Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Sujata <shevaroys AT yahoo.com>]

When tradition says it was a single scroll, unless
there is hard evidence that it was written in multiple
scrolls,   why should a researcher's "assumptions" be
taken seriously.

Are there not regulations on how many columns a
pentateuch scroll should contain? Would that not
suggest a single scroll?

Best wishes,
Sujata



Jim West wrote:

well yes there is.  unless we suppose that the author
of genesis is 
also 
the author of exodus is also the author of leviticus
and that he wrote 
them all out on one scroll and that example was
followed from that time 
onward.  these books were, at some point, just single
books or 
fragments 
of books, correct? 


 or are you suggesting that they were written in 
huge 
multi book chunks?  even given the length of the
deuteronomistic 
history 
(a multi volume "work", if you will) it is so
extensive that no one can 
suppose, can they, that it was originally a one scroll
composition.

Only the 3-fold method in Qumran and the 5 fold method
> known from Qumran, modern Jewish tradition, as well
as the
> Septuagint.  

positing ancient reality from fragmentary examples and
modern practice 
seems a bit hazardous.  what we need is hard evidence.

> 
> I have also received the following in reference to
your mention of 
Tov's book 
> and the "five scrolls" from Carla Sulzbach:  "I
checked my copy, and 
indeed, 
> on p. 4 he speaks of Five Megillot. However, that is
in a section on 
the order 
> of the books in the "Hagiographa", the Ketuvim, and
... he does not 
refer to 
> Torah scrolls, five or any other number, but to Shir
ha-Shirim, Ruth, 
Eicha, 
> etc."  I don't know.  In the Hebrew edition, he
doesn't seem to 
discuss 
> methods of order of the books at all, at least not
where I could see 
it, so 
> perhaps it is an addition in the English version.

Well whoever added it didnt do a very good job of
being clear.

best

jim


-- 
Jim West, ThD




                
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