Dear Jim, Your reply came back garbled. See below.
Rev. Bryant J. Williams III ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 3:40 AM Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] gen. 25 (tam?) <font color='black' size='2' face='arial'> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>One of the main differences between the view of you and Karl, and my view, is that you (and I think Karl) see the Patriarchal narratives as having been composed in the Middle Bronze Age and relating to the Early Bronze Age, whereas I see the Patriarchal narratives as having been composed and relating to the Late Bronze Age.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is an honest disagreement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As I presume you are aware, most university scholars today insist that the Patriarchal narratives were composed by multiple authors in the 1<SUP>st</SUP> millennium BCE, none of whom knew very much about the Bronze Age.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let’s compare these three basic theories regarding two specific items that you raise.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>1.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You wrote:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Now, I can see Abram dwelling near a large amount of oaks because Northern California from about 50 miles South of Redding, CA on I-5 going North has</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>plenty. Its weather is very much like Israel's with its Mediterranean climate. I</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>can actually picture Abram sitting under a very large Oak (cf. 14:13, 24;18:1).”</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>The city of Hebron does not have a Mediterranean climate.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is nowhere near the Mediterranean Sea, but rather abuts the utterly bleak Judean Desert.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>In the Late Bronze Age [my theory], there were no oak trees at the city of Hebron.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Late Bronze Age was abnormally dry, and oak trees do not usually grow as far south as the city of Hebron, because it’s too hot and there’s not enough rain.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On the other hand, there was a lot more rain in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, and so in that time period [your theory], one might imagine oak trees at the city of Hebron.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On the scholarly view, multiple 1<SUP>st</SUP> millennium BCE authors are making up a pre-history of the Hebrews.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To them, the “days of old” would presumably have meant “dry years”, since the climate in the first half of the 1<SUP>st</SUP> millennium BCE was much wetter and better than in the Late Bronze Age.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So to me it seems unlikely that 1<SUP>st</SUP> millennium BCE authors would imagine rare oak trees being at the city of Hebron in the Patriarchal Age.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>What works on all theories is if, per Genesis 13: 9, 11, Abraham goes west after Lot has gone east from Bethel.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then Abraham sojourns in the northern Shephelah, the Aijalon Valley, which in Biblical times was ringed by magnificent oak trees, being perfectly in accordance with what the Biblical text says.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>2.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You wrote:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Genesis 23:17-20 has Abraham purchasing from Ephron the Hittite a piece of land called the Cave of Machpelah, east of Mamre near Hebron (formerly Kiriath-Arba, vs. 2; cf. also Josh 14:15; 15:13 and Judg 1:10) which had trees.”</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>(a)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There were no Hittites from eastern Anatolia in Canaan.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, XTYmeans XuT-iYa, the most common Hurrian name at Nuzi.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Biblical “Hittites” are the historical Hurrians, who dominated Canaan as princeling rulers in the mid-14<SUP>th</SUP> century BCE.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is indicating the Late Bronze Age, as no other time period fits the Hurrians being in Canaan as important lords.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>(b)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The word “formerly” does not appear in the Biblical text.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, HW) means “that is”, and does not mean “formerly”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Kiriath is a standard west Semitic word for “city”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Arba” means “four” in west Semitic, while meaning “(Hurrian) lord” in Hurrian.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is no “City of Four” in non-biblical records, and the number four makes no sense as a Biblical nickname here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, this is the “City of the Hurrian Lord(s)”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a perfect Biblical nickname, because “Ephron” in Hurrian also means “(Hurrian) lord”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The text is telling us that Abraham bought Sarah’s gravesite from a Hurrian lord at a Hurrian-dominated city in the Late Bronze Age.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Hurrian nomenclature here strongly supports my Late Bronze Age dating, and cannot be squared with either your Middle Bronze Age composition date, or the scholarly view that multiple authors made this stuff up in the 1<SUP>st</SUP> millennium BCE.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>(c)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Genesis 37: 14 tells us that the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, that is, X-BR-W-N, is a “valley”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s the Aijalon Valley in the northern Shephelah, with valleys having no formal names in the Bronze Age.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Whereas Abraham sojourns in a verdant, low-lying rural valley [that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?], Abraham has to deal with city folk to purchase Sarah’s gravesite.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the Late Bronze Age, that meant going to a city dominated by Hurrian lords to buy a plot of land from a Hurrian lord.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Kiriath Arba is on one level a nickname for RB-T, Rubutu, a Hurrian-dominated city on the southern edge of the Aijalon Valley.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is not the former name of the mountainous city of Hebron.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the Bronze Age, the name of the city of Hebron was “Qiltu”.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>3.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The rest of your post does not deal with words that appear in the Hebrew text of the Patriarchal narratives, so I have no comment.</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>Jim Stinehart</FONT></div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=HTMLPreformstted><FONT size=3>Evanston, Illinois</FONT></div> <div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <div style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; COLOR: #000; FONT-SIZE: 12px" id=AOLMsgPart_0_4a71f2b7-2980-4896-890c-d6c7c100c62f><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"> </PRE></div> <!-- end of AOLMsgPart_0_4a71f2b7-2980-4896-890c-d6c7c100c62f --></div> </font> <P><HR></P>Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.<BR> Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR> Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.3/696 - Release Date: 02/21/2007 3:19 PM<BR> _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
