sorry for the late response. Been away from the old keyboard.
Basically, you seem to be raising the question of dating the language
of the Torah independently of the internal evidence. The problem we
have here is that we seem to be working in the opposite direction to
the authors of the hebrew texts. They were working forwards. While we
are working backwards. Anyway, be that as it may.
What we need here is a well established reference point to start the
discussion from. I suppose we can all agree that the Babylonians
conquered Judah and carried them off captive (although there may be
some disagreement of the exact date). So, why don't we use that.
Just so that I can get an idea of where you are coming from could you
give me an idea of what dates you give to the Torah, Joshua, Judges,
Samuel and Kings with respect to your understood date of the beginning
of the exile? Also if you stated one or two words on your reasons for
that dating it would help me formulate a response.
Cheers
James Christian
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew as a holy language,
James Read, 06/03/2009