Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Prof. Yigal Levin:

 

You wrote:  “In summary, there is NO evidence that anyone ever counted each half year as a "shanah". The ONLY reason to think so is if one insists on both taking the rather long lives of various biblical figures literally, and not believing that if God decided to grant someone a very long life he would do so.  And then what do you do with Adam's 930 years? Assume that he counted each month as a year, and so lived 77.5 years?”

 

1.  Adam is not in the Patriarchal narratives.  Adam is presented in the Bible as being a pre-historical figure.  The question at hand, though, is whether shanah has the archaic meaning of a 6-month period when setting forth stated ages of people in the Patriarchal narratives.

 

2.  You criticize the approach of “taking the rather long lives of various biblical figures literally, and not believing that if God decided to grant someone a very long life he would do so”.  Abraham’s father Terah, who is said to live to age 205 shanah at Genesis 11: 32, could not live to age 205 years in 12-month years, absent a miracle.  Why would YHWH grant Terah a miraculously long life?  Ishmael, who is said to live to age 137 shanah at Genesis 25: 17, could not live to age 137 years in 12-month years, absent a miracle.  Why would YHWH grant Ishmael a miraculously long life?  But if shanah in the Patriarchal narratives means a 6-month period in setting forth people’s stated ages, then Terah lives to the age of 102½ years [where such long life is needed so that Terah can be portrayed as dying 17½ years after Isaac’s birth, with Abraham then dying at stated age 17½ tenfold shanah], and Ishmael lives to age 68½ years. 

 

3.  Your conventional approach also does not make sense regarding “boys”/nar.  Several years after Ishmael is stated to be age 13 shanah at Genesis 17: 25, which you take to be age 13 years in 12-month years, Ishmael is repeatedly stated to be a “boy”/nar at Genesis 21: 14-21, Hagar is portrayed as carrying him into the wilderness [Genesis 21: 14], and at Genesis 21: 17 Ishmael is said to cry in the wilderness.  None of that makes sense for a male in the ancient world who was several years past age 13 in 12-month years.  But it makes perfect sense if Ishmael was un-doubled age 6½ years when he was circumcised, and Ishmael is a boy age 9½ years when he is exiled by his father Abraham.

 

4.   A-l-l  ages in the Patriarchal narratives make perfect sense on all levels if shanah has the archaic meaning of a 6-month period in setting forth stated ages of persons.  By sharp contrast, if shanah in the Patriarchal narratives always means a 12-month year, then virtually no stated ages make sense:  Ishmael is too old at approximately age 16 years in 12-month years to be a boy/nar who is carried into the wilderness by his mother Hagar, and Terah could not possibly live to age 205 years in 12-month years.

 

If the  o-n-l-y  miraculous age in the Patriarchal narratives were Sarah giving birth to Isaac at stated age 90 shanah, then perhaps one might accept your suggestion of “believing that if God decided to grant someone a very long life he would do so”.  But in fact,  e-v-e-r-y  stated age in the Patriarchal narratives is way too old to be believable, if shanah has the non-archaic meaning of a 12-month year in all instances.  Contra your assertion that “there is NO evidence that anyone ever counted each half year as a ‘shanah’", the evidence is right there in the last 40 chapters of Genesis.  Beginning with Abraham’s father Terah,  e-v-e-r-y  stated age of a person in the Patriarchal narratives makes perfect sense, on all levels, if and only if shanah is given the archaic meaning of referencing a 6-month period in that particular context.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois