Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Ken,

This was exactly my point in my reply to Sujata, who was the one who brought
up the "regulations". He claimed that they were proof of the Pentateuch's
originally being written as one scroll; I pointed out that these
"regulations" were from the 2nd century CE AT THE EARLIEST and thus proved
nothing, except that AT THAT TIME some Jews did write the whole Torah on one
scroll. The later the regulations are, the less relevant they are to the
issue.

Yigal



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
> Third, although I'm not sure precisely which "regulations" in the
"rabbinic
> literature" Yigal is referring to, let's remember that "the second century
> CE" is really the limit of how *early* the date for this literature might
be
> stretched. It would have been helpful to also mention what the *latest*
date
> for these rabbinic statements might be. Assumptions regarding what might
> have happened "by then" can safely be made regarding that latest date, but
I
> would hesitate to make them regarding the second century CE.
>
> Ken Penner
> McMaster/DSS
>
> > 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
>
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