Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Sujata <shevaroys AT yahoo.com>]

True. By 2nd Century CE Mosaic authorship and single
scroll were established facts and those that who wrote
it down as facts believed those facts came down to
them from thousands of years ago. 

If this tradition of Torah facts needs to be refuted
today by researchers, should it not be refuted with
hard evidence and not assumptions?  a) there should be
hard evidence that the Torah was written over a long
period of time by different authors that did not
co-exist in any given time period or b) evidence
should be provided that it was beyond the capabilities
of people of that time to sew together (or carry) a
single scroll that could carry the entire Torah. I saw
a Torah scroll for sale weighing 25 pounds which
shouldnt be too much for a man to carry.

Best wishes,
Sujata

--- Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> wrote:

> The "regulations" all appear in rabbinic literature,
> written, at the
> earliest, in the second century CE. By then, we can
> assume, the Torah was
> written (at least in some circles) on a single
> scroll like it is today, and
> the tradition of Mosaic authorship of the whole
> Torah was firmly established
> (in fact, it is assumed by Josephus and Philo).
> 
> Yigal
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Sujata" <shevaroys AT yahoo.com>
> To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 12:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 5 scrolls or 1
> 
> 
> > 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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