ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the principles which support recent attempts to date biblical texts on the basis of linguistic analysis. Scholars routinely interpret the Hebrew Bible's typological variety in terms of chronological development; thus, Archaic (ABH) Biblical Hebrew is very early, Early (EBH) Biblical Hebrew is early, and Late (LBH) Biblical Hebrew is late. Scholars frequently promote linguistic dating of biblical texts as an objective discipline which should be privileged over non-linguistic dating criteria. In addition, those who seek to date biblical texts on the basis of linguistic analysis overlook nearly without exception important aspects of those texts, namely, their literary complexity and textual fluidity. The heart of the linguistic dating of biblical texts is the late phase of BH, the undisputed postexilic corpus and unmistakable late features attested in it. An important precondition of dating texts on the basis of linguistic analysis is the availability of adequate control corpora.
