June 24, 2008
Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play
Reconstructing the Original Oral[1], Aural[2] and Visual Experience
By
David Steinberg
David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca
Home page http://www.houseofdavid.ca/
|
רבי
טרפון ... היה
אומרת "לא
עליך המלאכה
לגמור ולא
אתה בן חורין להבטל
ממנה." Rabbi
Tarfon … used to say “You are not required to complete the work but you are
not free to desist from it.” Avot
2:21 |
Companion
piece
- History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language
1.
Biblical
Skeleton, Changing Script and Orthography, Medieval Vowel Signs, Modern
Pronunciation
III The Issue –
The Oral-Aural Nature of Biblical Hebrew Poetry, and Some Kinds of Wordplay, Require
the Closest Approximation to their Original Pronunciation for the Fullest
Possible Appreciation and there are Practical Criteria for
Reestablishing a Good Approximation of the Pre-Exilic Pronunciation
1.
The
Importance of Reconstructed Pronunciation
2.
The Basis for the
Reconstruction of an Approximation to the Pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew
IV The Impact –Wordplay
and Reconstructed Pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation
V Problems in Reconstruction of Pre-Exilic
Biblical Hebrew
Problem
1 – Where was the Stress Placed
in Biblical Hebrew Words?
c. Biblical and
Tiberian Three Way Consonantal Opposition Reduced to Modern Two Way Opposition
Problem
5 - Line Form and Meter of Biblical Hebrew Poetry
VI Reconstruction
of Pre-Exilic Biblical Hebrew
1. Aims
in Reconstructing the Pronunciation of Pre-Exilic Hebrew
2. Changes
in the Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew Between the Early 6th
Century BCE and that Recorded in the Tiberian Masoretic Tradition (early 10th
century CE)
3. Guidelines
I Have Used in Reconstructing the Pronunciation of the First Temple Period
Hebrew
4. Examples of the
Reconstructed Vocalization of Biblical Hebrew Texts
a.
Archaic or Archaizing
Poetic Texts
i)
Blessing
of Jacob (Genesis 49:1-27)
ii) Song
of the Sea (Exodus 15:1b-18)
iii) The
Oracles of Balaam (poetic portions of Numbers 23:7-24:24)
iv) Blessing
of Moses (Deuteronomy 33)
vi)
Lament of David (II Samuel 1:19-27)
i)
II Samuel Chapt. 22 (Second version Psalm 18)
i) Jer. 1: 11-12; Jer. 1: 18-19; Jer. 19:14-15; Zeph. 3:1-2; Deut 15:1,4
ii)
Amos
3:3-6; 3:8; 5:5-7; 5:10-12; 5:16b-17; 6:12;
8:7-10; 9:5-6; 9:13
d.
Various Short Poems: Genesis 2:23; Genesis
3:14-19; Genesis 4:6-7; Genesis 4:23-24; Genesis 8:22; Genesis 9:6; Genesis
9:25-27; Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 14:19-20; Genesis 16:11-12; Genesis 24:60; Genesis
25:23; Genesis 27:28-29; Genesis 27:39-40; Genesis 35:10-12; Genesis 48:15-16;
Genesis 48:20; Exodus 32:18; Numbers 6:24-26; Numbers 10:35-36; Numbers
21:14,15,17-18; Numbers 21:27-30; Joshua 10:12-13; Judges 9:8-15; Judges 14:14,
18; Judges 15:16; Judges 16:23-24; 1 Samuel 15:22-23; 1 Samuel 18:7; 2 Samuel
3:33-34; 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 8:12-13; 1 Kings 12:16; 2 Kings 19:21-34.
e.
Prose
Texts
ii)
Genesis
4:1-3; Genesis 13:4-14; Joshua 7:1-3
Alter,
Robert, The Art of Biblical Poetry , Basic Books, 1987Barr, James, The
Variable Spellings of the Hebrew Bible, OUP, 1989
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Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, Oxford 1968
Bendavid,
Abba, Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew (in Hebrew), Dvir 1967 (2 volumes)
Ben-Hayyim, Z., A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew, Winona
Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2000
Bergsträsser G., Hebräische Grammatik,
(2 vols. ), Leipzig, 1918-29
Beyer, Klaus, Althebräische Grammatik : Laut- und
Formenlehre,
Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969.
Blau, Joshua, Torat
Hahege
Vehatzurot ,
Hakibbutz Hameuchad 1972.
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Hebrew Stress Shifts, Pretonic Lengthening and Segolization: Possible
Cases of Aramaic Interference in Hebrew Syllable Structure, Israel Oriental Studies
8, 91-106, 1978.
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On Polyphony in Biblical Hebrew, Israel Academy of
Sciences and Humanities Proceedings, vol. VI no. 2 1982.
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Topics in Hebrew Linguistics, Magnes, 1998
Churchyard,
Henry, "Topics In Tiberian Biblical Hebrew Metrical Phonology and
Prosodics", unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Texas, 1999
Cohen,
D., Dictionnaire des racines sémitiques, Fasc. 1 Paris 1970; Fasc.
