How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study

241 Pages·2018·2.734 MB·English

by  Ronald Hendel, Jan Joosten

How Old Is the Hebrew Bible?
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The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
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modern methods, such as sociological and literary criticism.
John J. Collins
General Editor
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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
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“Anchor Yale Bible” and the Anchor Yale logo are registered trademarks of Yale
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Copyright © 2018 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not
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IsBn 978-0-300-23488-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
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This paper meets the requirements of ansI/nIso Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of
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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

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Disputes in religion depend on nothing except ignorance of grammar.
Non aliunde dissidia in religione pendent, quam ab ignoratione
grammaticae.
—J. J. Scaliger
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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
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Index of Subjects, 215
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Index of Words and Expressions, 218
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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-
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ways, the only evidence—is language. Language evolves. Its sounds,
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