Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: Enoch and the Canon; was: Re: Nachmanides - Scapegoat

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>
  • To: <Bearpecs AT aol.com>, "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Enoch and the Canon; was: Re: Nachmanides - Scapegoat
  • Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 09:45:31 +0200

I doubt it.  Ramban woul have adhered to the Rabbinical dictum as set forth inTalmud Bavli, Bava Batra 14b-15a.
Jonathan D. Safren
Chairman
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Israel
 
  
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 12:29 AM
Subject: Enoch and the Canon; was: Re: Nachmanides - Scapegoat

In a message dated 6/12/01 10:00:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
info AT valediction.com writes:
So, long story short, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ramban considered Enoch
part of the Holy Writ as well.


It is inconceivable that Ramban (Nachmanides) considered Enoch to be part of
the canon in opposition to mainstream rabbinic practice.  Why should anyone
think that because he quotes from a book there is an implication of
canonicity?  He quotes Rashi also, and no one suggests that he considered
Rashi to be part of the canon.
But of course, by "Holy Writ" you may not be referring to the canon as such
but simply as writings inspired by G-d, in which case I can agree that it's
possible he considered Enoch to have some degree of divine inspiration.  But
it is equally possible that he considered Enoch to be secular but reliable.  
Just as The Book of the Wars of Y-HWH etc. were quoted in the Torah but were
not considered holy.

This quotation is from _Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their True Meaning
for Judaism and Christianity_ by Lawrence H. Schiffman (p. 162):
Although it is widely held that soon after the destruction of the Temple the
Rabbis held a canonical convention at the rabbinical academy at Yavneh
(Jamnia), on the coast south of what is today Tel Aviv, the textual evidence
does not support that claim.  In fact, the final catalog of the biblical
collection was fixed except for those few books of the Writings, the late
date of which left them in question.  Thus, the Rabbis debated only about a
few books, namely, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, and perhaps Esther.  
Because mishnaic Judaism had already inherited a tradition, predating the
Yavnean period and ordaining which books were part of the biblical canon, the
Rabbis at Yavneh had only to makes a few final rulings to complete the
corpus.  And even for this rather limited agenda there is no evidence that
any such meeting ever took place at Yavneh.
/end quotation

From the same book (pp. 167-168) regarding Qumran specifically:
We can also attack the issue of canonicity from another direction.  Much
ancient and medieval Jewish literature was composed by the reuse of materials
found in the canonical Scriptures. ...  Only texts accorded such canonical
status served as the raw material for new sacred compositions. ...  At Qumran
all the biblical books, that is, those in our canon of the Hebrew Bibles, are
used in this way, but such is not the case with any other books.  Therefore,
it is highly probable that the biblical canon at Qumran was the same as that
of the later Rabbis."
/end quotation
Schiffman discusses Enoch texts from Qumran at length on pages 182-185.
---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: [yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to $subst('Email.Unsub')
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page