Scribal Interference and Diachronic Diversity in Classical Biblical Hebrew in the Wake of Aaron D. Hornkohl's Diachronic Diversity in Classical Biblical Hebrew

Abstract Over the past two centuries, scholars have distinguished between Classical, Late, and Transitional Biblical Hebrew (CBH, LBH, TBH). Hornkohl's recent monograph is the first book-length study to explore the possibility of identifying chronolects within CBH. Grounded in a detailed analysis of twelve linguistic phenomena, each treated in a separate chapter, Hornkohl argues that the Pentateuch represents an earlier chronolect than that reflected in the Prophets. This article examines how scribal activity may have affected the linguistic evidence, and argues that while ancient scribes generally refrained from changing the consonantal text, they modified the use of matres lectionis and engaged in harmonization during textual transmission. Accordingly, three of Hornkohl's case studies are reconsidered as instances of earlier linguistic forms preserved in the Pentateuch and updated in the Prophets by later scribes, and it is proposed to focus future research on areas less affected by orthographic variability.