Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com>]

Hi Jim

On 5 April 2013 18:00, <b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:

From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
<snip>

 

The  g-r-e-a-t  news about that scholarly observation is that it strongly suggests that the Patriarchal narratives [always excluding chapters 14 and 49 of Genesis] were not transformed into alphabetical Biblical Hebrew until the late 7^th century BCE, in Jerusalem.  That’s the  o-n-l-y  realistic way in which the spelling and grammar of Hebrew common words in the bulk of the Patriarchal narratives could show a “remarkable grammatical/syntactical homogeneity” with the spelling and grammar of Hebrew common words in the second half of II Samuel.

I have another scenario: The patriarchal narratives were already written down in the "proto-canaanite" alphabeth used by Moses to write the rest of the Torah in his own lifetime or shortly thereafter. Then, when it was copied in the time of the Kings (not necessarily the time of Josia, but possibly also earlier or later), the language, grammar and spelling was updated by one of the scribes (commonly done in the ANE cf. archaeologist K.A. Kitchen) to that of their own time.

What makes your scenario more probable than mine? And does this really have anything to do with Biblical Hebrew?

Shalom

Chavoux Luyt