A New Linguistic Analysis of the Hebrew Bible Supports Traditional Understandings of Its Origins

Reviewing a historical study of the Tanakh’s grammar and orthography by the linguist Aaron Hornkohl, Joshua Berman notes that it upends much conventional academic scholarship:

There are many hundreds of markers of the difference between early biblical Hebrew and late biblical Hebrew, and they help us date the authorship of the books. Hornkohl’s new book about the development of biblical Hebrew plumbs the most arcane minutiae of biblical grammar and is written for specialists. But his conclusion has the potential to challenge theories about the origins of the Torah widely held in the academy and therefore in our wider cultural discourse.

Hornkohl maintains that the Torah, [i.e., the Five Book of Moses], displays the earliest linguistic profile of any of the books of the Hebrew Bible and that this is evident in hundreds of places across its five books.

If Hornkohl is correct that the Torah uniquely preserves so many pre-monarchic, [i.e. more ancient] linguistic features and presents a linguistic profile that is earlier than that found in the other books of the Hebrew Bible, the question stands: could that implicitly suggest that the Torah is the earliest of the Bible’s compositions? This flies in the face of what many Bible scholars today believe.

Read more at Times of Israel

More about: Biblical criticism, Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew Bible

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians