Linguistic Evidence For The Pre-Exilic Date Of The Yahwistic Source

by Wright, Rick

• ISBN13: 9780567041210
• ISBN10: 0567041212
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T & T Clark

Summary

For the past few decades a growing number of scholars have attempted to overthrow the traditional Wellhausian view that the so-called 'Yahwist' or 'J' source of the Pentateuch is the oldest of the four major sources. These scholars have argued that J was composed during the exilic or post-exilic periods of ancient Israel. Their arguments have focused on the literary, historiographic, and theological characteristics of 'J'. This book attempts to re-evaluate on linguistic grounds such efforts to place the Yahwist source in the exilic or post-exilic periods. The study employs the methodology developed most prominently by Avi Hurvitz for identifying characteristic features of post-exilic Hebrew ('Late Biblical Hebrew'). This divides the language of the Hebrew Bible into three main chronological stages: Archaic Biblical Hebrew (ABH), Standard Biblical Hebrew (SBH), and Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH). Wright examines 40 features of J for which useful comparisons can be made to LBH and finds no evidence of LBH in the entire Yahwist source. Therefore it is unlikely that J was composed during the post-exilic period. Moreover since Hurvitz has shown that the exilic period was a time of transition between SBH and LBH such that late features began to occur in exilic texts, the author concludes on linguistic grounds that J was most likely composed during the pre-exilic period of ancient Israel.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Morphology	p. 22
Syntax	p. 37
Phraseology	p. 56
Lexemes	p. 79
Persian loan-words	p. 113
Disputed 'J' source verses	p. 121
Conclusions	p. 143
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