Quote: they do not in and of themselves fix a date of composition,
Finkelstein gives a terminus ad quo for the composition of certain parts of the OT, Apo and it is the 7th century BC. Egyptologist, Donald Redford, has come up with the same date using a different line of evidence which in archaeology is about as good as it gets. At the end of the 7th century both Egypt, under the 26th Dynasty and Judah were in a position to contest for areas being evacuated by the Assyrians. This was the only time in the entire first millennium when Egypt and Judah were serious rivals. A story about how "god" had helped a bunch of slaves escape Egypt and punished the Egyptians makes sense as a propaganda tool at that point in time.
Some of the other anachronisms that Finkelstein and Redford point out have to do with towns which were named in the bible account but which did not exist until the Iron Age. Goliath's armor and weapons are identical to those of a Greek hoplite, a style of warfare which only developed in Greece at the end of the 8th century but which quickly spread because of its success. Certainly, there were no hoplites in the 10th century and Egyptian reliefs of their battle with the Philistines in the early 12th century BC show that the Philistines were armed and armored as light infantry... pirates in other words, in keeping with the concept of the Sea People of which they were a component part.
Certainly this OT crap was edited and massaged over the centuries so that it could serve the needs of the ruling class. That ruling class reached its zenith near the end of the 2d century BC when the Hasmonean dynasty actually did manage to form a jewish state that was a minor regional power. The terminus ad quem would be the time when this shit was last edited to suit that ruling class. They stopped being a ruling class when the Romans came through in 64 BC so that is where I would look.
