Subject: Re: Methods in biblical scholarship (Moshe)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 22:37:51 -0500
At 04:07 AM 12/29/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>>>Ian:
>>>If the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls represents the conglomerate of
>>>pre-Pharisaic normative Judaism, then Enoch, in a pre-canonical period, has
>>>the equivalent of canonization. It may be from this situation that the
>>>varieties of Christianity spread carrying with them books like Enoch and
>>>Jubilees.
>>Moshe:
>>As I have said, this whole discussion is really not relevant to Judaism at
>>any period. I think even a discussion of a concept of 'canon' before the
>>4th century CE is projecting present day views into the past.
>In the end relying on some formalism such as fixed canon is skirting the
>issue regarding text that are shown to have authority in ancient Judaism.
>The basic discussion was about the place of certain texts not what
>constitutes a valid timeframe for canons.
Outside of the Biblical books, and Jubilees there is no valid argument from
the DSS that other works were considered 'authoritative.'