“In his image” and Aramaisms
As has been seen lately, I have really been taken by Hebrew linguistic studies. The blog that I have been following this on has just wrapped up a three-part series on Gensis 1 and the Hebrew term “image” or “likeness.” The blogger has really put into practice what he has been posting on for sometime recently and I really appreicate that. It helps me see how it works. The post series takes the reader on a journey to see if the Hebrew term דמות is an Aramaic loanword or an Aramaism (the Aramaic word being צלם). The point of this is to see if the presence of this Aramaic rooted word points to a late date or to an early date. The conclusion that is reached is that the evidence leans to a pre-exillic date but not in a conclusive and definitive manner. There just isn’t enough evidence to really come down hard either way and when the periscope was written. I just found these posts interesting and hope you do too. Here they are.
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More on North/South Hebrew Dialects
Andrew Compton over at the Reformed Reader wrote a “thinking out loud” kind of post where he ponders over the use of dialects and linguistics in the study of the OT. I think it is a good followup to my previous post on Aramaisms as a sign of Israelian Hebrew, not necessarily a post-exillic dating of a particular text. Check it out and really consider this crucial question:
Nevertheless, this seems like an interesting topic worth exploring further. The North/South relationship was key in Israel’s history and fleshing it out linguistically seems to be necessary in helping to understand better this dynamic. Beyond this, the next step is to aim to understand better how such an approach might help to fortify our Biblical theology. How might the North/South tension found throughout the OT help to proclaim Christ as the fulfillment of the OT? While I am again very excited about these questions, they must, I’m afraid, wait for when I can devote more time to them. Until then, I simply throw this out to whet your appetite!
Here is the post by Compton: The Reformed Reader: The Old Testament and It’s “Southern Accent” Y’all . . .
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More on Aramaisms
Here is another article to follow up on my previous post on Hurvitz’s study of Aramaisms not showing a late date for a particular text. Gary Rendsburger has taken Hurvitz’s method and expanded and adapted it to study the difference between northern Biblical Hebrew, which he calls Israelian Hebrew (IH), and souther Biblical Hebrew (which I guess would be called Judean Hebrew/JH?). I’ll let the reader check out this post and see what they think. But I can say that current studies in linguistics are doing much to dispell (though by itself linguistic studies cannot do this) what the last century of form criticism has taught scholars to believe about the OT (even NT studies is starting to move away from the conclusions and methods of form criticism). If I read this article correctly, many Aramaisms aren’t a sign of a later, post-exillic date, but rather comes from IH spoken in the northern kingdom. One example is that of 2 Kings 4
where Elisha is speaking; Elisha is a prophet most likely from Gilead in the north. Check out the post. I really wish I could get these journals!
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