To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: `ad hayom hazeh
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 12:50:09 +0200
Dave wrote:
>I'm also interested in studies of the phrase `ad
> hayyom hazzeh as a possible dating tool in other passages,
> particularly those mentioning place names (i.e. "it's called x to this
> very day"). If we take the phrase at face value, it seems to me that
> the durations of such laws and place names might give us, at
> least, latest possible dates for some of the texts before us.
>
R. Isaac Abravanel in his introduction to Joshua mentions such verses as
proof that the story was written _much_later_ than the events. Otherwise,
what is so special that it (whatever it is in each verse) remains "till
this day"?