>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "t0lgsoo1" <guestuser.0x9357@> wrote:
> >
> > >footnote:
> > >** = hebr. šōfĕţîm "die Richter", gr. κριταί
> >
> > <Stirnklatsch> Oh yeah, Biblic _shofet_ (shopet) might be the
> > missing link!
>
> The problem is I don't know how early this occurs in Hebrew
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/67203
> I haven't found any online Hebrew etymological dictionaries which
> would clear that up.
>
> Evidently pretty damn early. It's the term used for Samuel, Deborah
> and the Judges, AFAIK. It's also old enough to be shared with
> Phoenician and Carthaginian in the word suffete, which clearly seems
> to be the Latin derived form of the same word.
Pretty damn early, judging from George's informations,
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/67334
seems to be 6th century BC. As you point out, it occurs in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Judges ,
within that it occurs in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah
4,4 and 4,5
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0704.htm
However, in 5,
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0705.htm
supposedly contemporary, 12th century, it doesn't occur.
The books of Judges and Samuel are attributed to the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuteronomist
source. The time of the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuteronomist#First_edition
and the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuteronomist#Second_edition
is appr. the same as the time George's sources mention for the introduction of the Punic suffete institution, so it's possible that the word špt came into 4,4 and 4,5 with the redaction.
The question is where it came from originally; it seems to be isolated to four Semitic languages
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/67203
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/semham/semet&text_number=1012&root=config
plus Chadic ?
http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/semham/afaset&text_number=1471&root=config
It is logically possible that all these languages borrowed from Hebrew; on the other hand no actual evidence points in that direction, AFAIK.
Any views?
Torsten
****R If suffete, shophet (¿S-p-t?) arrived after 12th c. BCE then I'd look at the Sea Peoples. Check out Hellenic and Anatolian to see if there is anything like it. If it didn't begin in Canaanitic, I'd look closer at Phoenician because of its higher material and political culture at the time.