Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

After recent discussions I have been reading the hebrew bible in a new light 
and have been trying to 
analyse things from a point of view with no prior assumptions. This has led 
me to call into question 
my understanding of yhwh's messengers. I have been reading through Genesis 
and have noted that there 
is nothing that supports the view that these messengers are superior heavenly 
creatures and could 
equally be understood as being godly men bearing a message from yah.

All thoughts on this will be welcomed!

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Reading through Genesis I noticed that the first occurence of the word we 
translate as prophet is 
found in reference to Abraham. This reminded me of my Hebrew lecturer at St. 
Andrews who argued 
(years ago) that the orignal meaning of prophet meant something similar to 
'forth teller' rather 
than 'fore teller' and that his primary characteristic was that of speaking 
out rather than that 
of predicting the future.

Any thoughts?

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I have always been led to believe that the torah (in its canonical form) was 
originally kept on 1 
scroll and considered as 1 book and not 5.
The LXX has the allegedly first occurence of the now accepted 5 books of the 
torah and the names are 
obviously of Greek origin. However, I notice that BHS also has the torah 
divided into 5 books, albeit 
with different names, and was wondering what evidence there is to suggest 
that the torah was originally 
without divisions (in its canonical form).

Are the LXX names of Greek origin only or are they attempts to translate 
common Jewish practise?
Was the torah originally one scroll? What is the evidence?
What is the modern day Jewish practise? 1 scroll or 5?
Why did such a change come about? Just to deal with the size or... ? 

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>From jwest AT highland.net  Wed Aug 17 12:21:07 2005
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Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:21:03 -0400
From: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
To: Read James C <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 5 scrolls or 1
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At 12:09 PM 8/17/2005, you wrote:

>I have always been led to believe that the torah (in its canonical
>form) was originally kept on 1
>scroll and considered as 1 book and not 5.
>The LXX has the allegedly first occurence of the now accepted 5
>books of the torah and the names are
>obviously of Greek origin. However, I notice that BHS also has the
>torah divided into 5 books, albeit
>with different names, and was wondering what evidence there is to
>suggest that the torah was originally
>without divisions (in its canonical form).


It would have been physically impossible to contain the entire Torah
on one scroll.  Impossible.  The thing would have been unusable.


>Are the LXX names of Greek origin only or are they attempts to
>translate common Jewish practise?


huh?

>Was the torah originally one scroll? What is the evidence?


no- and the evidence is the practicality of using such a long scroll
that it would have taken 5 healthy men to unroll it .


>What is the modern day Jewish practise? 1 scroll or 5?

1 per scroll.
cept the megilloth- 1 scroll
the minor prophets- 1 scroll

>Why did such a change come about? Just to deal with the size or... ?


with the invention of the codex.

++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD

http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com  Biblical Theology Weblog
http://web.infoave.net/~jwest Biblical Studies Resources