Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Stephen Goranson <goranson AT duke.edu>]

Thanks to Joseph Lauer's excellent list for the information. In Haaretz June 2 (registration or subscription required) some new readings of 4Q180, based on enhanced photos, are reported. The readings are by Elisha Qimron, Hanan Ariel and Alexy Yuditsky.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/scholars-owe-new-dead-sea-scrolls-reading-to-google.premium-1.527210#

Excerpts:
"...The word “El” appears close to the phrase “tent of Shem,” and might indicate that the intent was to “Hashem” as a synonym for God. By comparing this text with another of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the scholars have come up with another interpretation. The scholars believe that the word “tent” can be interpreted as “land,” and that the text may mean that Hashem ‏(God‏) lives in the “land of Shem.” Thus, Canaan invaded a land that was not his, and that was the reason his descendants were exiled, not because of his father’s sin.
This interpretation is also known from the Apocryphal Book of Jubilees,....

The passage after the Noah story goes on to describe Abraham’s visit by three messengers, who tell him Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed. All attempts to connect the passages into a continuous story have failed, leading scholars to conclude that this was originally a collection of interpretations of Genesis stories.

Yuditsky goes even further, suggesting that “all these segments talk about places where the bad guys lose. In their time, the Judean Desert people saw as the victors their enemies, the Pharisees and the Sadducees whom they believed were distorting the true Torah. This text might have been to prove that the bad guys might have good periods, but in the end they are punished.”

Stephen Goranson

www.duke.edu/~goranson