2 Paris 1976. Fasc 3-8ff, Leuven 1993ff
Cross, Frank Moore Jr. and
David Noel Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry. SBL Dissertation Series 21
1975 originally
a 1950 dissertation. (Should only be used after thoroughly understanding the
points made by Goodwin)
Encyclopedia
Judaica, "Hebrew Language" Encyclopedia
Judaica 16, Jerusalem 1971, 1560-1662 (Ch.Brovender: Pre-Biblical; Y.Blau:
Biblical; E.Y.Kutscher: The Dead Sea Scrolls; E.Y.Kutscher: Mishnaic;
E.Goldenberg: Medieval; E.Eitan: Modern Period)
Fassberg, Steven E. and Avi Hurvitz (eds.), Biblical Hebrew in Its
Northwest Semitic Setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives, Institute
for Advanced Studies, the Hebrew University, Magnes Press, 2006, ISBN-10:
1575061163; ISBN-13: 978-1575061160
Follis, Elaine R. (ed.), Directions in biblical Hebrew
poetry, Sheffield,
England: JSOT Press, 1987.
Freedman,
David Noel, A. Dean Forbes and Francis I. Anderson, Studies in Hebrew and
Aramaic Orthography , Eisenbrauns, 1992Garr,
W.R., Dialect geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 B.C.E.,
Philadelphia 1985
- Pottery,
Poetry and Prophecy: Studies in Early Hebrew Poetry, Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns,
1980
Garr, W.R.,
Dialect
geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 B.C.E., Philadelphia 1985
Geller, Stephen
A., Parallelism
in early biblical poetry, Missoula, Scholars Press, 1979.
Gibson, J. C. L., Stress
and Vocalic Change
in Hebrew: a Diachronic Study, Journal of Linguistics 2. 35-56, 1965.
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Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions: Volume 1: Hebrew and Moabite
Inscriptions, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971.
Gogel,
S.L., A Grammar of Epigraphic Hebrew
, Atlanta/Georgia 1999 (N.b. Gogel (p. 1) defines Epigraphic Hebrew as “… the extra-biblical
Hebrew inscriptions of Palestine which have been attributed by various
archaeological, historical, and paleographic analyses to the period between the
tenth and the sixth century B.C..” Note the bibliography.
Goodwin, Donald Watson, Text-Restoration Methods in
Contemporary U.S.A. Biblical
Scholarship. Istituto Orientale di
Napoli. Pubblicazioni del Seminario di semitistica. Ricerche ; 5, 1969, ASIN: B0006C3EKA
Gordon, A. The Development of the Participle in Biblical,
Mishnaic, and Modern Hebrew , Afroasiatic Linguistics, Undena Publications
1982
Gray, George
Buchanan, The
forms of Hebrew poetry; considered with special reference to the criticism and
interpretation of the Old Testament. Prolegomenon by David Noel Freedman, [New York] Ktav Pub. House, 1972.
Greenfield, Jonas C., The
Languages of Palestine, 200 B.C.E.-200 C.E., in Al Kanfei Yonah:
Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology, ed. Shalom
M.
Hadas-Lebel, M., Histoire
de la langue Hébraique. Des origines à l'époque de la Mishna, Leuven 1995
Harris,
Zellig S., Development of the Canaanite Dialects:
An Investigation in Linguistic History,
American Oriental Series, Vol 16, 1939
- Linguistic Structure
of Hebrew, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 61, No. 3.
(Sep., 1941), pp. 143-167.
Hetzron R., The Semitic Languages ed.,
Routledge, London 1997 chapters Ancient Hebrew by R. C.
Steiner and Modern Hebrew by R A Berman
Hoftijzer, J. and
K.Jongeling (eds.) Dictionary of the North-West Semitic inscriptions,
1.2., Leiden 1995Hurvitz, Avi, The Transition Period in Biblical
Hebrew: A Study in Post-Exilic Hebrew and Its Implications for the Dating of
Psalms (in Hebrew), Bialik Institute 1972
Hrushovski,
Benjamin, “Prosody, Hebrew,” in Encyclopedia Judaica vol. 13 col.
1200-1202
Hurvitz, Avi, The Transition Period in Biblical
Hebrew [Hebrew], (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1972), pp. 67-176; see also
idem., "Linguistic Criteria for Dating Problematic Biblical Texts,"
Hebrew Abstracts 14 (1973), 74-79
Kugel, James
L. The
idea of biblical poetry : parallelism and its history, New Haven: Yale University Press, c1981.
Kutscher, Eduard Y. ,
A History of the Hebrew Language edited by Raphael
Kutscher Published by The Magnes Press, 1982
Lipinski,
E., Semitic Languages. Outline of a comparative grammar, Leuven 1997
N.b. The important review by Rendsburg in Jewish Quarterly Review new
ser, vol 90, no. 3-4, Jan.-Apr. 2000 pp. 419-438.
Krasovec, Joze,
Antithetic
structure in biblical Hebrew poetry, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1984.
Manuel,
Paul William. "Tiberian Reflexes of proto-Semitic /a/" unpublished
PhD Dissertation, U. Wisconsin, 1995.
Morag, Shelomo, The
Vocalization Systems of Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic: Their Phonetic and Phonemic
Principles, Mouton 1962.