Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Iron and Curses in Deuteronomy 28
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:46:49 -0800
George wrote:
I can't speak for Karl, though I suspect he would join with me on this.
I think you've read a little too much into my (and probably Karl's)
comments. I'm not going to comment upon the inspiration of the text on
this forum (though feel free to contact me offlist). However, the text
uses words, phrase, and concepts which were commonplace throughout the
region for a very long time. And Deuteronomy is not alone in this.
If I have misunderstood you, then please let me know.
My last post was mostly addressed to Karl's characterization of Deut.28.
He wanted to explain what I see as a worked-over text as the result of
the "informal" or "off-the cuff" nature of the speech. What I tried to
do was show that the text is messed up in some way, even if you believe
that Moses spoke those words.
Part of my argument is that the section matching curses in sequence from
Esarhaddon interrupts a more coherent set of blessings and curses. So it
isn't just a question of "words, phrases and concepts", but of a whole
series of complete sentences, sometimes as close as an
Akkadian-to-Hebrew translation as could be expected. The coherence of
that series betrays a separate source, even if the editor who
incorporated it was Moses himself.
Here's something else to consider. Another piece of "sloppiness" on the
part of someone is that verse 18, which is the partner of verse 4,
leaves out the reference to cattle found there. You could attribute it
to Moses, but a Qumran version of the text has the "cattle" phrase in
verse 18, just as in verse 4. I assume everyone will accept the simplest
hypothesis here, namely that the phrase was lost by scribal error in the
MT. But here again we are on a slippery slope to the hypothesis that
there were originally more coherent subtexts than what we have now.
Gabe Eisenstein
Re: [b-hebrew] Iron and Curses in Deuteronomy 28
, (continued)