Dating Joel
January 28, 2009
The consensus in commentaries is that Joel is a post-exilic book, although Crenshaw [p. 28]admits that dating the book is an exercise in futility because of the hypothetical nature of the task. It seems that commentaries adopt a “me too” mentality and are only comfortable nuancing the consensus. There is nothing in Joel that requires a post-exilic date and its position in the MT order of the 12 would suggest it is an 8c. work despite the arguments of scholars like Sweeny, Allen and Barton. The quality of this evidence for its date should take precedence over internal “evidence” for a post-exilic date.
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