Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts

Since the beginning of critical scholarship, biblical texts have been dated using linguistic evidence. In recent years, this has become a controversial topic. Volume 1 introduces the field of linguistic dating of biblical texts with many texts samples presented for study. Volume 2 begins with a book by book survey of scholarship on the origins of biblical sources, passages and books, followed by a detailed synthesis of the topics introduced in the first volume. The authors argue that the scholarly use of language in dating biblical texts, and even the traditional standpoint on the chronological development of biblical Hebrew, require a thorough re-evaluation, and propose a new perspective on linguistic variety in biblical Hebrew. 'Early' Biblical Hebrew (EBH) and 'Late' Biblical Hebrew (LBH) do not represent different chronological periods in the history of biblical Hebrew, but instead represent co-existing styles of literary Hebrew throughout the biblical period.