A critical translation of the Sefire Inscription (805-740 BCE)

by koot van wyk Seoul South Korea 12 November 2008

The Sefire inscription is an Aramaic inscription but there are linguistic features that are actually Hebraisms. One can see the role of King Jeroboam II in this regard namely that Hebrew influence were all over Syria during those days.

The research was done in Afrikaans. The translation is that of this researcher. This researcher has chosen eclectic between very good translations and looked at the original to make his own decision as to what the text says.

A number of points came out supporting the idea that structuralistic arrangement of a text in order to place certain words centrifugal or at the center of thoughts, is not a later invention of redactors. They existed in the earliest inscriptions. Modern literary criticism's optimism about their theories of a lateness of biblical books due to features of arrangement in texts, are cancelled by a text such as this. Many texts of the ANE are of the same wonderful structural arrangements.

"The day" is put in a centrifugal position in Sefire I C 18-25 as the example indicates.

The text has some linguistic detail relevant for the book of Daniel also.

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