Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>]

At 04:07 AM 12/29/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>>>Ian:
>>>If the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls represents the conglomerate of
>>>pre-Pharisaic normative Judaism, then Enoch, in a pre-canonical period, has
>>>the equivalent of canonization. It may be from this situation that the
>>>varieties of Christianity spread carrying with them books like Enoch and
>>>Jubilees.
>>Moshe:
>>As I have said, this whole discussion is really not relevant to Judaism at
>>any period. I think even a discussion of a concept of 'canon' before the
>>4th century CE is projecting present day views into the past. 
>In the end relying on some formalism such as fixed canon is skirting the
>issue regarding text that are shown to have authority in ancient Judaism.
>The basic discussion was about the place of certain texts not what
>constitutes a valid timeframe for canons.

Outside of the Biblical books, and Jubilees there is no valid argument from
the DSS that other works were considered 'authoritative.'

moshe shulman mshulman AT NOSPAMix.netcom.com    718-436-7705
CHASSIDUS.NET - Yoshav Rosh            http://www.chassidus.net
Outreach Judaism                       http://www.outreachjudaism.org/
ICQ# 52009254