From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Author of the Torah
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 18:40:49 -0700
As a methodological point: if you are looking for the latest possible
date that something could have happened, it is methodologically sound
to start with the very latest possible date, and then see whether
there are any earlier latest possible dates. The canonical form of
the Pentateuch *must* have existed before it could be translated into
Greek. That fact is firm, but of course it does not preclude the
existence of that text long before that translation was made.
As far as the "Samaritan schism" is concerned, the evidence of the
text-types does not really allow for pushing the divergence between
the proto-MT and the pre-Samaritan text-type earlier than the 5th
century, and actual exemplars of the pre-Samaritan text-type are not
attested, if my data is correct, before the Hasmonean period.
The Elephantine papyri are interesting to bring up in this regard.
The correspondence going back and forth between Elephantine, Samaria,
and Jerusalem certainly suggests that there was a rather high degree
of cooperation between those three center of Jewish worship at the
end of the 5th century BCE. Bagavahya and Sanballat write a *joint*
letter recommending the rebuilding of the Elephantine temple. This
shows a degree of unity between Samaria and Jerusalem that can hardly
be called a "schism." It also shows that Deuteronomism was not
normative for Judaism in this period, at least as practiced in
Jerusalem, Samaria, and Elephantine, for sacrifices (albeit only of
grain and incense) at Elephantine were approved by Sanballat and
Bagavahya, over against Deuteronomic cultic centralization. Moreover,
Hananiah's instructions concerning Pesach and Shavuot are not
identical to the Torah's, and the fact that Hananiah has to bring
instructions for these festivals from outside Egypt may in fact imply
that the Elephantine Jews did not have a copy of the Torah. I would
say that the evidence from Ezra-Nehemiah and Elephantine, read
generously, suggests that the Torah was nearing its canonical form in
the 5th century, but not there yet.