Begetting and "being born" in the 'Pentateuch': Notes on historical linguistics and source criticism (A study on diachronic development and distribution in classical biblical Hebrew)

Recent controversies concerning the analysis and dating of the Pentateuchal sources have made source criticism an interesting enterprise at the .n du siècle. Many of the issues are the same as those debated in the latter part of the nineteenth century, though some of the lessons of the earlier debate have been too often neglected. In particular, it should be recalled that the great nineteenth century critics attempted to marshal linguistic evidence in their arguments concerning the dating of the Pentateuchal sources.1 The paradigm example is S.R. Driver, whose magisterial Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament is peppered with linguistic comments that still retain their cogency.2 In recent years the use of linguistic criteria for source criticism has been advanced by the work of a number of scholars, most notably Avi Hurvitz. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2000.