Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

I don't think I ever claimed a uniform process of canonisation. I was 
looking for evidence that ANY of the many Jewish groups, at ANY time, 
considered Enoch as Holy Scripture, on the level of the Torah or the 
prophets. I have seen no such evidence. There have been some 
suggestions, which I cannot refute, that some fringe Jewish groups may 
have considered Enoch as such. But this was clearly not the main 
stream.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re[7]: Methods in biblical scholarship
Author:  <npl AT teol.ku.dk> at Internet
Date:    28/12/1999 10:19


> As Paul wrote, a Jew to the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles. When
> writing or speaking to Gentile Greeks, he quoted Greek poets. When his 
> colleague Jude wrote to Jews (?), he quoted a popular Jewish work.
> That doesn't imply that either treated these works as Holy Scripture. 
> Indeed, it seems that our Jewish friends have confirmed my
> understanding that the book of Enoch was never considered by Jews, at 
> least in the mainstream, as on the same level as the Torah, the books 
> of the Prophets etc. Yes, they read it and commented on it, as with
> Sirach, Jubilees etc, but it was never included in the same category. 
>
> Peter Kirk
>
     [Niels Peter Lemche]  As you see it but have you any evidence apart
from that? Would the canon tradition  that  among th Syrian Christian 
included Ps 151 and a few more (some of them known from the DSS) tell you 
that you have an uniform process of canonization? Will the different 
editions of, say Isaiah at Qumran tell you that the tradition is uniform and 
'rabbinic' in outlook (I know the predominance of the proto-massoretic 
tradition among the DSS biblical scrolls). Will the differences between LXX 
Jeremiah and the HB Jeremiah (and what we know about jeremiah from Qumran) 
or the differences between various versions of Samuel in the LXX tell you 
that you have an uniform tradition that can tell you what was canonical and 
what not in, say the year 1 BCE-1 CE?

     NPL