Linguistic Evidence for the Pre-exilic Date of the Yahwistic Source

Rick Wright

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780567041210
• eBook ISBN: 9780567132765
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

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

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 2 MORPHOLOGY
• Chapter 3 SYNTAX
• Chapter 4 PHRASEOLOGY
• Chapter 5 LEXEMES
• Chapter 6 PERSIAN LOAN-WORDS
• Chapter 7 DISPUTED 'J' SOURCE VERSES
• Chapter 8 CONCLUSIONS
• Bibliography
• Index of References