There are lively arguments about dates based on literary style and here we see the argument extend to the material production process. I have always asked how we distinguish between a style that is old-fashioned because it is written in old time and one that is old-fashioned because the authors thought it appropriate to invest it with the dignity that consciously traditional language brings. I would ask the same about methods of production. Might not a traditional multi-scroll be seen as more fitting for a work of great religious and literary import than a cheaper new-technology version?
I must say that Psalms 109-100 scream ‘Hellenistic’ to me regardless of other things. However, that does not stop much of the material in the 5 Books being much older, I know. But it does seem hard to deny that final revision carried on into Hellenistic times.
From the massive shallowness of my knowledge I’ll just enter another suggestion. Where did the Hebrew author/poet gain access to the Atenist hymn which contributes to Psalm 104? Wouldn’t Ptolemaic Alexandria, where monotheism was gaining much sympathy, be a good candidate?
There are lively arguments about dates based on literary style and here we see the argument extend to the material production process. I have always asked how we distinguish between a style that is old-fashioned because it is written in old time and one that is old-fashioned because the authors thought it appropriate to invest it with the dignity that consciously traditional language brings. I would ask the same about methods of production. Might not a traditional multi-scroll be seen as more fitting for a work of great religious and literary import than a cheaper new-technology version?
I must say that Psalms 109-100 scream ‘Hellenistic’ to me regardless of other things. However, that does not stop much of the material in the 5 Books being much older, I know. But it does seem hard to deny that final revision carried on into Hellenistic times.
From the massive shallowness of my knowledge I’ll just enter another suggestion. Where did the Hebrew author/poet gain access to the Atenist hymn which contributes to Psalm 104? Wouldn’t Ptolemaic Alexandria, where monotheism was gaining much sympathy, be a good candidate?