Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Yeah,

I think you're right David. There seems to have been quite a lot of  
this kind of thing. Too many conclusions from so little evidence. We  
basically have a library of manuscripts kept in a safe location. It  
could well have been just one very zealous individual hoping to keep  
the scrolls safe from some kind of disaster.

I think some have even suggested that this may have been an early  
Christian fleeing from a besieged Jerusalem that put the scrolls there  
in a safe place. Some of the texts even seem to have Christian ideas  
in them. Like the wicked priest and the righteous teacher. I know  
there is a lot of debate over who the wicked priest is and who the  
righteous teacher is but it has to be admitted that there are  
parallels to be found with Christian teachings.

James Christian


Quoting dwashbur AT nyx.net:

> On 31 Aug 2009 at 0:22, Randall Buth wrote:
>
> > "Is Hebrew a Dead Language" seems to ask the question in the
> > wrong way. So I've changed the thread name
> >
> > vayyixtov Washburn
> > >Three Targumim were found at Qumran, so at least somebody was using
> > them for a century
> > or more before the destruction of Jerusalem.  There were several
> > other
> > items in Aramaic
> > found in the caves, as well.>
> >
> > The word 'them' may cover over the reality with generalities.
> > what are these "Them"?
>
> I'm not sure I understand the question.  The "them" in my statement   
> refers to the Targums
> that were found; I should hope that would have been obvious.
>
> > It turns out that Qumran testifies to an
> > absence of targum in their community, and presumably from those
> > joining the community.
>
> First, I'm not prepared to make such a leap.  Second, I don't accept  
>  the "community"
> hypothesis.  So I don't find this statement convincing.
>
> > and as David mentions, this is not because
> > they had anything against Aramaic. They have quite a few Aramaic
> > texts. But their Bible was primarily Hebrew, and understood in
> > Hebrew, with a secondary access to -- Greek Bible.
>
> Of course their Bible was primarily Hebrew; that really doesn't tell  
>  us anything about their
> use of or attitude toward Aramaic, or even of Targums.
>
> > Before Qumran we had three interesting stories about targumim. And
> > all were
> > focussed on Job for some reason.
> > 1. The LXX mentioned that they used the 'Aramaic history' when
> > translatiing Job.
> > 2. Two stories about Gamliel and a targum to Job exist (tShabb.
> > 13:2, yShabb
> > 15c and other references not at hand)
>
> OK.
>
> > so what do we find at Qumran? Two copies of Aramaic Job, and a
> > snippet from
> > Lev 16 that may or may not refer to a targum of the whole book.
>
> Do you have a different hypothesis about what it was?  As far as I   
> know, it's commonly
> accepted among Qumran scholars that it was a fragment of a Targum of  
>  Leviticus.
>
> > And
> > the long
> > Job targum shows features of having been imported from the East.
>
> What exactly are these "features"?
>
> > So Qumran was willing to use Aramaic Bible when available, though
> > from
> > manuscript evidence they appeared to use the Hebrew Bible (plus some
> > Greek).
>
> Precisely.  Whoever put the scrolls in the caves used or had access   
> to all three, and took
> steps to preserve all three.  I'm not sure what your point is.
>
> > They apparently did not have access to a written targum of the
> > whole
> > Bible or even
> > of the Tora.
>
> This also is not a leap I am prepared to make.  What we have, we   
> have by the accident of
> preservation.  That's the main hazard of archaeology and ancient   
> manuscript study; what
> got preserved may or may not reflect the actual situation, we just   
> don't know.  Statements
> like this are little more than speculation, and I prefer not to go   
> that route.
>
> > And it appears that a targum of Job circulated in antiquity that
> > was
> > popular all over the Jewish world, with two copies turning up in our
> > Qumran
> > mss. there was good reason for this world-wide popularity of a Job
> > targum.
> > The Hebrew text has singular dialectical difficulties.
>
> I'm still not sure what your point is.
>
> Dave Washburn
>
> http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
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