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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 5 scrolls or 1
  • Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:47:19 +0100

On 21/08/2005 12:13, Read, James C wrote:

...

It's just that I have often heard claimed as fact that the torah was always
on one scroll (or considered
as one book) and that the seperations are a direct result of the influence of the LXX. Yet BHS has seperations in exactly the same places. ...


The divisions in BHS are based on divisions in the Leningrad Codex on which it was based. This codex (not a scroll but bound in book form) is continuous and includes the whole Tanakh, but each of the books of the Torah is indicated separately, with Masoretic notes between the books. So the division was well established by c. 1000 CE. This dating makes it rather unlikely that the division was borrowed from LXX and Christian scholarship.

The division into five books is also clearly a logical one according to the subject matter. There is a significant historical break and new start between Genesis and Exodus, and Deuteronomy is clearly also a new beginning and a different style of composition. Leviticus is a separate block of non-narrative material, although set within a narrative framework i.e. the repeated "YHWH said to Moses" etc, between the largely narrative texts of Exodus and Numbers. As such it seems clear to me that these divisions were intended by the final editor (and I don't intend here to rule out the possibility that this person was also the author) of the whole Torah. In other words, I am seeing the divisions as intentional markings by the editor of the whole, and not suggesting that these are originally separate books which have been put together.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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