How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study PDF
Preview How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study
How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? S N L i The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library is a project of international and interfaith scope in which Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from many countries contribute individual volumes. The project is not sponsored by any ecclesiastical organization and is not intended to reflect any particular theological doctrine. The series is committed to producing volumes in the tradition established half a century ago by the founders of the Anchor Bible, William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman. It aims to present the best contemporary scholarship in a way that is accessible not only to scholars but also to the educated nonspecialist. It is committed to work of sound philologi- cal and historical scholarship, supplemented by insight from modern methods, such as sociological and literary criticism. John J. Collins General Editor S N L ii The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study Ronald Hendel and Jan Joosten new Haven and S N london L iii “Anchor Yale Bible” and the Anchor Yale logo are registered trademarks of Yale University. Copyright © 2018 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail sales.press@yale .edu (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Set in Adobe Caslon type by Newgen. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2018945720 IsBn 978-0-300-23488-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ansI/nIso Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 S N L iv In memory of our friends and colleagues Zipora and David Talshir וּדרָפְ ִנאלֹםתָ וֹמבְ וּםהֶ יֵיּחַ בְּ םמִ יעִ ְנּהַ וְ םיבִ הָ אֱ ֶנּהַ S N L v Disputes in religion depend on nothing except ignorance of grammar. Non aliunde dissidia in religione pendent, quam ab ignoratione grammaticae. —J. J. Scaliger S N L vi Contents Preface, or, Why Did We Write This Book?, ix List of Abbreviations, xiii 1. All Things Change: Language and Method, 1 2. Kinds and Causes of Linguistic Change, 11 3. How to Handle Linguistic Variation, 31 4. Textual History and Linguistic History, 47 5. Inscriptions and Preexilic Hebrew Literature, 60 6. Transitional Biblical Hebrew, 73 7. Pseudoclassicism: Late Biblical Hebrew and Qumran Hebrew, 85 8. Consilience and Cultural History: The Ages of Biblical Literature, 98 Appendix 1. Historical Linguistics and the Books of the Hebrew Bible: A Bibliographical Survey, 127 Appendix 2. A Critique of the Revisionist Model, 135 Notes, 145 Bibliography, 181 Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources, 201 Index of Authors, 210 S N Index of Subjects, 215 L Index of Words and Expressions, 218 vii This page intentionally left blank S N L viii Preface Or, Why Did We Write This Book? The age of the Hebrew Bible is difficult to determine. It is a brittle text, fracturing under the slightest pressure. Any biblical book may turn out to contain strata and fragments composed at wholly differ- ent periods. Many books are projected into a distant past, written down on the basis of oral traditions and cultural memory that may span centuries, but the details about the events and characters reveal little about the age of the written account. The history of ideas (e.g., monotheism), institutions (e.g., the monarchy, sacrifice, festivals), or hidden power struggles (e.g., priestly rivalries or anti-Samaritan po- lemics) might give useful hints, if it weren’t for the fact that most of these extratextual realities are known exclusively from the text that situates them in time. Even a relative dating based on the use of one text in another, or the response of one passage to an earlier one, is hard to achieve in the absence of clear criteria that help to decide in which direction the textual contact runs. Is Ezekiel the “father of the P source”? Or is he a priest indebted to priestly traditions of the type written down in the Pentateuch? Such debates may be interminable. Many scholars argue that we should drop the whole issue and concentrate only on the final form of the text or its reception. Isn’t the life of the Bible independent of its time of composition? Perhaps in many respects it is. But it is also shaped by its history, even as it shapes later history. Its central narrative relates to tribal, national, and cultural history from end to end. Its historylike narrative is nei- ther a parable nor an atemporal myth. If we could only place it in its historical context, even approximately, we would understand its nuanced meanings better. But this means taking on the challenge of dating the texts. In many cases the best evidence—sometimes, though not al- S ways, the only evidence—is language. Language evolves. Its sounds, N L ix ix
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