Sopher Mahir: Northwest Semitic Studies Presented to Stanislav Segert (review)

Abstract

Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 84 Reviews perhaps at Kadesh, and that later redactors reflect this tradition by making her the sister of Moses and Aaron. This is an important topic and one which needed to be explored. Further, some of Bums' conclusions seem reasonable: that although neither priestess nor prophetess as such, Miriam was remembered in biblical tradition as a leader of the community during the wilderness period; and that she seems to have performed both cullic and prophetic functions in a day, perhaps, before these were institutionalized and separated into two different roles (p. 123). The same conclusions, however, could probably have been reached and amply argued in a briefer format. Eleanor B. Amico University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, WI 54901 SOPHER MAHIR: NORTHWEST SEMITIC STUDIES PRESENTED TO STANISLAV SEGERT. Edward M. Cook, ed. Maarav. Vols. 5 and 6. Pp. 384. Santa Monica, CA: Western Academic, 1990. Paper, $27.50. This double issue of Maarav honors Stanislav Segert, perhaps best known as the author of grammar books on Old Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic. As the title Sopher Mahir implies, however, and as the forty pages of bibliographic entries amply attest, Segert is much more than a mere textbook writer: he is a veritable sopher mahir, a copious scribe, with over 500 titles to date to his credit. This volume contains twenty-one studies written by his colleagues and students and reflects areas of particular interest to Segert. There are six articles on biblical topics, five on Aramaic, three each on Phoenician and Ugaritic, two on comparative Semitics, and two on computer projects. The latter articles are especially appropriate in a volume dedicated to one who was one of the pioneers in the use of computers for ancient Near Eastern research. What follows is a brief synopsis of each of the contributions arranged according to their main area of interest though, naturally, some overlapping is to be expected. Bible James R. Davila ("Qoheleth and Northern Hebrew," pp. 69-87) believes that the Phoenician and Aramaic flavor of the language of Qoheleth may Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 85 Reviews best be explained by C. H. Gordon's suggestion that the book was influenced by Northern Hebrew. Paul W. Gaebelein, Jr. ("Psalm 34 and Other Biblical Acrostics: Evidence from the Aleppo Codex," pp. 127-143) shows that the first eight verses of the acrostic Ps 34 are written in the Aleppo Codex differently than the remaining verses. This different textual arrangement suggests two different contextual sections and possibly a difference in the time of composition. Jonas C. Greenfield ("The 'Cluster' in Biblical Poetry," pp.159-168) discusses a rhetorical feature of biblical poetry in which the biblical author utilizes Ugaritic epithets and word pairs in a different fashion. For example , in Hos 13:12 the parallelism of s6n1rl/seprln6 is held to be a reflex of the Ugaritic phrase srrt spn "summit of Zaphon" even though the meaning of the two verbal forms in Hebrew is far removed from the Ugaritic phrase. Dennis Pardee ("Structure and Meaning in Hebrew Poetry: The Example of Psalm 23," pp. 239-280) analyzes Ps 23 from many different "parallelistic" points of view (repetitive, semantic, sequential, grammatical, and phonetic) to determine whether the psalm really constitutes a piece of poetry. Robert J. Ratner ("Jonah, The Runaway Servant," pp. 281-305) suggests that the author of the book of Jonah may have been guided by his knowledge of legal customs pertaining to runaway slaves. After reviewing the pertinent ancient Near Eastern legal materials pertaining to runaway slaves, Ratner elucidates the scene of Jonah and the sailors in the light of Jonah as a runaway. Helmer Ringgren ("Some Observations on the Text of the Psalms," pp. 307-309) presents new translations on five passages which will be incorporated into his new Swedish translation of the book of Psalms. The passages are Pss 1:5; 8:2-3; 10:10; 30:6; and 31:12. Aramaic Randall Buth ("'Edayin{1'ote-Anatomy of a Semitism in Jewish Greek," pp. 33-48) discusses the usage of the two Aramaic adverbs '~dayin and bedayin. Because Greek TeSTe functions exactly as the Aramaic adverbs do, a text like Matthew, which contains the word TeSTe...