Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Dear Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:

 

You wrote:  “Again, when you say "not possible" that Terah lived to be 205 years, then you are applying "modern" definitions to what was possible and not possible. You are using eisegesis NOT exegesis. Furthermore, the plain meaning of "shannah" is year. The context also confirms that. The TEXT does NOT indicate that "shannah" should not be taken otherwise.”

 

The  m-o-d-e-r-n  meaning of shanah is a 12-month year.  I am not applying that modern meaning of shanah to the stated ages of people in the Patriarchal narratives.  Rather, I am applying the archaic meaning of shanah in that particular context, which signified “head of the year” or “turning of the year” or “equinox year”, that is, a 6-month period.

 

We have many mummies from ancient times.  No one ever lived close to 205 years in 12-month years.  When the text says that Abraham’s father lived 205 shanah, surely that must be using the archaic meaning of shanah, so that Terah is being stated to have witnessed the first day of 103 years that began in the fall, and the first day of 102 years that began in the spring, for a total of 205 New Years.  We know for a fact that Canaan had two harvest seasons of approximately equal value, one in the fall and one in the spring, and that a New Year was often observed in both the fall and the spring.

 

For the benefit of people who may have missed it in an earlier post, let me cite again a brief portion of what the leading scholar in the world on cultic calendars in the ancient near east has said on this subject:

 

Mark E. Cohen, “The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East” (1993), at p. 6:  “…the cycle between the equinoxes, a period when the sun and the moon vied with each other for time in the sky.   The ancient Hebrews recognized the significance of this cycle, referring to the equinoxes, the times when the year turns, as teqūfat haššānā (Exodus 34:22):  ‘You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest;  and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year’ (the autumnal equinox) and as tešūbat haššānā (2 Samuel 11:1): ‘At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out {to battle}’, (probably referring to the vernal equinox).  The Israelite incorporation of this six-month ‘year’ into its ritual can further be detected in the duration and timing of the festival of the first month, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the festival of the seventh month, the Feast of Ingathering.  This concept of a six-month equinox year appears to have been a major factor in the establishment of the cultic calendar throughout the Near East.”

 

Note Prof. Cohen’s references to:  (a) “the turn of the year”;  (b)  “six-month year”;  and (c) “six-month equinox year”.  All of those references are in the context of the “ancient Hebrews”.  Accordingly, it makes sense to ask if that archaic meaning of shanah may be used in particular situations in the Patriarchal narratives.  [The early Hebrew author also knew the modern meaning of shanah, and used shanah to mean a period of 12 months regarding the amount of time the Hebrews spent in Naharim/eastern Syrian and in Egypt.  But each person’s age in the Patriarchal narratives is, by contrast, always set forth in terms of the archaic meaning of shanah, which is a 6-month period.]

 

Outside of the Patriarchal narratives, shanah has the archaic meaning of a 6-month period in the rest of the Bible on only about 3 occasions or so.  But in the Patriarchal narratives, that archaic meaning of shanah is always used in setting forth all persons’ ages.

 

I respectfully disagree with your assertion that “the plain meaning of ‘shannah’ is year. The context also confirms that. The TEXT does NOT indicate that ‘shannah’ should not be taken otherwise.”

 

(1)  Exodus 34: 22 and II Samuel 11: 1 testify that shanah could have its archaic meaning of a 6-month period in the Bible.  The Patriarchal narratives are older than Exodus or II Samuel, so the Patriarchal narratives are a likely candidate for a word having an archaic meaning.

 

(2)  The context of Terah’s age being stated to be 205 shanah virtually requires that shanah be given its archaic meaning, as no human being could live to age 205 years in 12-month years!  There is no reason why YHWH would have granted Terah a miraculously long life.  [Abraham did not even return to Naharim in eastern Syria for his father’s funeral, even though both Ishmael and Esau, along with Isaac and Jacob, came back for their father’s funeral.  That delicately suggests that there was a major rift between Abraham and his father, thus confirming that YHWH is not going to allow Terah to have a miraculously long lifespan.]

 

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III, it’s  y-o-u , not me, who is the one who is applying the modern definition of shanah to these passages in the truly ancient Patriarchal narratives concerning people’s stated ages.  By contrast, I am the one who is trying to go with what the Hebrew author originally intended his audience to understand as to these ages being stated in terms of shanah.  When the text says that Terah lived to age 205 shanah, that’s the archaic meaning of shanah, which is a 6-month period, so that Terah is thereby portrayed as realistically living to age 102½ in 12-month years.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois