Shamgar, Ben Anat, Heber, Jael.  Thus the article 
> never asks the most important question I would ask:  How on earth could an 
> ?early post-exilic piece? come up with the proper names that appear in 
> chapter 5 of Judges?  Were post-exilic Jews capable of effortlessly coming 
> up with a non-Semitic personal name like Shamgar that is redolent of the 
> Late Bronze Age?
> 
> 1)  How old do people on the b-hebrew list think the Song of Deborah is?
> 
> 2)  In determining the date of composition of the Song of Deborah, how much 
> weight, if any, should be given to the proper names in the received text?
> 
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>