Filología Neotestamentaria - Vol 24 (2011) Danove, Paul, The Licensing Properties of New Testament Verbs of Non-Spoken Communication (2011)

This article resolves the semantic, syntactic, and lexical requirements for the grammatical use of the twenty-nine New Testament verbs that designate communication without a necessary reference to speaking. The discussion establishes criteria for distinguishing verbal usages, identifies four basic usages of non-spoken communication, and examines the conditions for the permissible omission of required complements. The presentation of the licensing properties of verbs with the four basic usages clarifies the similarities and dissimilarities in the realizations of complements for verbs of non-spoken and spoken communication and illustrates two further usages that are restricted to verbs of non-spoken communication. The concluding discussion considers patterns in the distribution of complements and usages among verbs of non-spoken communication.

Biblica - Vol 88 (2007) Kavanagh, Preston, The Jehoiachin Code in Scripture’s Priestly Benediction (2007)

Coding in the OT is plausible because of the Exile’s profusion of scripture, the Diaspora’s need for secure communication, and the ancient world’s widespread use of cryptography. A code exists in Num 6,24-26 that uses one letter per text word, from words spaced at regular intervals, with letters used in any sequence. Coding of Jehoiachin’s name in the MT’s Priestly Benediction establishes the mid-sixth century B.C.E. as the earliest possible time for the Ketef Hinnom amulets. Moreover, since the Ketef Hinnom scribe appears to have understood nothing of the benediction’s Jehoiachin coding, the amulets could be considerably later than mid-sixth century.